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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Value DVD, October 11, 2001
This review is from: Carmen / The Cheat (DVD)
This is a really great value DVD with two fine early DeMille films and a bonus Chaplin short. Carmen stars Geraldine Farrar and she shows herself to be a very good film actress. It must have been difficult for her to make the transition from Opera star to film star, as the style of acting in the two mediums is quite different. It must furthermore have been strange for her to be filming Carmen without songs. Nevertheless her performance and the film works well, not least because Carmen is a dramatic and emotional story. It helps that the film is accompanied by familiar themes from Bizet's Opera, but the film is not some pale imitation of the Opera. It is successful in its own right. I did not miss the singing. The print for this 1915 film is first class, clear and sharp and detailed. It is colour-tinted and uses some quite unusual shades to enhance the mood of the story. Chaplin's Burlesque on "Carmen" was produced just after DeMille's film while he was working at Essanay. It is not as clever as his later Mutual and First National films, but is still very funny. Edna Purviance plays Carmen, while Charlie plays the soldier she attempts to deceive. The story is followed fairly closely, but it is subverted and ridiculed. The colour-tinted print of the film has been reconstructed and looks good with hardly any apparent damage. Having both Carmen and Burlesque on "Carmen" on one DVD gives the viewer a fine opportunity to compare the two films and adds greatly to the experience of watching both. The Cheat is the best film on this DVD. It is a sensational story of society lady Fannie Ward stealing Red Cross funds, losing the money on the stock market and asking ivory trader Sessue Hayakawa for a loan to cover her theft. The problem is that Hayakawa takes the loan to mean that he has bought her and wants her for his slave. This story was considered, at the time, to be so inflammatory that the nationality of Hayakawa's character was changed, due to Japan's objections, from Japanese to Burmese. This film has everything and is great fun in an over the top sort of way. It even includes an amazing instance of human branding. Hayakawa is a superb villain, suave and sinister. His performance is subtle and nuanced. Fans of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai may just recognise him as the camp commandant. Fannie Ward's somewhat hysterical performance actually fits in quite well with the tone of the film and contrasts nicely with Hayakawa's restraint. It is however a little hard to believe that youthful Hayakawa is obsessed with 44-year-old Ward. The colour-tinted print of The Cheat used on this DVD is again very good with only occasional minor blemishes.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Early DeMille Films Shows His Fine Talent, October 2, 2001
This review is from: Carmen / The Cheat (DVD)
These two films from 1915 are ample proof that Cecil B. DeMille has too often been unfairly dismissed as a purely commercial filmmaker of comic book epics. Both THE CHEAT and CARMEN display DeMille's story-telling skills and ability with characterizations. Each film was quite successful in its day with CARMEN providing a showcase for charismatic Metropolitan Opera star Geraldine Farrar. The fact that this wonderful soprano was appearing in a silent film didn't seem to faze anyone and, indeed, her personality shines through without any need for her vocal talents. The young and ill-fated Wallace Reid plays Don Jose. It's easy to see why he would become one of DeMille's favorite leading men. THE CHEAT is more sensational but shows DeMille's forgotten skill with a modern dress story. Designed as a vehicle for Fannie Ward, the underplaying of Sessue Hayakawa steals the film and seems undated next to the comparative histrionics of Miss Ward. Charlie Chaplin's BURLESQUE ON CARMEN, also from 1915, provides a nice bonus on this DVD. No classic, Chaplin handles the ending, where Don Jose kills Carmen and then himself, in a straightforward dramatic manner. The film closes with Chaplin and his leading lady, Edna Purviance, getting up from their death poses with Chaplin demonstrating that the dagger he used had a retractable blade. They laugh and both seem to step out of character to share the joke with the audience. The film quality and musical accompaniment is quiet good throughout and all the films have color tints although THE CHEAT is listed as being in black & white. Well, not all the scenes in THE CHEAT are tinted but many are. I found one minor technical flaw in this DVD. There is a brief freeze-frame a few minutes into THE CHEAT that just happens to be the start of a chapter index. My guess is that some faulty data got encoded onto the disc but it only happens once.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Splendid silent, October 5, 2010
This review is from: Carmen / The Cheat (DVD)
One of Cecil B. deMille's early efforts (1919), THE CHEAT is a revelation. Terrific lighting, understated acting by Sesue Hayakawa, and a neat little plot that turns on a delightfully grotesque bit of action. The score isn't too bad, although I wish it had gotten a little more involved in the passions dislayed in the story. The only klunker to stand out for me is the sight of the heroine's figure in certain shots. While it may have been fashionable, she has one of the broadest beams of any actress of the era, and at times it jumps out. That's not a kind remark, but it is something extraordinary. The best parts of the film are the expressionist lighting and sets, with some action portrayed as shadows. Interesitng that the version available is the re-release, when the Japanese villain is now "Malaysian" so as not to offend our (then) allies soon to be our (then) enemies. But Hayakawa's performance transcends all of that, and actually gives his villain a human face, making the experience almost Hitchcockian in complexity of loyalties throughout.
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