''The Courageous Coward'' is a 1919 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by William Worthington and featuring

Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man ...

and

Tsuru Aoki was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific in the United States during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top billing in American motion pictures. ...

in lead roles. It is presumed to be a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

, with only reel 5 preserved at the

EYE Film Institute Netherlands Eye Filmmuseum is a film archive, museum, and cinema in Amsterdam that preserves and presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands. Location and history Eye Filmmuseum is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam in ...

film archive.Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Courageous Coward''
at silentera.com

Plot

As described in a

film magazine Film periodicals combine discussion of individual films, genres and directors with in-depth considerations of the medium and the conditions of its production and reception. Their articles contrast with film reviewing in newspapers and magazines whi ...

, Suki (Hayakawa), born and educated in America, still worships the customs of his ancestral country. Foreign born Rei (Aoki) arrives in Chinatown and wins his heart. He goes to college to finish his law studies, leaving Rei to await his return. Rei is led to believe that she should become Americanized to please him on his return, so she learns the way of the cabarets in the company of Tom Kirby (McDonald), son of ward boss Big Bill Kirby (Hernandez). Suki returns and is disappointed. Rei finally consents to

elope Elopement is a term that is used in reference to a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting ma ...

with Tom, leaving Suki lost to her. A murder is committed and Suki prosecutes a suspect almost to the point of conviction when Tom confesses his guilt to him. When Suki refuses to go forward with the case, he is branded a coward and disgraced, with only Rei believing in him. At length Tom confesses to the murder and prepares to stand trial, his confession clearing Suki and leaving him free to marry Rei.

Cast

as Suki Iota *

as Rei Oaki *

Toyo Fujita Toyo Fujita (16 July 1893 – 25 July 1959) was a Japanese actor who worked in Hollywood from the late 1910s through the mid-1930s. Biography Toyo earned a reputation as a talented actor on the stage in Japan, and later moved to the United Sta ...

as Tangi *

George Hernandez George Hernandez I (June 6, 1863 – December 31, 1922) was an American silent film actor. Hernandez was born , in Placerville, California. From late 1897 through May 1899, Hernandez was a traveling Shakespearean actor with the Janet Waldorf ...

as Big Bill Kirby *

Francis McDonald Francis McDonald (August 22, 1891 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor whose career spanned 52 years. Early years Born on August 22, 1891, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, McDonald was the son of John Francis McDonald and Catherine Ashlu ...

as Tom Kirby (credited as Francis J. McDonald) *Buddy Post as Cupid

References

External links

* 1919 films Silent American drama films American black-and-white films 1919 drama films American silent feature films Haworth Pictures Corporation films Lost American drama films Film Booking Offices of America films 1919 lost films 1910s American films {{1910s-drama-film-stub