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Son of the Gods | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frank Lloyd |
Written by | Bradley King |
Based on | the novel Son of the Gods by Rex Beach |
Produced by | Frank Lloyd |
Starring | Richard Barthelmess Constance Bennett |
Cinematography | Ernest Haller (Technicolor) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $436,000 [2] |
Box office | $1,432,000 [2] |
Son of the Gods is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film with Technicolor sequences, produced and released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Rex Beach. Richard Barthelmess and Constance Bennett star as a couple in love who have a falling-out when she discovers that, though he looks Caucasian, he is actually Chinese.
Sam Lee is the only son of extremely wealthy Chinese merchant Lee Ying. Sam can pass as white. Lee Ying sends him to a prestigious university, where he studies hard. He is tolerated in white social circles, even though it is known there that he is Chinese, because of his money. One day, two fellow students talk him into a triple date, but the white girls are outraged when they find out that they are out with a "dirty yellow Chinaman". They pressure the two white men to make up a transparently fake excuse to leave. Insulted, Sam drops out of school.
He tells Lee Ying that he is going to travel on his own, without his father's financial support. He takes a lowly job aboard a ship and ends up working for a novelist named Bathurst because of his knowledge of Chinese. In the south of France, Sam meets Allana Wagner, the spoiled daughter of an indulgent father.
Allana falls madly in love with Sam. Though Sam loves her too, he is afraid to pursue a relationship until she tells him that she was once engaged to a man from India. Everything goes well for a while. One day, however, Allana's father tells her he has found out that Sam is Chinese. She flies into a rage and repeatedly lashes Sam in public with her riding crop, revealing to all within earshot why. Later, she deeply regrets what she did and telephones to apologize, but Sam has returned home to New York City, having received word that his father is very ill.
Sam rushes home, only to find that his father has died, attended on his deathbed by Eileen, a childhood white friend of Sam's. (Lee Ying never forgot Eileen's uncle's kindness to him, and had made Eileen his very well-paid secretary.) Embittered, Sam renounces the white world and its Christian values and embraces his Chinese heritage. He runs his father's business empire with an iron fist, denying his white customers credit.
Meanwhile, Allana embarks on a wild round of non-stop partying to try to forget Sam, but only succeeds in ruining her health. One day, she collapses and is near death. In her delirium, she calls for Sam repeatedly. Her racist father reluctantly asks Sam to come see her. Sam pays a visit, and Allana recovers.
Finally Eileen sends for her uncle Dugan. He tells Sam that, while a policeman in San Francisco, he found an abandoned child. Assuming that he was Chinese, Dugan gave the boy to Lee Ying and his wife, who had been praying for a child. After a few years, it became apparent that the boy was actually white. Since Sam was never formally adopted, Dugan recommends to Lee Ying that he relocate to New York to avoid risking losing Sam.
Unable to quench her love for Sam, Allana tells him that she wants to marry him before he has a chance to tell her that he is white. The lovers are happily reunited.
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $1,069,000 domestically and $363,000 foreign. [2]
Critic Mordaunt Hall gave the film a negative review in The New York Times , writing that "After a none too hopeful beginning, Richard Barthelmess's latest talking film, 'Son of the Gods,' plods its weary way through banal episodes" and that "Mr. Barthelmess is not the genius who can turn to good account the character allotted to him in this uninspired narrative". [3]
The film only survives in black and white. One reel was originally in Technicolor, but no color prints seem to have survived. [4] This reel tells the story of how Sam was adopted as a child by the Chinese man he thought was his father. Current prints present this originally color sequence in sepia-tone.
Shanghai Express is a 1932 American pre-Code film about a group of train passengers held hostage by a warlord during the Chinese Civil War. It was directed by Josef von Sternberg and stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland. The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman based on a 1931 short story by Harry Hervey. Shanghai Express was the fourth of seven films that Sternberg and Dietrich created together.
The Broadway Melody, also known as The Broadway Melody of 1929, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the early musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929–1930. Today, the Technicolor sequence survives only in black and white. The film was the first musical released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was Hollywood's first all-talking musical.
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Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length film.
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The Show of Shows is a 1929 American pre-Code musical revue film directed by John G. Adolfi and distributed by Warner Bros. The all-talking Vitaphone production cost almost $800,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor.
Doctor X is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery horror film produced jointly by First National and Warner Bros. Based on the 1931 play originally titled The Terror by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, it was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and Lee Tracy.
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Showgirl in Hollywood is a 1930 American pre-Code all-talking musical film with Technicolor sequences, produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The film stars Alice White, Jack Mulhall and Blanche Sweet. It was adapted from the 1929 novel Hollywood Girl by J.P. McEvoy.
No, No, Nanette is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film with Technicolor sequences that was directed by Clarence G. Badger and released by First National Pictures. It was adapted from the play of the same title by Otto A. Harbach and Frank Mandel. No, No, Nanette was a popular show on Broadway, running for 321 performances, and was produced and directed by Harry Frazee.
Sunny is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Lawrence Gray, O. P. Heggie, and Inez Courtney. It was produced and released by First National Pictures. The film was based on the Broadway stage hit, Sunny, produced by Charles Dillingham, which played from September 22, 1925, to December 11, 1926. Marilyn Miller, who had played the leading part in the Broadway production, was hired by Warner Brothers to reprise the role that made her the highest-paid star on Broadway.
Gambling Lady is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Archie Mayo, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and Pat O'Brien.
Drag is a 1929 American Pre-Code drama film produced by Richard A. Rowland and directed by Frank Lloyd based on the 1925 novel Drag: A Comedy by William Dudley Pelley. It stars Richard Barthelmess and Lucien Littlefield.
Private Izzy Murphy is a 1926 American silent comedy-drama film with Vitaphone sound effects, starring George Jessel, and Patsy Ruth Miller. The film was released by Warner Bros. It is unknown if a copy survives meaning it could be a lost film. The film was followed up by Sailor Izzy Murphy.
Illicit is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, and Natalie Moorhead. Based on a play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin, the film is about a young couple living together out of wedlock because the woman does not believe in marriage. When they finally get married, both become unfaithful to each other. Illicit was produced and distributed by Warner Bros.
Midnight Alibi is a 1934 American pre-Code crime comedy drama film directed by Alan Crosland, produced by First National Pictures, distributed by Warner Bros. and starring Richard Barthelmess. The film is an adaptation of Damon Runyon's 1933 short story The Old Doll's House. This was Barthelmess' last film for First National after 15 years at the studio.
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The Hot Heiress is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Clarence G. Badger and written by Herbert Fields, with three songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The film stars Ben Lyon, Ona Munson, Walter Pidgeon, Tom Dugan, Holmes Herbert and Inez Courtney. The film was released by Warner Bros. on March 28, 1931.