A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.
Acting
Sessue Hayakawa's smoldering villain defined Asian masculinity on screen.
Direction
DeMille's lurid close-ups invented the 'guilty pleasure' aesthetic.
Cinematography
Expressionist shadows in a drawing-room drama? Groundbreaking.
Director
Cecil B. DeMille
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film made Sessue Hayakawa Hollywood's first Asian male sex symbol—and white America's nightmare. The 'yellow peril' panic here is naked.
The branding scene was so controversial that censors in multiple cities demanded cuts; DeMille fought them because he knew it was the money shot.
US
