Multimedia Collection

Manslaughter and The Cheat

DVD
59 minutes
1922/1915 PN1997 .M36 2002 DVD

Accompanied by a lively score by the Alloy Orchestra, Manslaughter stars Leatrice Joy as a pampered debutante who is forced to confront her irresponsible lifestyle when she causes the death of a traffic cop. To emphasize the debauchery of the Jazz Age elite, DeMille interwove scenes of champagne-soaked parties and Roman orgies, a device that served as a stern warning (while providing a titillating spectacle) to the wayward youth of America.

Mixed messages also abound in The Cheat, in which a society woman (Fannie Ward) allows a wealthy Burmese trader (Sessue Hayakawa) to settle a debt for her, not realizing that in exchange he intends to brand her flesh as his own. Highly influential for its dramatic low-key lighting and its frank depiction of extra-marital intrigue, The Cheat topped into a vein of post-Victorian female masochism, eroticism and Orientalism of the day, exploring the taboo desire to be forcefully seduced and possessed by a man of another (as in Rudolph Valentino's Sheik films several years later).

Manslaughter based on the novel by Alice Duer Miller.

Cast - Manslaughter: Thomas Meighan, Leatrice Joy and Lois Wilson. The Cheat: Fannie Ward and Sessue Hayakawa. Directed by Cecil B. De Mille.

Distributed by Kino International Corp.

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