Reviews

I just saw the revival of the play in New York and although I like the movie a lot the play is much better. The movie makes many changes from the play. The movie actually makes Charteris into a sympathetic character which he definitely is not in the play. Also the play deals much more with the mixing of racial blood. The sexuality is much more pronounced in the play. In the play the setting is a brothel not a casino. Mother Gin Sling's name in the play is Mother Goddamn. Whatever Sternberg might have wanted to take from the play would have been killed by the Hays censorship office. It's too bad because thematically the play and the movie are totally apart. The play really makes the Europeans look awful while the movie makes them somewhat sympathetic. Mother Goddamn in the play comes off much more sympathetic while Mother Gin Sling comes across as mildly sympathetic but the villain of the piece. The Asian is the villain in the movie even though she was brutalized by the Europeans. This movie ultimately is one more example of Hollywood's racism. It's also too bad that they didn't cast an Asian actress to play Mother Gin Sling.