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RomanceDrama

The Forbidden City

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The daughter of a Chinese mandarin is sentenced to death for her secret marriage to an American. Their child, raised in the mandarin's palace, grows up and escapes to seek her father, now a high-ranking official in the Philippines.

Release Date : 1918-10-06

Language :No Language

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Norma Talmadge Film Corporation

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles : A Tale of the Forbidden City

Cast

Norma Talmadge

Character Name : San San / Toy

Original Name : Norma Talmadge

Gender : Female

Thomas Meighan

Character Name : John Worden

Original Name : Thomas Meighan

Gender : Male

E. Alyn Warren

Character Name : Wong Li

Original Name : E. Alyn Warren

Gender : Male

Michael Rayle

Character Name : Mandarin

Original Name : Michael Rayle

Gender : Male

L. Rogers Lytton

Character Name : Chinese Emperor

Original Name : L. Rogers Lytton

Gender : Male

Reid Hamilton

Character Name : Lieutenant Philip Halbert

Original Name : Reid Hamilton

Gender : Male

Charles Fang

Character Name : Yuan-Loo

Original Name : Charles Fang

Gender : Male

Reviews

C

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2022-06-06

The characterisations here are a bit of a stretch, to be honest. Norma Talmadge is "San San" who is to be a concubine of the Emperor (of China) but who becomes embroiled, and falls in love, with the American Ambassador to the court - "Worden" (Thomas Meighan) with whom she has a child. Needless to say, the Emperor is not best pleased and "San San" is dealt with and the baby "Toy" put out for adoption by a family who disdainfully refer to her as the "American". Talmadge plays both roles, the former a little more plausibly than the latter as the daughter seeks out her father, now a high ranking official in the American-governed Philippines. The story is simple, and probably quite typical of the times when any form of inter-racial relationship was somewhat hypocritically frowned upon. Meighan plays well, he ages well, and his character is decent but the rest of this is heavily staged, badly lit and is a meanderingly paced effort that could have launched the career of ten Max Factor's. The sumptuous court settings of dynastic China have to be presumed as the settings and costumes suggest a very basic budget - even for 1918. It isn't terrible, indeed it is quite ambitious, but for me it felt flat and rather sterile.