The Cheat is a 1915 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Fannie Ward, Sessue Hayakawa, and Jack Dean, Ward's real-life husband.
Kintarō Hayakawa, known professionally as Sessue Hayakawa, was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man in the United States and Europe. His "broodingly handsome" good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a time of racial discrimination, and he became one of the first male sex symbols of Hollywood.
Camille Erlanger was a French opera composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Léo Delibes (composition), Georges Mathias (piano), as well as Émile Durand and Antoine Taubon (harmony). In 1888 he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Velléda. His most famous opera, Le Juif polonais, was produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1900.
Victor Francen was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood.
The Dragon Painter is a 1919 English language silent romance drama film. It is based on the novel of the same name, written by Mary McNeil Fenollosa. It stars Sessue Hayakawa as a young painter who believes that his fiancée, is a princess who has been captured and turned into a dragon. It was directed by William Worthington and filmed in Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, and in the Japanese Tea Garden in Coronado, California.
The Shanghai Drama is a 1938 French drama film directed by G. W. Pabst and starring Christl Mardayn, Louis Jouvet and Raymond Rouleau. An exiled White Russian woman works as a cabaret singer in Shanghai to support her daughter through school. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Andrej Andrejew and Guy de Gastyne. It was shot at the Joinville Studios in Paris and on location in Saigon in French Indochina.
The Bottle Imp is a 1917 silent fantasy film produced by Jesse Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It is taken from the Robert Louis Stevenson short story, "The Bottle Imp". The movie was directed by Marshall Neilan in Hawaii and stars Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa.
The End of the Day is a 1939 French drama film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Victor Francen, Michel Simon and Louis Jouvet. It was shot at the Epinay Studios in Paris and on location around the city as well as at the Château de Lourmarin in Provence. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jacques Krauss.
Alien Souls is a 1916 silent film feature directed by Frank Reicher and starring Sessue Hayakawa, his real-life wife Tsuru Aoki and Earle Foxe. It was developed as a vehicle for Hayakawa after the success of his film The Cheat.
Hashimura Togo is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by William C. deMille and written by Marion Fairfax and Wallace Irwin. The film stars Sessue Hayakawa, Florence Vidor, Mabel Van Buren, Walter Long, Tom Forman, and Raymond Hatton. The film was released on August 19, 1917, by Paramount Pictures.
Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom is a biography of actor Sessue Hayakawa, written by Daisuke Miyao, assistant professor of film at the University of Oregon, and published by Duke University Press. It won the 2007 Book Award in History from the Association of Asian American Studies and the John Hope Franklin Book Award from Duke University (2007).
The Battle is a 1923 French film directed by Sessue Hayakawa and Édouard-Émile Violet. Hayakawa and his wife Tsuru Aoki played lead roles in the film.
The Messenger is a 1937 French drama film directed by Raymond Rouleau and starring Gaby Morlay, Jean Gabin and Mona Goya. It was based on a play by Henri Bernstein. Morlay reprised her role while Victor Francen, who had played the male lead on stage, was replaced by Gabin.
The Hidden Pearls is a surviving 1918 American silent drama film directed by George Melford and starring Sessue Hayakawa. It was produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky and distributed by Famous Players–Lasky and Paramount Pictures. The production was shot in Hawaii.
The Man from Niger or Forbidden Love is a 1940 French drama film, directed by Jacques de Baroncelli and starring Victor Francen, Jacques Dumesnil and Annie Ducaux. It is set in the French colonial empire.
Malaria is a 1943 French drama film directed by Jean Gourguet and starring Mireille Balin, Sessue Hayakawa and Jacques Dumesnil.
The Phantom Carriage or The Phantom Wagon is a 1939 French drama film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Pierre Fresnay, Marie Bell and Micheline Francey. It is based on the novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! by Selma Lagerlöf, which had previously been adapted into the 1921 Swedish silent film The Phantom Carriage by Victor Sjöström.
The Midnight Sun is a 1943 French adventure film directed by Bernard-Roland and starring Jules Berry, Josseline Gaël and Sessue Hayakawa. It is based on the 1930 novel of the same title by Pierre Benoît. The film's sets were designed by the art director Robert Dumesnil.
I Have Killed is a 1924 French silent crime drama film directed by Roger Lion and starring Sessue Hayakawa, Huguette Duflos and Max Maxudian. The film's sets were designed by the art director Émile-Bernard Donatien. It was released in the United Kingdom as Loyalty.
White Patrol is a 1942 French mystery thriller film directed by Christian Chamborant and starring Sessue Hayakawa, Junie Astor and Paul Azaïs. Production began in 1939 but was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War. The film's sets were designed by the art director Lucien Jaquelux.
