J'ai tué!

This mid twenties French melo has a few claims on our attention. It survives in a beautiful tinted reconstruction, features the always intriguing Hayakawa and is part filmed by effects specialist Segondo de Chomon, though watching it gives no hint of his participation.

Hayakawa is a Tokyo antiques dealer accused of murder, facing a trial with a surprise outcome. Sessue's leap from the stand is the film's one grabbing moment.

The rest is competent and a glimpse of the French production of the day. Long serving Duclos was Mathilde in L'Herbier's fabulous early sound Gaston Leroux two parter.

Sessue Hayakawa lost his studio in the Great Tokyo quake. When he arrived in France with a hamper of his remaining objets d'art, they were stolen from him in a waterfront saloon. He has made his way to the estate of his old friend, Max Maxudian and Max's wife, Huguette Duflos, who have treated him kindly, given him a home and the chance to pursue his arts. Yet all is not well. Mlle. Duflos has been carrying on an affair with the shady Pierre Daltour,. He has turned to blackmailing her. When her husband discovers the situation, Daltour strangles him.... and rather than admitting the affair, Hayakawa finds himself on trial for murder.

Like many a fading American movie star before and since, Hayakawa moved to Europe, where he was still admired. There are bits and pieces of earlier, celebrated roles stuck into this movie. The writer-director, Roger Lion, was a founding member of the Société des Auteurs de Films. Like many an artist who talked of Art, when it came to his own productions, he was not one to mess with proven formulas. The result here is a nice little little, not terribly original, but very competently produced and relying on Hayakawa's star personna to carry out the mixture of high-society decadence, and melodramatic nobility.