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Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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The White Man’s Law
(1918) United States of America
B&W : Five reels
Directed by James Young
Cast: Sessue Hayakawa [John A. Genghis], Florence Vidor [Maida Verne], Jack Holt [Sir Harry Falkland], Herbert Standing [Sir Robert Hope], Maym Kelso (Mayme Kelso) [Mrs. Mayhew], Forrest Seabury [Corporal Verne], Joseph Swickard (Josef Swickard) [Suliman Genghis], Ernest Joy [Sir Harry’s father], Charles West [the derelict], Noah Beery [Doctor Robinson], Frank Deshon [Falkland’s valet], Clarissa Selwynne [Lady Falkland]
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation production; distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation. / Produced by Jesse L. Lasky. Scenario by Marion Fairfax, from a screen story by Marion Fairfax and John B. Browne. Cinematography by Charles Rosher. Presented by Jesse L. Lasky. / © 10 April 1918 by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation [LP12301]. Released 6 May 1918. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Working title: The Unforgivable Sin.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The story is simply that of misplaced confidence, that of deception practiced by a renegade Englishman of attractive personality and high social training upon characters more simple and true-hearted. He has left a wife behind him to retrieve lost fortunes and social position in the ivory trade where climatic conditions are such that the place, Sierra Leone, is known as “the white man’s grave.” This renegade, before starting on an expedition to the unexplored interior, trifles with the affections of Maida Verne, a French Sudanese girl, who has been educated at the mission, and becomes something of a favorite with the English colony. She is engaged to the son of a native king, a young man modernized by an education at Oxford, but still retaining the best of native ideals. He is almost unnaturally magnanimous in stepping aside when he believes that Maida is to wed the Englishman, but he discovers that the latter has a wife living while the two are on the expedition returning from a successful search for ivory. The two men fight in a canoe, and the native is apparently drowned. The renegade escapes, but the native returns to their starting point in time to save Maida and execute terrible vengeance.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 4 May 1918, page ?] Strange selection that of a town and wild country on the northwest coast of Africa for the location of a drama, yet it is far from an uninteresting one in the capable hands of James Young. His treatment is so artistic that it gives the entire piece a combined air of realism and romance, realism in its convincing thoroughness of detail, and romantic in its impressively picturesque interiors and bits of scenery both suggestive and inspiring. This treatment stamps all that is strong in the drama upon memory, and aids materially in making Mr. Hayakawa’s fine acting impressive. There is also a fine cast, the notable support being that of Florence Vidor. There would be no objection to the dark mood of this story if it had direct significance, but that of its title and of its purpose is that good women are so rare in such places that the few who exist must be protected. That is a good motive in all times and places, and, as such, it deserves commendation, but its remote application seriously lessens the effect intended. As an offset the treatment leaves nothing to be desired.
Survival status: Print exists in the Gosfilmofond film archive.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 18 November 2022.
References: Website-IMDb.
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