Manchu Love | |
Director: | Elmer Clifton |
Producer: | Herbert T. Kalmus |
Starring: | Sojin Etta Lee Tetsu Komai Le Ong Gum Chun Al Chang Baby Wai |
Cinematography: | Ray Rennahan |
Studio: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Technicolor Corporation |
Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Country: | United States |
Language: | Silent English Intertitles |
Budget: | $16,240[1] |
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.
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]
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]