While other reviewers here gush over this movie, I found much of it painful to watch. Jeanne Eagels as the wife, I agree with them, holds your attention with her wonderfully expressive face, particularly in the concluding scene. But she seldom gets beyond striking a stagey, melodramatic note, seldom convincing me that she was a real character speaking and not just an actress playing a big part. Her nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role speaks volumes about the state of acting in 1929. And she's not the only actor whom you see pausing between sentences unnaturally, as if trying to remember the next one or perhaps waiting for the audience to absorb the effect.
But the acting is far from the worst thing about this movie. Worst of all is the story, which is the sort of thing you would expect in some dime-store romantic comic for women. The 1940 version with Bette Davis manages to moderate the cheapness of the story somewhat with more natural performances, but this one goes full-out melodrama. It's not so very far from Snidely Whiplash tying Poor Nell on the railway tracks. Then the racism makes you cringe even more, with all the Brits viewing themselves as lords of the earth and talking of dirty natives and their vile surroundings. I wanted to strangle them. The two main Chinese characters are (1) devious and (2) vengeful.
Even the production details can make your heart sink. A barroom scene has dancers on a stage performing some Hollywood choreographer's horrid travesty of an Indonesian dance, a dance which in real life is beautiful, dignified and stately turned into something cheap and supposedly seductive. The music is also a pitiful, dumbed-down Hollywood imitation of real Indonesian music. The barroom scene, for no particular reason other than to add to the luridness, includes a snake-charmer wearing a turban. As the snake is about to appear, the scene suddenly shifts to the outdoors and we are treated to some stock footage of a mongoose killing a snake. Totally unnecessary and out of place.
It is truly embarrassing to think that this film was actually nominated for an Academy Award. You may want to watch this version for The Letter for the performance of Jeanne Eagels, which, as I said, holds your attention despite its often falseness and to compare it to the 1940 Bette Davis version. But don't get your hopes up too high. There is lots here to make you cringe.
But the acting is far from the worst thing about this movie. Worst of all is the story, which is the sort of thing you would expect in some dime-store romantic comic for women. The 1940 version with Bette Davis manages to moderate the cheapness of the story somewhat with more natural performances, but this one goes full-out melodrama. It's not so very far from Snidely Whiplash tying Poor Nell on the railway tracks. Then the racism makes you cringe even more, with all the Brits viewing themselves as lords of the earth and talking of dirty natives and their vile surroundings. I wanted to strangle them. The two main Chinese characters are (1) devious and (2) vengeful.
Even the production details can make your heart sink. A barroom scene has dancers on a stage performing some Hollywood choreographer's horrid travesty of an Indonesian dance, a dance which in real life is beautiful, dignified and stately turned into something cheap and supposedly seductive. The music is also a pitiful, dumbed-down Hollywood imitation of real Indonesian music. The barroom scene, for no particular reason other than to add to the luridness, includes a snake-charmer wearing a turban. As the snake is about to appear, the scene suddenly shifts to the outdoors and we are treated to some stock footage of a mongoose killing a snake. Totally unnecessary and out of place.
It is truly embarrassing to think that this film was actually nominated for an Academy Award. You may want to watch this version for The Letter for the performance of Jeanne Eagels, which, as I said, holds your attention despite its often falseness and to compare it to the 1940 Bette Davis version. But don't get your hopes up too high. There is lots here to make you cringe.