Sessue Hayakawa Filmography

The Big Wave

Synopsis: Sessue Hayakawa was the biggest name in The Big Wave, but the central story centers around the younger, lesser-known actors Juzo Itami and Mickey Curtis. Itami and Curtis play lifelong chums, happily ingoring all racial and cultural barriers imposed by Japanese and American society. All this Read More

Hell to Eternity

Actors: Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Vic Damone, Patricia Owens, Richard Eyer, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: This standard wartime drama is divided into three chronological segments and is based on the experiences of the real Guy Gabaldon (played as an adult by Jeffrey Hunter, and as a boy by Richard Eyer). In the first segment, Guy is a homeless waif without many prospects when he is adopted by a Read More

Walt Disney Presents: Escape to Paradise and Water Birds

Actors: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: The first portion of this Walt Disney Presents episode is a behind-the-scenes preview of the upcoming Disney theatrical feature Swiss Family Robinson. Hosted by three of the film's stars, John Mills, Dorothy McGuire and Janet Munro, the segment details the difficulties encountered by the Read More

The Swiss Family Robinson

Actors: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: None of the many cinemadaptations of Johan Wyss' The Swiss Family Robinson are as relentlessly enjoyable as this 1960 Disney feature. The film wastes no time getting down to business, with the shipwreck of the Robinson family occurring as the credits flash across the screen. Fashioning a raft Read More

Green Mansions

Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Perkins, Lee J. Cobb, Sessue Hayakawa, Henry Silva

Synopsis: This romantic drama set in a Venezuelan jungle is based on a novel by W.H. Hudson about Rima, a mythical "bird-woman" and her love for Abel, a man running from political assassination. In this adaptation, Rima (Audrey Hepburn) is a real woman living in the jungle with her adopted grandfather Nuflo Read More

The Geisha Boy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Marie McDonald, Sessue Hayakawa, Barton MacLane, Suzanne Pleshette

Synopsis: Jerry Lewis, plays a third-rate USO magician named Gilbert Woolley, working the Far East circuit with his pet rabbit Harry. Nearly fired for accidentally humiliating haughty movie star Marie McDonald, Gilbert's career is salvaged by kindly Japanese aristocrat Sessue Hayakawa; it seems that Gilbert Read More

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Actors: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, Geoffrey Horne, James Donald

Synopsis: The Bridge on the River Kwai opens in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma in 1943, where a battle of wills rages between camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Saito insists that Nicholson order his men to build a bridge Read More

House of Bamboo

Actors: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell, Brad Dexter

Synopsis: Samuel Fuller directed and cowrote this typically hard-boiled drama set in Japan following World War II. Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan), a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese Read More

Tomoyuki Yamashita

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: The English-language title of this Japanese film is General Yamashita; in any language, the title character is played by Sessue Hayakawa. During WW II, Yamashita is assigned to the Philippines by his longtime antagonist Tojo. The General tries to be an honorable man in his duties, but is Read More

Three Came Home

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Sessue Hayakawa, Florence Desmond, Sylvia Andrew

Synopsis: Based on the autobiographical book by Agnes Newton Keith, Three Came Home stars Claudette Colbert as Mrs. Keith. Trapped in Borneo during the Japanese invasion, Mrs. Keith and her British husband (Patric Knowles) are penned up in a prison camp along with several other subjects. Despite the Read More

Mask of Korea

Actors: Erich Von Stroheim, Sessue Hayakawa, Roland Toutain, Louise Carletti

Synopsis: Released in the U.S. in 1950, Mask of Korea has the sort of title that suggests a tie-in with the then-raging Korean Conflict. Not true. The film was actually lensed in France in 1940, under the title Macao l'Enfer de Jeu. Silent-film veterans Erich Von Stroheim and Sessue Hayakawa star as Read More

Tokyo Joe

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Alexander Knox, Florence Marly, Sessue Hayakawa, Jerome Courtland

