Hollywood and the Image of the Oriental, 1910-1950- Part II

20. What is the significance of the film's final image? HOLLYWOOD AND THE IMAGE OF THE ORIENTAL, 1910 -1950 -PART II By Richard A. Oehling Richard A. Oehling is Dean ofAdministration at Assumption College in Worchester, Massachusetts. Thefirst part of this article appeared in our last issue. Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation produced The Letter (18) in 1929, starring Jeanne Eagles, O. P. Heggie, Reginald Owen, Herbert Marshall, and Lady Tsen Mei. The story, based on a play by William Somerset Maugham, takes place on a rubber plantation in the East Indies. Leslie Crosby (Jeanne Eagles) has turned from her husband to Jeffrey Hammond for love and an escape from boredom. As we rapidly find out, her husband is a drudge, dedicated to the plantation and profit. Unfortunately, Leslie has chosen as a boyfriend a man who has the bad sense and taste to fall in love with a Chinese woman. Discovering this, Leslie kills him. Placed on trial for her life, Leslie puts on a convincing show for the jury and her husband to the effect that she killed Hammond in defense of her honor. During the trial, the Chinese woman blackmails Leslie with an incriminating letter, which would destroy Leslie's case. Leslie's husband pays the blackmail, but Leslie is now faced with a bankrupt and a loveless future. What is significant for our purposes, are the parts played by Orientals, particularly the role of Li Ti (Lady Tsen Mei) and On Chi Seng (Tamaki Yoshiwara). The Chinese woman is a sultry sexpot in the worst sense of the word. She has obviously trapped Hammond by her guile and some unspecified Oriental arts. She is not above blackmail and conniving, although those qualities are somewhat mitigated by the fact that she is pursuing revenge for the murder of her lover. Somehow, we wish that she would expose Leslie to the punishment the latter deserves, for that would affirm that the Oriental woman's love was a true one. Instead ofthat, she is content with the combination of money and of humiliation for the English woman. In the scene in which she collects the blackmail for the letter, we are presented with a now common picture of an Oriental house of ill repute, with a veritable harem of Oriental girls in waiting upon the desires of a group of elderly, lecherous-looking, Oriental males. This scene of debauchery had appeared time and time again in the films ofthe 1930s, dealing with the Chinese. The other character of significance to our purpose is On Chi Tsang. On Chi is an assistant to the defense attorney. It is On Chi who hears of the letter and who, rather insidiously and carefully, raises the topic with the defense attorney. Even his glances, as he conveys the bribery attempt, bespeak deviousness and deceit. When he finishes, his boss remarks, "You have thought of everything." To which his Chinese assistant responds, "That well might be, because I have been educated in the schools of the white man." The scene ends with the attorney mumbling, "Damned clever, these Chinese." MGM produced Where East is East, (19) also in 1929. It is the story of a white man, a wild animal trapper in Indochina, and his beloved half caste daughter, Toyo. During one of his periodic absences in the jungle, Tiger Haynes' daughter has fallen in love with the son ofan American circus owner. Bob Bailey. Tiger is opposed to the 41 proposed marriage, but reluctantly capitulates when the fiance saves the girl from a tiger attack. The melodramatic element enters the picture, however, with the appearance of Toyo's long-absent mother, Madame De Silva, who is a half-caste herself. Madame De Silva embodies all of the diverse but alluring qualities ofan Asiatic woman of a shady sort, in addition to which, she is totally lacking in scruples and decency.; Not only did she abandon her daughter and husband years before, but she now seeks to win the girl's fiance for herself. There are some wild scenes as Madame De Silva flaunts her charms at the young American, and he is rapidly captured, against his better judgment and reason. In the end...