In Macao, where places of pleasure and arms trafficking are concentrated, a tragedy opposes an adventurer and his daughter whom he has brought up in ignorance of his profession. She is torn from her environment and saved from tragedy by a young journalist who loves her.
Acting
Hayakawa's simmering restraint versus von Stroheim's theatrical menace.
Production
Macao as imagined by French studios—pure fabricated Orientalism.
Direction
Delannoy's transition from poetic realism to studio-bound tension.
Director
Jean Delannoy
Sessue Hayakawa
Ying Tchaï
Mireille Balin
Mireille
Henri Guisol
Almaido
Erich von Stroheim
Werner von Krall
Louise Carletti
Jasmine
Jim Gérald
Sailor
Alexandre Mihalesco
Yassouda
Etienne Decroux
Sailor
Georges Lannes
Captain
Roland Toutain
Pierre Milley
Pierre Renoir
Werner von Krall (1942 version only)
Ginette Baudin
Player (uncredited)
Chukry-Bey
General Lin-Tse (1942 version only)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hayakawa, Hollywood's first Asian star, returned to France after racist typecasting; this role lets him embody dignity and moral complexity rarely afforded Asian actors in 1942.
Von Stroheim reportedly rewrote his own dialogue on set, because of course he did—his Werner von Krall became far more grotesque and strangely sympathetic than scripted.
FR
