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Albert Capellani, Metro, 1919, from Edith Wherry’s novel, scenario by June Mathis. Alla Nazimova plays both Mahlee, raised Chinese, and her white half-sister Blanche during the Boxer Rebellion. The mission will not have Mahlee; the rebels will. Noah Beery is Dr. Sam Wang. Anna May Wong, fourteen, appears uncredited as a lantern bearer in the night parade, her first screen work; Chinese extras were paid $7.50 a day, a dollar-fifty more than the rest. A print survives in Europe. Yellowface and a dual role, Metro’s idea of Peking.
In one programme
Fourteen, uncredited, carrying a lantern in a night parade, and paid a dollar-fifty more than the other extras. Nazimova does the Boxer Rebellion in yellowface. Wong is a face in a crowd for a few seconds. Look for her anyway. That is the whole practice this collection teaches.
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