# The Cheat
**The Cheat** is a 1915 American silent melodrama directed by [Cecil B. DeMille](https://www.edgepedia.org/cecil-b-demille), in which a socialite who has stolen charity funds borrows money from an art dealer who desires her, and he brands her as his property when she tries to repay him. Produced by the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company and released on December 13, 1915, it stars Fannie Ward as Edith Hardy and the Japanese actor [Sessue Hayakawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/sessue-hayakawa) as Hishuru Tori, with Jack Dean as her husband Richard.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [2](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/the-cheat/) The film was a box-office success, made Hayakawa a star, and was selected for the [National Film Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-registry) in 1993.[3](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220k91) • [4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | December 13, 1915; produced by Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co., distributed by Paramount Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) |
| Principal cast | Fannie Ward (Edith Hardy), Sessue Hayakawa (Hishuru Tori), Jack Dean (Richard Hardy)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) |
| Format | Silent, black and white, five reels, 4,243 feet, 1.33:1[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) |
| Finances | Cost $17,311.29 and grossed $137,364.87, DeMille's most successful film to that time[2](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/the-cheat/) • [4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) |
| 1918 reissue | Paramount re-issued it on November 24, 1918, changing Hayakawa's character to Burmese and renaming him Haka Arakau[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) |
| Recognition | National Film Registry, 1993; prints survive at the George Eastman Museum[4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) • [5](https://www.2003.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cheat1915.html) |
| Rights | Public domain in the United States[5](https://www.2003.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cheat1915.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Edith Hardy, a stockbroker's wife with expensive tastes, invests $10,000 raised for the Red Cross Belgian relief fund, of which she is treasurer, in a copper company on a friend's stock tip; the company fails.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) Desperate to replace the money without confessing, she borrows the sum from Hishuru Tori, a wealthy [Japanese art](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-art) dealer and member of [Long Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/long-island)'s "smart set," who demands that she come to him in exchange.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [8](https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action%3Bjsessionid%3D99D94BE0C44EB98F077F72FFCDBD85EB?itemFileId=6147&itemId=4122) When her husband's investments prosper and Edith tries to return the money, Tori refuses it and brands his seal on her flesh with his curio iron.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [9](https://kinolorber.com/film/thecheat) In the courtroom denouement, Edith reveals the brand, the couple is acquitted, and a mob of spectators rises up against Tori.[4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) • [10](https://ermitage.tv/i-prevaricatori/?lang=en)
## Production
DeMille made the film for the Lasky company between October 20 and November 10, 1915, and shot it concurrently with *The Golden Chance* (1916), part of a schedule that expanded his output from seven releases in 1914 to thirteen in 1915.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [5](https://www.2003.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cheat1915.html) • [6](https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/public/book/cecil-b-demille-and-american-culture-the-silent-era.html) The scenario was an original screenplay by Hector Turnbull and Jeanie Macpherson, photographed by Alvin Wyckoff with art direction by Wilfred Buckland; DeMille also edited the film.[2](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/the-cheat/) • [5](https://www.2003.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cheat1915.html) The copyright was registered on December 8, 1915 (LU7164).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT)
Fannie Ward was a renowned stage actress of New York and London, and *The Cheat* was her screen debut in features; Jack Dean, who played her husband, was her real-life husband at the time.[3](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220k91) • [7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/72485/the-cheat) Hayakawa had already appeared in many films, but this role made him a "full-fledged star."[3](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220k91)
## Reception and controversy
Contemporary reviews were strong. *The Weekly Variety* on December 17, 1915 predicted the picture would "surely be a box-office winner" and judged Hayakawa's work "so far above the acting of Miss Ward and Jack Dean that he really should be the star in the billing." W. Stephen Bush in *The Moving Picture World* wrote that the feature was "of such extraordinary merit as to call for the highest terms of praise."[2](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/the-cheat/)
The film's depiction of a Japanese man provoked protest. In February 1916, members of the Japanese Association of Southern California filed a protest against its showing with the Los Angeles City Council, and Hayakawa published a note of apology in the Japanese-language newspaper *Rafu Shimpo* on December 29, 1915, regretting that the film had "unintentionally offended the feelings of the Japanese people in the United States."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [11](https://silentfilm.org/the-cheat/) Japan denounced Hayakawa as a "national traitor" and the film was never released there.[4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat)
