Mr. Wu (1927), 8 {nm} Silent

When Mandarin Wu's unmarried daughter ... a young Englishman, he seeks vengeance.
1h 31min | Drama, Romance | 26 March 1927 | Silent
Director: William Nigh
Stars: Lon Chaney, Louise Dresser, Renée Adorée, Ralph Forbes, Anna May Wong.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018179/

Fortunately I didn't read the plot summary before watching this. I redacted the spoiler here.

I'm surprised this doesn't have a higher rating (currently 6.6 with 480 votes). I find it very entertaining, However, it is Silent, which I find difficult to hold my attention for the whole 91 minutes. And I missed 2 key plot points because my attention waivered.

LC gives an excellent performance. Fortunately he doesn't spend a lot of screen time in old-man makeup. That was very effective, but distractingly so.

RF (b. 1904) is so handsome he's pretty. He made a lot of films, including plenty of talkie, but I didn't recognize him while watching this. His acting here is similar to others in the silent era.

Very happy to have another Anna May Wong film. She is the companion of Wu's daughter, and gets a fair amount of screen time. Good acting.

LD is very effective as RF's mother. She gets some serious plot to act, and she does it well.

Renée Adorée strongly reminds me of Shirley MacLaine, especially in My Geisha ('62); see this poster. The photo to the right is Adorée from another film. Notice that her eyes are light. This is also how she looked in Mr. Wu, but with straighter hair, and no bare shoulders.

This is a very good film, giving some cultural insights into an unfortunate tradition that is not just Chinese.

The rest of this is spoiler, so if you want to see the film fresh, stop reading.

The biggest plot point that I missed: that RF comes to visit RA many times over some months. So when she whispers her secret to him, which is not shared with us, and he's so devastated, it's a little confusing. Without that, RF having his hand on RA's breast, and especially the honor killing were strange. The exact language of the ancient text that LC consults: "A maiden so defiled must die by the hand of her father or the next male of her own blood. Let no man depart from this law lest the soul of the maiden be forever accursed." Nice twist: it's not about family honor, but about her soul. Oy.

I also missed RA waking with LC's beads in her hand (and the discussion about them with AMW); they figure into the ending.

MGM, dir. Nigh; 8