View Item - FM-M084-1915
Language:
EnglishCategory:
DramaDuration:
159 minutesCatalog Num:
FM-M084-1915 Title:
Manslaughter & The CheatItem Type:
VideoMedium:
DVDProgram:
F&MSReserved:
NoStatus:
AvailableTwo movies: Manslaughter (1915) and The Cheat (1922).
Accompanied by a lively score by the Alloy Orchestra, MANSLAUGHTER stars Leatrice Joy as a pampered debutante who is forced to confront the death of a traffic cop. To emphasize the debauchery of the Jazz Age elite, DeMille interwove scenes of champagne-soaked parties and Roman orgies, a device that served as a stern warning (while providing a titillating spectacle) to the wayward youth of America.
Mixed messages also abound in THE CHEAT, in which a society woman allows a wealthy Burmese trader to settle a debt for her, not realizing that in exchange he intends to brand her flesh as her own. Highly influential for its dramatic low-key lighting and its frank depiction of extra-marital intrigue, THE CHEAT tapped into a vein of post-Victorian female masochism, eroticism and Orientalism of the day, exploring the taboo desire to be forcefully seduced and possessed by a man of another.
© 2007 Washington University in St. Louis - Arts & Sciences Computing | Campus Box 1160, One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130 | Library Administration