The Red Lantern
About The Red Lantern
After her grandmother dies, Mahlee, daughter of an Englishman and a Chinese woman, goes to a Christian mission in Peking, converts, and falls in love with the minister's son, Andrew Templeton, who will not marry her because of her mixed parentage. She learns that the English visitor Blanche Sackville is her half-sister, and that Sir Philip Sackville prefers a match between Blanche and Andrew. Dr. Sam Wang, a Boxer leader living at the mission, talks the jealous Mahlee into impersonating the Goddess of the Red Lantern to stiffen the rebels. She still warns the mission of an attack, and her father refuses to acknowledge her. After the Boxers are beaten she drinks the poison Wang gives her. Blanche, Andrew, and Sir Philip find her dead on the throne.
Cast & crew
More about The Red Lantern
Albert Capellani directed. June Mathis wrote the screenplay from Edith Wherry's novel. Alla Nazimova plays both Mahlee and Blanche. Metro released the film on May 4, 1919.
Themes
Background
The plot uses the Boxer conflict and the Allied suppression of the rising as the machinery of a dual-role melodrama about a woman refused by both of her parents' worlds.
In film history
It is the film debut of Anna May Wong, then an uncredited extra carrying a lantern.
Making
Tony Gaudio was the cinematographer. The story is set at a mission in Peking and in the Boxer streets around it, with the Feast of the Lanterns staged as the rebels' rally.
Look
Tony Gaudio shot the dual role, separating Nazimova's Mahlee and Blanche by costume, lighting, and the mission interiors.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
One print is known to survive in Europe. A copy has also been rumored at Gosfilmofond in Moscow.
Notes
- Anna May Wong's first screen appearance is an uncredited lantern bearer.
- About 300 extras were hired. Chinese American extras were paid $7.50 a day, $1.50 more than the other extras.
- Nazimova's husband Charles Bryant is in the cast, as are Noah Beery as Sam Wang, Frank Currier as Sir Philip, Darrell Foss as Andrew, and Winter Hall as Reverend Alex Templeton.
- The company shot the picture during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
- Edward Connelly plays General Jung-Lu.
Scenes
- Mahlee recognizes Blanche as the half-sister her grandmother described.
- Dressed as the Goddess of the Red Lantern, she presides over the Feast of the Lanterns while Wang shields her from suspicious Boxers.
- She drinks Wang's poison on the palace throne, and her father, Blanche, and Andrew arrive to find her dead.
Influenced by
- Edith Wherry's novel The Red Lantern
