The Cheat

The Cheat (1931)

The plot here is wonderfully bizarre and brazen, an early pre-Code film that still has a few creaks and cracks in its production standards. And the leading woman—the "cheat" I suppose—is the wonderful Tallulah Bankhead, who is worth it alone.

Everything is pretty well contained here to keep the filming manageable, so there are lots of interior scenes that look and feel like sets, well lit and straight forward. And there are parties and flirting and the suggestion of impropriety left and right. Most of all there is that weird wealth that a few people had in the Depression as the rest of the country is sliding into ruins.

So Elsa (Bankhead) is a profligate partier and gambler, and her husband is a good guy who works too much. That leads, of course, to her finding amusement where she can. And does. But this gets her into money trouble, first, and then into a pact for sex that she doesn't quite realize she will have to follow through on.

A theme in the background, almost pasted on but with a certain amount of intrigue, is a Chinese them. One of the characters is wealthy enough and eccentric enough to live with Chinese decorations and customs. (This is not uncommon—see the bizarre Edward G. Robinson 1932 film "The Hatchet Man" and think also of the mahjong craze of the 1920s.)

Mostly this is about a woman's honor, and her realizing that her craziness has put her in an awful situation. When it comes to a dramatic climax, there is still a final courtroom scene that is pretty wild and fun. Check it all out. It's not a classic, but it's just odd enough and Bankhead just good enough to justify a close look.

I found this film quite absorbing with a showy performance by Bankhead. She plays the "out-of-control" wife of a loving and up-standing young man (Harvey Stephens). Her gambling debts get her in hock with an untrustworthy admirer (Irving Pichel). Pichel's penchant for the more bizarre aspects of Oriental culture colors his and Tallulah's relationship into multiple arms of scandal. There is a great climax court room scene wherein Bankhead hams it up wonderfully. I'll say nothing more than that "sizzling flesh" is involved here. It must be seen to be believed. The photography and direction is nicely done and for a 1931 film everything moves along quite admirably.

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.'

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.

This is brilliant! If you love a crazy melodramatic story with larger than life characters and larger than life Tallulah Bankhead, then this is for you. It's everything you could want from a pre-code movie.

This is one of those pictures where you know exactly what's going to happen but actually revel in anticipation of what you know is going to be fabulous fun. Its plot has laser guided focus, its characters are instantly recognisable; it's a brilliantly written, brilliantly acted melodrama. This is one of those films where the clichéd characters and its inevitable corollary add to your enjoyment but even though you know what's happening next, it still has more than enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Some have criticised this for being too theatrical. Well director George Abbott was a top Broadway man and obviously the theatre was Miss Bankhead's natural home so this does have a theatrical feel. Often that criticism means stagnant, stagey and talky - but not in this case. This is 100% movie with beautiful photography and perfectly fluid transitions from scene to scene which escalate at a perfect pace to one of the most exciting denouements imaginable. This is how to make drama. This is how to make a film. This is how to make entertainment.

What makes this so fabulous is its star: the amazing Tallulah Bankhead. She's in every scene and you can't tear your eyes away from her for a single second and want to savour every single word she speaks. Her screen presence is utterly captivating. She's not pretty-pretty like Loretta Young or cute-pretty like Joan Blondell. No, she's pure, grown-up sex on legs. In real life she was apparently ten times more sexually voracious than the Tallulah we see in this. The real Tallulah would have laughed off the scandal she tries to avoid in this story so in some respect, her screen persona is a diluted version of herself. Even so, she absolutely sizzles with sex. It's an amazing performance in an amazing film.

Not Tallulah's best film however - that's DEVIL AND THE DEEP....even brillianter!