The Secret Game
About The Secret Game
In the Pacific Coast quartermaster's office, someone is leaking the sailing dates of troop transports. Kitty Little, a German agent working for Dr. Ebell Smith, is employed there as a secretary. The Japanese agent Nara-Nara is put on the case, suspects Major John Northfield, and then falls in love with Kitty, whom a letter implicates. Northfield, who also loves her, gives her a blank letter to mail as if it held the dates. She takes it to Smith. Nara-Nara follows, kills Smith in a struggle, and tries to make Kitty leave with him. She reminds him of his wish to keep his sword clean, and he goes. One of Smith's men kills him as he returns to the body. A letter from Kitty's brother, about to be shot by the Germans for shielding women and children, turns her. She stays, and she and Northfield become engaged.
Cast & crew
More about The Secret Game
William C. deMille directed, with Harry Haskin as assistant director. Marion Fairfax wrote the story and the scenario. Jesse L. Lasky produced it. Charles Rosher photographed it. Paramount released it on December 3, 1917. It runs five reels.
Themes
Background
Released the month the United States was in its first winter of the war, the film makes a German office spy the threat to Pacific troopships and a Japanese detective the man who stops the leak.
Making
Hayakawa was a Paramount star in 1917, and deMille casts him as the agent who both hunts Kitty and loves her, then dies before the engagement scene.
Look
Charles Rosher photographed the office test with the blank letter and the fight in which Nara-Nara kills Smith.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
A complete print survives at the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Sessue Hayakawa plays Nara-Nara. Jack Holt is Major Northfield, Florence Vidor is Kitty Little, and Charles Ogle is Dr. Ebell Smith.
- Mayme Kelso plays Miss Loring. Raymond Hatton plays a character billed as 'Mrs. Harris.'
- Japan, in the story, has guaranteed the transports, which is why a Japanese agent is assigned to a German leak inside an American office.
- A complete print is at the Library of Congress and has been issued on DVD.
Scenes
- Northfield hands Kitty a blank letter and lets her believe it lists the sailing dates.
- Nara-Nara kills Smith, then leaves Kitty when she tells him to keep his sword clean.
- He is shot by Smith's accomplice while going back to the body.
Also available
- Internet Archive (the-secret-game-1917)
