Son of the Gods

I am not exactly 'Mr. Politically Correct', but I hate when old films have white actors playing Asians...especially when they look not one bit Asian. In the case of "Son of the Gods" it's worse than usual for the era, because Richard Barthelmess* is even LESS Asian looking than you might imagine in your worst case scenario! Frankly, he looks about as Chinese as Shirley Temple or Mantan Moreland! Because of this, the film has a HUGE strike against it from the onset. It's odd that the film features a non-Asian playing the lead...especially since the story is all about racial bigotry towards Asians and is meant to oppose it...not reinforce it...which it unfortunately did by casting Barthelmess.

When the story begins, Sam Lee (Barthelmess) is a well liked member of the American upper crust. However, when it comes to women, the white 'ladies' refuse to have anything to do with him because he's a Chinese-American. However, it seems different with another woman. Allana (Constance Bennett) tells Sam that she hates bigotry and folks should be able to marry whoever she likes. Amazingly, she has no idea he is Chinese when she says this. When he reveals this secret(?), she overreacts to the point of being unintentionally funny. Although she tries to apologize later, Sam's heart has become hard...hard against all white people. And, when he gains control of his father's business, he's ruthless when it comes to white-owned companies....and who can blame him?! What's next? And, what BIG surprise is in store for Sam concerning his Chinese heritage?!

While Barthelmess is clearly NOT Chinese, his acting isn't bad and he avoids broad stereotypes. Instead, the bad acting is by Bennett, as she overreacts so badly that I laughed at her acting. She normally is a decent actress...but here she's just ridiculous.

So is the film any good? Well, it is DEFINITELY a mixed bag...some good, some bad. The script is actually very good and could have been a great film. The direction is poor (a decent director would have had Bennett provide a more realistic and less histrionic performance) and casting...well, I've already commented about that! What also was pretty bad was the 'surprise' near the end which makes it possible for Sam to marry a white woman!! Uggh! Talk about sending a mixed message to the audience!!

*Amazingly, although Richard Barthelmess doesn't look the least bit Chinese, he ALSO played a Chinese man in "Broken Blossoms" back in 1919. If you want to see a few other silly films due to their casting of Caucasians as Asians, try "Dragon Seed" (with Katharine Hepburn as a Chinese woman) and "The Conqueror" (with John Wayne as the Mongol leader, Genghis Khan!). By comparison, the Charlie Chan films were much more believable.

Richard Barthelmess is a college student, and a rich one. He has at least two polo ponies, a "petting wagon" and is quite willing to lend Frank Albertson a sawbuck. He's diffident when Albertson suggests he drive them, their girls, and an extra for him, and pays for them to go to a roadhouse. The reasons for his shyness become clear when the girls and other boys get into an argument when none of the girls will dance with Barthelmess: he's Chinese.

He leaves college, and goes to Monte Carlo to look after the interests there of his father, E. Alyn Warren. One night at the Casino, Constance Bennett spots him and falls in love.

This early talkie by Frank Lloyd has a lot of issues, both in the performances, which are staged for the microphones, and Barthelmess' low-level depression which he portrays quite ably, makes him dull. Ernest Haller's camerawork is lovely, and the themes of racism and class are well done, but even though it has a lot going for it, it isn't on my list of movies to look at again very often.

There's half a reel of two-strip Technicolor that doesn't survive in current prints.

Wealthy Caucasian-looking Chinese student Richard Barthelmess (as Sam Lee) is accepted by some of his school chums, but many girls shun him when they find out he's really a "Chinaman". Not knowing where he fits in, Mr. Barthelmess drops out of college and sails for Europe. Barthelmess settles in the south of France, assisting English author Claude King (as Mr. Bathurst) with a play he is writing about Chinese culture. Barthelmess is "popular with the ladies," and catches the eye of beautiful blonde Constance Bennett (as Allana Wagner). Perhaps recalling his earlier rejections, Barthelmess does not reveal his Chinese ancestry to Ms. Bennett...

Her father Anders Randolf (as Mr. Wagner) wonders about Barthelmess' background but Bennett doesn't care, or does she...

Bennett's reaction to the news should not to be missed. You should note that the very next scene begins her turnaround, and that she has transferred feelings to her victim. This trading off of prejudice is artful and interesting; and, for the time, this film takes a positive stand regarding miscegenation. That doesn't make it convincing, however. Barthelmess was a top actor, and placed #8 in "Quigley Publications" 1930 annual money-makers list. He has some good scenes, and the production values are high, but his characterization is askew. Barthelmess was getting too old for the college boy roles. And Bennett is saddled with a difficult to redeem scene.

***** Son of the Gods (3/9/30) Frank Lloyd ~ Richard Barthelmess, Constance Bennett, Anders Randolf, E. Alyn Warren

Oh, what a cringe-inducing moment it is, to see Constance Bennett's face contort in shock and anger when she discovers her new lover (Richard Barthelmess) is "Chinese", and then goes and strikes him repeatedly in public. There is some solace in her being suitably apologetic afterwards, getting chastised, and then still loving him, but the film's real triumph is in treating Asian-Americans with dignity, and showing the hypocrisy of white people. How fantastic is it when early on he says "They are liars and hypocrites. Their religion teaches love and brotherhood and equality, but they worship money and prejudice!"

