The Cheat

Released Dec 12, 1915

55m

Drama

List

90%

Tomatometer

10 Reviews

47%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

Edith Hardy uses charity funds for Wall Street investments in hopes of buying some new gowns. She loses all the money and borrows from wealthy oriental Tori. When her husband gives her the amount she borrowed, Tori won't take it back, branding her shoulder with a Japanese sign of his ownership.

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Fred Schader

Variety

There are some excellent lighting effects and the work of Sessue Hayakawa is so far above the acting of Miss Ward and Jack Dean that he really should be the star in the billing for the film.

Nov 12, 2019

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

[The Cheat] remains interesting today not only for its gripping vulgarity but also for the spectacular innovations in dramatic lighting De Mille created with his cameraman, Alvin Wyckoff.

Nov 12, 2019

Full Review

NYT Staff

New York Times

The picture is much above the average of its kind. But is there any more excuse for this sensational trash than for the old-fashioned melodrama in which half the characters were killed off at the end of the play?

Mar 25, 2006

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Their less-than-fully-consensual yet very proto-50 Shades relationship made hearts flutter around the world—mostly due to Hayakawa, who refused to ham up his broadly written, villainous role...

Dec 2, 2022

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

[Cecil B. DeMille] understands the cinematic zones where the dueling impulses of prudery and titillation meet.

Nov 12, 2019

Full Review

Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

Compared to many other films of the period, this one comes across as rather modern, at least in some respects.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 12, 2019

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Audience Member

The best, GREATEST thrilling movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

One of the first major works of Cecile B. DeMille who went on to direct the Ten Commandments in 1956. An electrifying story of a young socialite (Fannie Ward) who gambles $10,000 from the Red Cross & loses it & strikes a deal with an Ivory Merchant. For 1915 this films pulls all the punches & would have been a controversial film in its day. Most famous is the scene where Fannie Ware unable to pay back the Ivory Merchant he brands her with a Hot Spoke. Made the career of Sessue Hayawaka largely known as the Japanese General from Bridge on the River Kwai. This film was a sensation in its Day & although 102 years old this year still is quite intriguing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

Portrays the debasement of Japanese in America.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

Racist undertones aside, The Cheat is an excellent look at early cinema with its exquisite directing, believable characters, and revolutionary cinematrography (for the time).

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

bill t

A High Society woman gets into SUCH a mess when she bets the 10,000 dollars she has been entrusted with (for the Red Cross!) into the stock market, and she needs to get the money somehow, so she turns to her friend, an Asian Salesman, who has his own ideas. I liked this movie a lot, because I was really amazed at the treatment Hollywood gave to the Asian character. He was treated very humanely and I guess the whole Evil-Asian propaganda thing hadn't quite kicked in yet in Hollywood. Instead, Hollywood was turning stuff out like this and, another great example, Broken Blossoms, with Lillian Gish. The Asian actor, Sessue Hayakawa does SUCH a great job here, shining every scene he's in. Hayakawa amazingly, later on went on to appear in Bridge On The River Kwai with Alec Guinness!!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

In my film history class, this was the second close-to-feature-length film we watched, the first being Sherlock Jr. This was also the first film to have quite a complex plot compared to other films that came out in that era of film. I found myself constantly asking questions even though the film captured the idea of pure cinema very well - the idea that you should be able to understand a film purely based on the images without the help of dialogue. Before I comment on the positive aspects of this film, let's look at how this film can be regarded as racist. Since this is American cinema in its early years, most of the cast and background characters are played by white men and women. The main villain of the film happens to be Asian, as well as the villain's two sidekicks. He is labeled something along the lines of the king of ivory for the region. It just seems out of place that the only foreigners in this film happen to be the villains of the film, depicted as sneaky, conniving businessmen hungry for power and sex. The only Asians in the film, and they are depicted as monsters, and the activities these men engage themselves in definitely does not reflect the behaviors of all Asians at the time when this film was released. This film is very close to straight up chastising Asians; not okay. This next point could be because I was zoning in and out the day we were watching it, but I was constantly asking myself questions about the narrative since it was a little complex while focusing on money as what would later be called a MacGuffin. We also have more characterization even if it is just from title cards which we have to read dialogue from. The leading lady is a gold digger, spending money she doesn't have and using a large donation for her personal needs. Her husband is a passive man and a hero, letting people (including his wife) push him around but having a kind heart when he takes the blame for a crime his wife had committed. Sadly we don't get that much character knowledge about the villain aside from the fact that he doesn't like to be cheated, and that he'll make things worse for the lady and her husband simply because he can. I praise this film for exploring great concepts of lighting as well as using more depth with the cinematic space compared to films by Melies, whose films seem very two-dimensional (although they're not exactly narratives like The Cheat). The Cheat is definitely a film you should see if you want to study film, filmmaking, learn about film history, etc etc.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Cecil B. DeMille

Director

Fannie Ward

Edith Hardy

Jack Dean

Dick Hardy

Sessue Hayakawa

Tori

James Neill

Jones

Jack Yutaka Abbe

Tori's Valet

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Synopsis

Edith Hardy uses charity funds for Wall Street investments in hopes of buying some new gowns. She loses all the money and borrows from wealthy oriental Tori. When her husband gives her the amount she borrowed, Tori won't take it back, branding her shoulder with a Japanese sign of his ownership.

Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Screenwriter: Jeanie Macpherson, Hector Turnbull
Distributor: Kino Video, Timeless Multimedia, Image Entertainment Inc., Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Timeless Video Inc., Grapevine Video, Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co.
Genre: Drama
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 12, 1915, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 2, 2016
Runtime: 55m
Aspect Ratio: Academy (1.33:1)

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