The Cheat

In this movie Tallulah Bankhead falls into the clutches of a lecherous man - honest, you can watch it yourself if think I'm fooling. But, of course, this was a movie. In real life, if we are to believe tradition and gossip, Tallulah would have eaten this stiff for lunch and not missed a round of drinks.

Anyway, she may have been lucky in love but in this picture she was unlucky at cards and ran up a huge gambling debt. The stiff in question, played by Irving Pichel in a sinister turn, offers to bankroll her - and you can guess the price of his largesse. Harvey Stephens plays her trusting doofus husband who buys any excuse she gives him.

"The Cheat" is an interesting melodrama which becomes less so toward the end. It's OK, but the best part is that it gives you a chance to see TB in a starring role and judge her talent for acting for yourself. She gives it her considerable best and chews the scenery at the appropriate intervals. Since she was primarily a stage actress she didn't make that many movies to judge, so watch it if you get a chance.

Two people who did little work on the big screen and were primarily stage folks, director George Abbott and actress Tallulah Bankhead collaborated on this remake of Cecil B. DeMille's silent classic, The Cheat. It was so watered down that it could have been called The Occasionally Indiscreet.

Tallulah is married to Harvey Stephens and they're both of the upper classes and enjoy the privileges therein. It's Stephens who makes the money and Tallulah who spends it.

She loses a fortune in 1930s worth of $10,000.00 at the gaming tables. She's not able to go to her husband, the money to pay the debt comes from the wealthy Irving Pichel. And he wants to collect the debt in his own way, the same kind of indecent proposal that Robert Redford had in mind in that film.

Half of the drama of The Cheat is lost when we lose the racial component of the original DeMille film. Fannie Ward and Sessue Hayakawa played the roles that Bankhead and Pichel play here and back in the days of miscegenation laws the idea of a wealthy white woman becoming the bought for mistress of an Oriental merchant was shocking indeed in 1915. As a result this film is dependent on the skills of its players, especially Tallulah Bankhead who was certainly one unique personality.

Although Bette Davis was great and The Little Foxes is one of her top five performances in my humble opinion Tallulah who created the role of Regina Hubbard Giddens on stage would have really been special. That and so many other Bankhead performances were lost. If you want to see her at her best make sure to see Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.

This sound version of The Cheat is all right, but nothing special.

Tallulah Bankhead made her impact on the stage, not the screen. A 'movie star' is usually the result of the fortunate soul discovered to have, besides wonderful photogenicity, a distinct look like no other, and this look sometimes complimented by an unusual manner of speech. Two out of three ain't bad; but, since the camera didn't love her, Tallulah didn't stay long in Hollywood. The camera emphasized the squareness of her head, her hooded eyes, the hardness of her mouth, images belying the many first-hand reports of her irresistible allure when young. For me the major treat in watching this movie is the over-the-top depiction of the lifestyles of the rich and famous - so prevalent in movies made in Lalaland during the Depression. For example, the villain's bachelor pad, where Frank Sinatra might blush in embarrassment, features a curio cabinet with dolls representing female conquests (there is still an empty shelf for the future) and ornate Oriental sliding doors which, when opened reveal an Oriental string quartet reaching to a crescendo.

A favorite quote from her: 'It's the good girls who keep diaries, the bad girls never have the time.'

This film essentially begins with a young society woman by the name of "Elsa Carlyle" (Tallulah Bankhead) enjoying herself at a party when she suddenly gets the idea to join a poker game going on in the next room. Being the rather daring gambler that she is, she decides to bet a large sum of money on a hand--only to lose all of her money. Figuring that she can quickly make up for it, she then decides to go double or nothing on the turn of a card. And once again she loses. Closely observing all of this is an extremely wealthy ladies' man by the name of "Hardy Livingstone" (Irving Pichel) who quickly senses an opportunity and decides to offer his assistance. For a price, of course. Happily married, she casually rejects his advances. However, when things continue to go bad, she then has to face a very difficult decision. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was one of those films that could have been more successful if some of the scenarios had been a bit more plausible or realistic. Likewise, the rather dated nature of the movie certainly didn't help matters either. Even so, I must admit that it kept my attention for the most part, and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The Cheat (TC) is a very melodramatic story that touches on such themes as foolish behavior of the idle rich, duplicity, revenge and ultimate redemption. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, TC's creators must have been overwhelmed by all the attention it received over the years. This1931 version of TC is the third of four, and the first one from the sound era. The initial TC was made by Cecil B. DeMille in 1915, and featured Fannie Ward, Jack Dean and a young Sessue Hayakawa as the intimidating Oriental villain. A second silent version (now lost) followed in 1923. It was directed by George Fitzmaurice and starred Pola Negri, Jack Holt and Charles de Rochefort as the now Caucasian "heavy." The third version (here under discussion)was directed by Broadway legend George Abbott, and teamed Tallaluh Bankhead with Harvey Stephens and Irving Pichel as the menacing money lender. The fourth and final chapter in the TC saga was made in France during 1937 by director Marcel L'Herbier. It starred Victor Francen, Lisa Delamare and Sessue Hayakawa---who reprised his role from the 1915 version. All four editions of TC more or less follow the basic outline of the plot summarized by previous reviewers. One is left to wonder what there was in this rather turgid tale that motivated interest in its continuing recreation over a period of some 22 years---but there it is! Perhaps if DeMille himself had remade TC with sound (as he did with The Ten Commandments), he might have found something more novel or interesting in the story than was demonstrated in its three subsequent do overs, but that was not meant to be. Some artistic endeavors just do not get better with repetition.

TC (1931) is significant today mainly because it featured Tallulah Bankhead in one of her early sound films. Then just 28 years of age and at the height of her youthful beauty, Bankhead had returned to the USA from a long and successful sojourn to England---where she had become the toast of the London stage. Paramount Studio then offered her a contract for five films at fifty thousand dollars each--and she seized the opportunity. This was during the Depression! Paramount planned to groom her as another Marlene Dietrich and to be America's newest sex symbol. The extravagant publicity that Bankhead's celebrity in England generated certainly made such expectations seem perfectly reasonable. However, her first film for Paramount (Tarnished Lady) was unsuccessful, as were the next two that followed (My Sin and TC)---both directed by George Abbott. Perhaps this result was due to the fact that these films seemed more tailored to suit Dietrich's image rather than Bankhead's. Nobody disputed the fact that Bankhead was considered to be a brilliant actress in her own right, and deserved the right to play roles that would better capture the unquestioned magic she previously demonstrated on the London stage. But this filmmaking phase of her career--lasting around a year and a half---ended unsatisfactorily. She completed her contractual obligations with Paramount, and finding movie making and Hollywood both unattractive, Bankhead headed for New York and opportunities on the Broadway stage.

While TC is not a great film and Bankhead's work in it is not particularly memorable, there is no dispute that her performance is both interesting and entertaining. We are left to ponder just what might have happened to this talented and charismatic young actress if she had been handled more creatively and appropriately at this point in her career. Unfortunately, we will never know.