This is one of the last silent films, made just before "The Jazz Singer" came out, and it is technically better than most of the other silent films as it used Warner Brothers Vitaphone technique.
It also benefits from a tour d'force by Dolores Costello (who was the wife of John Barrymore at the time) and is probably one of her best roles. She manages to go beyond the silent film melodrama, as does Anna May Wong, the busiest Asian woman in films in the first half of the 20th Century.
Warner Oland (a Swede who nonetheless almost always play an Asian, including his stint as Charlie Chan) shows up as a Chinese thug who masquerades as a White man, although Oland is not at the top of his game here.
The climax of the film is the 1906 earthquake and for the time it is spectacular. The version of the restored film I saw had both the beginning and the end in harsh sepia tones, but the middle was fine.
The film is well worth viewing as one of the last great silent films.
It also benefits from a tour d'force by Dolores Costello (who was the wife of John Barrymore at the time) and is probably one of her best roles. She manages to go beyond the silent film melodrama, as does Anna May Wong, the busiest Asian woman in films in the first half of the 20th Century.
Warner Oland (a Swede who nonetheless almost always play an Asian, including his stint as Charlie Chan) shows up as a Chinese thug who masquerades as a White man, although Oland is not at the top of his game here.
The climax of the film is the 1906 earthquake and for the time it is spectacular. The version of the restored film I saw had both the beginning and the end in harsh sepia tones, but the middle was fine.
The film is well worth viewing as one of the last great silent films.