Mr. Wu
About Mr. Wu
Lon Chaney plays both Grandfather Wu and Mr. Wu. Wu’s young wife dies after their daughter Nang Ping is born, and he raises the girl. She falls in love with Basil Gregory, son of an English diplomat, and tells him she is carrying his child. Wu reads the old rule as requiring a dishonored daughter to die by her father’s hand. He then locks Basil’s sister on a terrace and has Basil tied beside an axe, and he tells Mrs. Gregory she must choose which child to give up. She stabs Wu. A vision of Nang Ping stops him from striking the gong that would kill Basil, and he dies. His old tutor finds him and says the House of Wu has passed.
Cast & crew
More about Mr. Wu
William Nigh directed. The script comes from the play Mr. Wu by Harold Owen and Harry M. Vernon, first staged in London in 1913. The New York production opened on October 14, 1914, with Walker Whiteside as Wu. John Arnold photographed the film. Script supervisor Willard Sheldon later said Chaney and Nigh worked smoothly together.
Themes
Making
The film was shot at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio in Culver City, with Chaney in the grandfather makeup and as the grown Wu.
Look
John Arnold photographed the Culver City production, including Chaney’s two ages of Wu.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons as Mr. Wu (1927).webm.
Notes
- Renée Adorée plays Nang Ping. Ralph Forbes plays Basil Gregory. Louise Dresser plays Mrs. Gregory. Holmes Herbert plays Mr. Gregory. Gertrude Olmstead plays Hilda Gregory.
- Anna May Wong plays Loo Song. Toshia Mori, billed as Toshia Ichioka, plays a friend of Nang Ping. Claude King plays Mr. James Muir.
- In the prologue Chaney, as the grandfather, tells an English associate that the West is coming to the East and the heir must be ready for both.
Scenes
- Nang Ping tells Basil she is pregnant, then says she is already engaged.
- Wu raises a sword over his daughter at the household shrine.
- Mrs. Gregory is told to choose between her son’s death and her daughter’s ruin.
- She stabs Wu, and a vision of Nang Ping stops his hand on the gong.
Influenced by
- Harold Owen and Harry M. Vernon's play Mr. Wu
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Mr. Wu (1927).webm)
Quotes
Thus passes the House of Wu.