Now you may be thinking as I did, Richard Barthelmess is Asian? And this is one of the film's weaknesses, as is E. Alyn Warren (another Caucasian) playing his father. You'll have to bear with that part, and forgive the film for not putting Asian actors in primary roles, though in Barthelmess's case, it is eventually explained. If you can do that, you may find it refreshing that the characters (including the servants) speak eloquently, and have a sense of class in the face of the racism of others. It's far from perfect, but its heart is in the right place, respecting the culture, and pointing out one's character is more important than one's race ("love knows no barriers"). Another great quote, practically reading the mind of the viewer 88 years later, is when he questions "Why should I be glad..." to be Caucasian, and not Asian.

Now, how it resolves itself takes away from a little of the message, but what a difference this one is from others from the time which were hyping 'yellow peril'. It is a little creaky in places, with slow and stilted dialogue, but Bennett livens things up a bit with her playful presence and defiance of her father. "Take me in your arms, and dance with me," she implores Barthelmess, and then later "Kiss me, and don't talk." It's an average film and certainly not going to blow you away, but I bumped it up a bit for the step it took in the racial dialogue, even if it can't be judged by today's standards.

This early Warner Brothers talkie "Son of the Gods" (1930) deals with the racial intolerance that Anglo-Saxon Americans show towards the Chinese. Chinese-Americans are treated like second-class citizens, and whites hold them in nothing but contempt.

Prolific scenarist Bradley King based her screenplay on Rex Beach's novel about a young, impressionable Chinaman, Sam Lee (Richard Barthelmess of "Only Angels Have Wings"), who experiences racial prejudice first-hand when the girls that his college chums bring along for a party reveal their racist sentiments about Sam once they learn about his heritage. Sam goes to his father, Lee Ying (E. Alyn Warren of "Gone With The Wind"), who is a wealthy Chinaman with offices not only in New York City but also in San Francisco. Sam feels deeply wounded by the racial slurs and he wants to leave New York and go where he cannot be hurt by Americans. His patient father warns him that racism is a fact of everyday life and the only solution to racism is tolerance. Sam has yet to learn this lesson. He refuses to take any more money from his father and catches a ship to London, England, peeling potatoes while he is on board.

During the trip, he encounters a British playwright, Bathurst (Claude King of "Arrowsmith"), who needs some help writing a play about the Chinese. Sam and he strike up a friendship and Sam furnishes him with cultural information about Asians. While they are relaxing in France, Sam meets a beautiful young woman, Allana Wagner (Constance Bennett of "Two-Faced Woman"), who falls madly in love with him. It seems that Allana and her wealthy father are vacationing in the same motel. Everybody at the motel knows about Sam being a Chinaman with the exception of Allana. Sensitive about his racial heritage, Sam holds Allana at arm's length until she convinces him that nothing could change her mind about him. They fall madly in love together. Allana's father drops the bomb on her when he reveals that Sam is a Chinaman and all the memories of living in San Francisco and dealing with coolies floods Allana's mind. She storms into the dining room at the motel and publicly flogs Sam with a riding crop in front of a room filled with on-lookers.

Of course, Sam is terribly devastated by this reversal of events. He thought that Allana loved him but she didn't. About this time, Sam's father Lee Ying falls tragically ill and Ying's secretary of sorts, Eileen (Mildred Van Dorn of "Iron Man") sends Sam a telegram about Ying's illness. Predictably, Sam rushes home to New York to be at his father's side. Since his public humiliation, Sam has vowed to show no kindness to Anglo-Saxon Americans; Eileen is an Irish-Catholic and probably one of his few white friends. Lee Ying dies and Sam assumes control of the business and he practices his anti-White racism, until he learns that he was an Anglo-Saxon foundling that a San Francisco cop on the beat gave to Lee Ying and his wife to bring up. The cop forgot about it until two white busy-bodied social worker types wanted to take Sam away from the Yings. Sam learns this revelation about the same time that Allana comes to New York and falls ill. During her illness, she utters his name repeatedly in her sleep and her devoted father goes to see Sam and requests that Sam visit her in order to help her recover. Unbeknownst to Allana, Sam does visit her and she improves, but she has no memory of his visit, merely a hazy notion. Eventually, Allana learns the truth about Sam not being a Chinaman and they marry and live happily ever after.

This socially conscientious Warner Brothers/First National Pictures Release contends frankly and unflinchingly with the race issue for the first hour or thereabouts before the revelation that Sam has no Chinese blood running in his veins catches both him as well as the audience by surprise. The reconciliation between Allana and Sam stretches credibility, despite their self-professed undying love for each other. However, in the name of a happy ending that would erase all the negativity that came before it, they wind up in each other's arms.

The capitulation on the race issue with the revelation that Sam isn't Chinese damages some of the film's moral power. Incredibly, "Son of the Gods" is a Pre-Code film that almost seems prudish; for example, Sam is an American, not Chinese! Constance Bennett gives a wonderful performance as a petulant beautify and she holds your attention when she whips Sam with her riding crop. Claude King is good as Bathurst, and E. Alyn Warren is convincing as Lee Ying. Interestingly, Warren made a career out of portraying Asian characters. Richard Barthelmess is flawless as Sam; he delivers a highly nuanced performance. Despite its age, "Son of the Gods" is a son of a good movie!