"East Meets West" is an odd item. On one hand, it is very dated and paternalistic as it shows Asians as 'strange exotics'....and has the very white George Arliss playing the Sultan of the fictional Asian country of Rungay. On the other, it speaks against such nations getting involved with foreign entanglements as well as colonialism despite being a British film! It's a strange mix, that's for sure.
The Sultan (George Arliss) spends much of the early part of the film entertaining European dignitaries. They are pushing for Rungay to pledge its allegiance to them....and the Sultan is worried this is just a pretext for colonizing or losing their freedom....which was normally the case back in the day.
The Sultan's son, was schooled in England and likes the notion of their nation coming under the sway of the British...a stark contrast to his father's policies. Additionally, the son is quite foolish, as he's fallen in love with a married woman whose husband is a gangster!! Clearly this is NOT a case of 'like father, like son' and the son seems to think more about himself than the good of his people. Not surprisingly, various wicked people want to exploit this for their own benefit...but they don't seem to understand just how sneaky and clever the Sultan is.
Overall, most enjoyable...but highly flawed as well. Worth seeing if you, like me, are a George Arliss fan....but the more politically correct folks might just wanna skip this one.
The Sultan (George Arliss) spends much of the early part of the film entertaining European dignitaries. They are pushing for Rungay to pledge its allegiance to them....and the Sultan is worried this is just a pretext for colonizing or losing their freedom....which was normally the case back in the day.
The Sultan's son, was schooled in England and likes the notion of their nation coming under the sway of the British...a stark contrast to his father's policies. Additionally, the son is quite foolish, as he's fallen in love with a married woman whose husband is a gangster!! Clearly this is NOT a case of 'like father, like son' and the son seems to think more about himself than the good of his people. Not surprisingly, various wicked people want to exploit this for their own benefit...but they don't seem to understand just how sneaky and clever the Sultan is.
Overall, most enjoyable...but highly flawed as well. Worth seeing if you, like me, are a George Arliss fan....but the more politically correct folks might just wanna skip this one.