The Cheat

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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.

Watch it here, on this very wiki, or on Wikimedia Commons.

Not to be confused with the Homestar Runner character.

Tropes used in The Cheat include: