Incredible, over-the-top, entertainment from C. B. DeMille.
Fannie Ward stars as a woman who thinks money grows on trees, much to the consternation of her stockbroker husband. So she takes ten grand, belonging to the Red Cross (she is the treasurer) and invests it in the stock market. She loses it overnight, but a rich, young, handsome Burmese ivory trader (Sessue Hayakawa) offers to cover her loss ... if she'll just engage in a little "sheet music" now and then, if you get my drift.
Meanwhile, Ward's husband wins big overnight in the stock market (that must have been one heck of a market) and generously gives her ten grand, which she claims she needs to pay off losses playing bridge (that must have been one heck of a bridge game). She offers the dough to Hayakawa, but ... a deal is a deal. So he decides to take her by force. In the ensuing struggle, he "brands" her - no kidding. She fires a few bullets into him, but doesn't kill him. She runs off, but her husband, who had followed her, figures out what happened and takes the rap.
The climactic courtroom trial turns into a riot - literally. But everything turns out just fine, and Hayakawa goes off to build a bridge somewhere.
Hayakawa is terrific as an icy villain. Ward was in her mid-forties when she made this. Kudos to her makeup crew - she looks much younger.
These early efforts by DeMille convince me he had a lot of talent. He should not be remembered just for all the ham acting in his sound films.
Fannie Ward stars as a woman who thinks money grows on trees, much to the consternation of her stockbroker husband. So she takes ten grand, belonging to the Red Cross (she is the treasurer) and invests it in the stock market. She loses it overnight, but a rich, young, handsome Burmese ivory trader (Sessue Hayakawa) offers to cover her loss ... if she'll just engage in a little "sheet music" now and then, if you get my drift.
Meanwhile, Ward's husband wins big overnight in the stock market (that must have been one heck of a market) and generously gives her ten grand, which she claims she needs to pay off losses playing bridge (that must have been one heck of a bridge game). She offers the dough to Hayakawa, but ... a deal is a deal. So he decides to take her by force. In the ensuing struggle, he "brands" her - no kidding. She fires a few bullets into him, but doesn't kill him. She runs off, but her husband, who had followed her, figures out what happened and takes the rap.
The climactic courtroom trial turns into a riot - literally. But everything turns out just fine, and Hayakawa goes off to build a bridge somewhere.
Hayakawa is terrific as an icy villain. Ward was in her mid-forties when she made this. Kudos to her makeup crew - she looks much younger.
These early efforts by DeMille convince me he had a lot of talent. He should not be remembered just for all the ham acting in his sound films.