The Cheat

Before he became known as the king of spectacle, Cecil B. DeMille honed his craft on a series of silent melodramas like The Cheat, a story about a woman embezzler (Fannie Ward), her husband (Jack Dean), and the Faustian bargain she enters into with a mysterious Burmese businessman, played by Sessue Hayakawa. Employing some of the silent era's most potent plot twists and elaborate production design, The Cheat has endured thanks to Hayakawa's performance, a subtle yet menacing mix which made him a cinema star.

The Cheat was added to the National Film Registry in 1993.