Manchu Love is a 1929 American pre-code Hollywood Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short silent historical fiction film short in two-color Technicolor. The film features a cast entirely of people of Asian descent and stars Sojin as Su Shun and Etta Lee as Empress Tzu Hsi.[2] It was the ninth film produced as part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Great Events" series.

Manchu Love
Directed byElmer Clifton
Written byJack Cunningham
Produced byHerbert T. Kalmus
StarringSojin
Etta Lee
Tetsu Komai
Le Ong
Gum Chun
Al Chang
Baby Wai
CinematographyRay Rennahan
Production
companies
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • January 12, 1929 (1929-01-12)
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English Intertitles
Budget$16,240[1]

Production

edit

The film was shot at the Tec-Art Studio in Hollywood. Director Elmer Clifton was paid $1000.00 for his work on this film and Light of India, a later entry in the series.[3] The art direction and color supervision by Natalie Kalmus drew significant praise despite the project having one of the lowest budgets in the "Great Events" series.[4]

Preservation status

edit

This film has survived in its entirety. A complete print was preserved by the Cinema Arts Laboratory in 1993 and is held in the archives at the George Eastman House.[5] It was screened as recently as 2015 at the Museum of Modern Art's Roy and Niuta Titus Theater for a presentation by authors James Layton and David Pierce.[6]

References

edit
  1. ^ Layton, James and David Pierce. The Dawn of Technicolor: 1915-1935. George Eastman House, 2015, p. 339.
  2. ^ Slide, Anthony. The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998. p. 87. Accessed 19 May 2021.
  3. ^ Slide, Anthony. "The 'Great Events' Series". Silent Topics: Essays on Undocumented Areas of Silent Film. Scarecrow Press, 2005, p. 38.
  4. ^ Layton, James. "Manchu Love (Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, US 1929)".
  5. ^ Layton and Pierce 342
  6. ^ The Dawn of Technicolor: The Silent Era. Museum of Modern Art. Accessed April 12, 2020.
edit