Ethnicity in Film: Ramon Novarro
Ethnicity in Film: Luise Rainer, Nancy Kwan
The issue of ethnicity and movie roles came up to me a few years ago, while I was working on a biography of Mexican-born actor Ramon Novarro (above), Beyond Paradise. I’d read much about white performers playing non-white roles, but basically nothing about non-white actors playing white roles. Yet, back in those days it wasn’t that uncommon. Although Novarro, for one, had a Mediterranean look, he clearly had some Indian blood as well. Dolores del Rio and Sessue Hayakawa were a couple of other non-white performers who played a varied of ethnicities — including Caucasian types — in their Hollywood films.
In Novarro’s case, his Mexican background and mixed ethnicity didn’t prevent [...]
by Andre Soares | February 19, 2010
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Tags: Anna May Wong, Classic Movies, Ethnicity in Film, Paul Muni, Ramon Novarro, Sessue Hayakawa, Silent Films, The Son-Daughter
O MIMI SAN – Sessue Hayakawa, Mildred Harris
O Mimi San (1914)
Direction: Charles Miller
Screenplay: Thomas H. Ince (unconfirmed)
Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Mildred Harris, Tsuru Aoki
O Mimi San is historically important as Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa’s first film. In it, Hayakawa plays a prince who goes to a retreat after an attempt on his life is made; once there he falls in love with a young woman (Mildred Harris, future wife of Charles Chaplin) but then finds himself torn between love and duty as a leader of his nation. Compounding matters, an arranged marriage (with Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa’s own future wife) awaits him.
Directed by Charles Miller and allegedly written by Thomas H. Ince (a studio head best remembered for his "mysterious" death in 1924), O Mimi San [...]
by James Bazen | October 29, 2009
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Tags: Cecil B. DeMille, Charles Miller, Cinesation 2009, Classic Movies, Film Reviews, Mildred Harris, O Mimi San, Sessue Hayakawa, Silent Films, Thomas H. Ince, Tsuru Aoki
THE DEVIL’S CLAIM – Sessue Hayakawa
The Devil’s Claim (1920)
Direction: Charles Swickard
Screenplay: J. Grubb Alexander
Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Rhea Mitchell, Colleen Moore, William Buckley
In The Devil’s Claim, Sessue Hayakawa plays an Indian (!) novelist who uses his experiences with women as inspiration for his novels. Next, he encounters a young American woman (Rhea Mitchell) who tells him a story about Satan-worshipping societies and evil talismans. Her real motive, however, is to reunite the novelist with Indora (future 1920s superstar Colleen Moore), a young Persian girl whom he had abandoned.
Directed by Charles Swickard from a screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander, The Devil’s Claim is an excellent drama — and so is Hayakawa’s performance. Much of the plot is told in the "story within a story" mode, [...]
by James Bazen | October 28, 2009
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Tags: Charles Swickard, Cinesation 2009, Classic Movies, Colleen Moore, Film Reviews, J. Grubb Alexander, Sessue Hayakawa, Silent Films, The Devil's Claim
Cinesation 2009
Mary Pickford, Thomas Meighan in M’Liss
Cinesation 2009 is currently taking place at the Lincoln Theater in Massilion, Ohio. The four-day festival, which ends on Sunday, will screen a number of hard-to-find titles, including:
James Cruze’s 1925 political-historical Western The Pony Express, starring Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Beery, and George Bancroft in a tale of powerlust and media manipulation. Hey, sounds like life in the early 21st century? Well, that’s a mere coincidence, as The Pony Express is set in mid-19th-century California, a time when Sen. Glen (Al Hart) and his Knights of the Golden Circle scheme to have the state secede from Union, annex another chunk of Mexico, and form a new empire.
The 1918 Mary Pickford vehicle M’Liss, in [...]
by Andre Soares | September 25, 2009
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Tags: Anne Shirley, Cinesation, Classic Movies, Constance Talmadge, Ethel Clayton, George Bancroft, Her Night of Romance, Mary Pickford, Ronald Colman, Sessue Hayakawa, Sidney Franklin, Silent Films, Thomas Meighan
National Film Registry 2008
This year, the Library of Congress has selected another 25 American films to be included in their National Film Registry, which under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act is supposed to preserve "for all time" short and feature films that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. (See full list.)
Among the selected films are Howard Hawks‘ flag-waving 1941 war drama Sergeant York (right), which earned Gary Cooper his first best actor Oscar; John Boorman’s Oscar-nominated 1972 drama Deliverance; John Huston’s 1950 film noir The Asphalt Jungle, starring Sterling Hayden and featuring a pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe; and Nicholas Ray’s campy 1954 Western Johnny Guitar, which stars Hayden in the title role, plus Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge as a [...]
by Andre Soares | December 30, 2008
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Tags: Classic Movies, Film Preservation, Flower Drum Song, Gary Cooper, Howard Hawks, Library of Congress, National Film Registry, Sergeant York, Sessue Hayakawa