
The Cheat
Summary
A gilded Long Island matron, Edith Hardy, chairwoman of a charity bazaar that drips with pearls and hypocrisy, snatches ten-thousand crisp dollars from the safe as casually as she might pluck a camellia. The money is meant for war-orphans, yet she gambles it on a copper-tip tip that collapses overnight. Enter Tori, the Burmese ivory king whose burnished skin and lacquered composure radiate menace in the drawing-room’s gaslight; he offers a silent bargain: the cash in exchange for a night of undisclosed forfeiture. When Edith repents and begs for the check back, Tori brands her shoulder with a red-hot iron, sealing the debt on her flesh. The scandal erupts, courtroom flashbulbs pop, and society gasps as the white woman points to the “Oriental beast.” A single gunshot, a verdict of passion, and Edith’s husband takes the fall, clutching the smoking revolver like a bouquet of blame. The final reel dissolves into a prison yard where husband and wife lock eyes through the bars—liberty purchased at the price of a lie, the brand scar hidden beneath silk, ivory clacking like distant bones.
Synopsis
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.
Director

Lucien Littlefield, Fannie Ward, Dick La Reno, Jack Dean, Yutaka Abe, Sessue Hayakawa, James Neill, Hazel Childers, Arthur H. Williams, Dana Ong, Raymond Hatton
Hector Turnbull, Jeanie Macpherson