**The 1918 reissue.** When Paramount re-issued the film on November 24, 1918, the character was changed to Burmese and renamed Haka Arakau through retitled intertitles; the Film Foundation account attributes the change to avoiding further protest, quoting Robert Birchard's observation that there were "not enough Burmese in the country to raise a credible protest."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) • [11](https://silentfilm.org/the-cheat/)
## Style
The film is noted for its low-key lighting. DeMille and Wyckoff used what was called [Rembrandt](https://www.edgepedia.org/rembrandt) lighting, arranging lights so an actor's face was partly lit and partly in shadow; DeMille's autobiography records his partner Sam Goldfish (later Goldwyn) first objecting that exhibitors would pay only half price for half a face, then concluding that "for Rembrandt lighting, the exhibitors would pay double!"[4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) Critics have singled out these "spectacular innovations in dramatic lighting," along with silhouettes and shadows that carry the narrative, few intertitles, and rapid cutting.[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cheat) • [4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) Hayakawa's restrained, understated playing contrasted with the histrionic style of his co-stars; he explained that his Samurai-class upbringing taught him it was disgraceful to show emotion, and that suppressing expression gave his hatred of the character greater force with audiences.[2](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/the-cheat/) • [4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat)
## Legacy and adaptations
The film's success opened Hollywood to Hayakawa, who set up his own production company and later earned $7,500 a week on subsequent pictures; he went on to an Oscar-nominated role in *The Bridge on the River Kwai* (1957).[3](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220k91) • [4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat) In France the film was a particular success: released in Paris on July 21, 1916, it played at the Omnia-Pathé and then the Select-Cinéma through the summer, and was praised by intellectuals including Delluc, Colette, Aragon, and Epstein.[13](https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/33684/Fee_washington_0250E_14705.pdf?sequence=2.txt) • [10](https://ermitage.tv/i-prevaricatori/?lang=en)
The story was remade repeatedly: in the United States in 1923 with [Pola Negri](https://www.edgepedia.org/pola-negri) and in 1931 with [Tallulah Bankhead](https://www.edgepedia.org/tallulah-bankhead), in Italy as *Malia* (1917), and in France as Marcel L'Herbier's *Forfaiture* (1937), in which Hayakawa recreated his role.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [10](https://ermitage.tv/i-prevaricatori/?lang=en) Camille Erlanger's opera *La Forfaiture*, based on the film, was the first opera to be based on a motion picture scenario, and the Opéra-Comique staged it in February 1921.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT) • [13](https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/33684/Fee_washington_0250E_14705.pdf?sequence=2.txt)
The film was restored to the 1915 original version from the 1918 reissue with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the [Hollywood Foreign Press Association](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-foreign-press-association), and [The Film Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-film-foundation), and released on DVD in 2002.[4](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat)
## References
1. [The Cheat (1915), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1815-THE-CHEAT)
2. [The Cheat – Silent Feature, CecilBDemille.com](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/the-cheat/)
3. [Daisuke Miyao, *Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom*, Duke University Press, 2007, JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220k91)
4. [Meher Tatna, "Out of the Vaults: Cecil B. deMille's 'The Cheat', 1915," The Film Foundation, 2020](https://www.film-foundation.org/hfpa-cheat)
5. [The Cheat (1915), Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era](https://www.2003.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cheat1915.html)
6. [Sumiko Higashi, *Cecil B. DeMille and American Culture: The Silent Era*, University of California Press, 1994](https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/public/book/cecil-b-demille-and-american-culture-the-silent-era.html)
7. [Roger Fristoe, "The Cheat," TCM article, 2004](https://www.tcm.com/articles/72485/the-cheat)
8. ["Reforming the High-Society Female Offender in Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat," University of Rochester thesis](https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action%3Bjsessionid%3D99D94BE0C44EB98F077F72FFCDBD85EB?itemFileId=6147&itemId=4122)
9. [The Cheat, Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/thecheat)
10. [The Cheat (I Prevaricatori), Ermitage.TV](https://ermitage.tv/i-prevaricatori/?lang=en)
11. [The Cheat, San Francisco Silent Film Festival](https://silentfilm.org/the-cheat/)
12. [The Cheat (1915), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cheat)
13. [Annie Fee, dissertation, University of Washington](https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/33684/Fee_washington_0250E_14705.pdf?sequence=2.txt)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1914 to 1926*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license