The Man Beneath (1919)

A Hindu physician (Sessue Hayakawa) is in love with a Caucasian woman (Helen Jerome Eddy) who loves him too but rejects his proposal of marriage because the difference in race would make marriage too difficult for everyone involved. Meanwhile, her young sister (Pauline Curley) becomes engaged to a college chum (John Gilbert) of the Hindu doctor. Based on the novel ONLY A N****R by Edmund Mitchell and directed by William Worthington (THE DRAGON PAINTER). It's an odd little film, part crime thriller, part social statement and not really successful on either count. The infusion of a subplot about a secret society that Gilbert joined in his youth and now demands he kill a judge borders on the preposterous. Its worth lies in its archival status on Sessue Hayakawa's silent film career, not as cinema. The film could have done with more intertitles as it's often difficult to piece the plot together. With Fontaine La Rue and Wedgwood Nowell.