''The Cheat'' (French: ''Forfaiture'') is a 1937 French

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-g ...

directed by

Marcel L'Herbier Marcel L'Herbier (; 23 April 1888 – 26 November 1979) was a French filmmaker who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued unti ...

and starring

Victor Francen Victor Francen (born Victor Franssens, 5 August 1888 – 18 November 1977) was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood. Biography Francen was born in 1888 in Tienen, the son of a chief of police. According ...

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 i ...

and Louis Jouvet.Kennedy-Karpat p.156 It is a remake of the American

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

'' The Cheat'' by

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Robert Gys Robert Gys (1901–1977) was a French art director.O'Shaughnessy p.238 Selected filmography * '' Imperial Violets'' (1924) * ''The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge'' (1925) * ''Miss Europe'' (1930) * ''Dance Hall'' (1931) * '' The Dream'' (1931) * '' ...

. It was shot at the

Billancourt Studios Billancourt Studios was a film studio in Paris which operated between 1922 and 1992. Located in Boulogne-Billancourt, it was one of the leading French studios. It was founded in the silent era by Henri Diamant-Berger. During the Second World War ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Main cast

as Pierre Moret *

as Prince Hu-Long * Louis Jouvet as Valfar *

Lise Delamare Lise Delamare (born Jolyse Effrey Jeanne Delamare; 9 April 1913 – 25 July 2006) was a French stage and film actress. Partial filmography * '' George and Georgette'' (1934) * ''Les précieuses ridicules'' (1934) * ''Pension Mimosas'' (1935) - ...

as Denise Moret *

Lucas Gridoux Lucas Gridoux (16 April 1896 – 22 April 1952) was a Romanian-born French stage and film actor.Lanzoni p. 99 Biography He was born in 1896 in Herța, at the time in Dorohoi County, Kingdom of Romania. After emigrating to France, Gridoux began h ...

as Tang-Si *

Ève Francis Ève Francis (born Eva Louise François; 20 August 1886 – 6 December 1980) was an actress and film-maker. She was born in Belgium but spent most of her career in France. She became closely associated with the writer Paul Claudel, and she wa ...

as Mrs. Curtis *

Lucien Nat Lucien Nat (born Lucien Maurice Natte; 11 January 1895 – 25 July 1972) was a French film, stage and television actor.McCann p.95 He was married to the actress Marie Déa. Selected filmography * ''Fun in the Barracks'' (1932) - Maréchal des L ...

as Maître Ribeyre *

Pierre Magnier Pierre Frédéric Magnier (February 22, 1869 - October 15, 1959) was a French actor who began on the stage in the 1890s and became a prominent silent film actor in France. He was the second actor to portray '' Cyrano de Bergerac'' in any film in ...

as Le Président de la société *

Jean Brochard Jean Brochard (12 March 1893 – 17 June 1972) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1933 and 1966. Selected filmography * '' A Man's Neck'' (1933) - Petit rôle (uncredited) * ''Boubouroche'' (1933) * ''La ...

as Félicien *

Sylvia Bataille Sylvia Bataille (born Sylvia Maklès; 1 November 1908 – 22 December 1993) was a French actress of Romanian-Jewish descent. When she was twenty, she married the writer Georges Bataille with whom she had a daughter, the psychoanalyst Laurence Bata ...

as Ming

References

Bibliography

* Kennedy-Karpat, Colleen. ''Rogues, Romance, and Exoticism in French Cinema of the 1930s''. Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013.

External links

* 1937 films French drama films 1937 drama films 1930s French-language films Films directed by Marcel L'Herbier Films scored by Michel Michelet Films shot at Billancourt Studios French remakes of American films Sound film remakes of silent films French black-and-white films 1930s French films {{1930s-France-film-stub fr:Forfaiture (film, 1937)