Synopsis: One of the less famous Humphrey Bogart films is this 1949 drama about post-war guilt and remembrance. Bogart plays U.S. airman and war hero Joe Barrett. During the war, he believes, his wife Trina (Florence Marly) died in a Japanese concentration camp. But when Barrett returns to Tokyo and the bar Read More

Quartier Chinois

Actors: Michele Alfa, Sessue Hayakawa

Malaria

Actors: Mireille Balin, Sessue Hayakawa, Jacques Dumesnil, Alexandre Rignault

Patrouille Blanche

Actors: Junie Astor, Sessue Hayakawa, Robert Le Vigan

Macao, L'enfer du Jeu

Actors: Mireille Balin, Louise Carletti, Erich Von Stroheim, Sessue Hayakawa

The New Earth

Actors: Setsuko Hara, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: Dr. Arnold Fanck, creator of that peculiarly Germanic movie genre known as the "mountain film," headed to Japan in 1937 to co-direct the German-Japanese co-production New Earth (aka Die Tochter des Samurai). Befitting Fanck's specialty, the opening reels are full of lovingly detailed shots of Read More

Yoshiwara

Actors: Pierre Richard-Willm, Sessue Hayakawa, Roland Toutain, Lucienne Lemarchand

Synopsis: This bit of elegant esoterica was Max Ophuls' only directorial effort for 1937. Japanese matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa made a long-overdue return to films as Yaamo, a humble Chinese coolie in love with the beautiful and aristocratic Kohana (Michiko Tanaka). Following her father's suicide, Kohana Read More

Forfaiture

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Louis Jouvet, Victor Francen, Lise Delamare

Daughter of the Dragon

Actors: Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Sessue Hayakawa, Bramwell Fletcher, Frances Dade

Synopsis: In this entry in the mystery series, the Chinese criminal mastermind exacts revenge upon his enemy Fletcher, the man responsible for slaughtering Manchu's wife and son during an uprising. To get even, he sends out his daughter to kill Fletcher, but en route, she meets up with a Scotland Yard Read More

J'ai Tué!

Actors: Huguette Duflos, Denise Legeay, Sessue Hayakawa, Max Maxudian

Synopsis: Originally released in 1924 and fully restored in 1990 by the Cinematheque Française, this silent French melodrama is especially notable for starring Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa. The story centers on the wealthy wife of a professor of "Orientalism." She is being harassed by a pair of con men Read More

Great Prince Shan

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: A political cabinet celebrates ten years in power at a luncheon. Congratulations are given for the booming economy and the abolishment of the army. When the former foreign secretary dies mysteriously, secret papers vital to national security disappear. Sessue Hayakawa, Ivy Duke, Tsuri Aoki, and Valia Read More

Sen Yan's Devotion

Synopsis: Sessue Hayakawa stars in a double role in this feature that combines political intrigue and fantasy. The heir to the throne must prove his bravery by taking secret documents guarded by a multiple-limbed fire god. San Yan (Hayakawa) and his wife (Tsuri Aoki) travel to the sacred temple on the Read More

La Bataille

Actors: Tsuru Aoki, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: Based on a 1908 French novel by Claude Farrére, this silent melodrama stars the husband-and-wife team of Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki. Hayakawa plays a Japanese nobleman who, while away on a secret mission, learns of his wife's dalliance with a British naval officer (Felix Ward). Retaliating, Hayakawa Read More

The Vermillion Pencil

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Ann May, Misao Seki

Synopsis: This melodramatic programmer had a Chinese backdrop and Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa as its star. Tse Chan (Hayakawa) is the viceroy of China, and when he believes his wife has been unfaithful, he raises "the vermillion pencil," thus sentencing her to a death of "a thousand torments." Read More

Five Days to Live

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, Goro Kino, Misao Seki, Toyo Fujita

Synopsis: After a long run of popularity on the silent screen, Sessue Hayakawa's starring career was starting to wane. That didn't detract from this excellent melodrama, however, which features an all-Oriental cast (rare in the silent era). Tai Leung, a penniless sculptor (Hayakawa), is infatuated with Ko Read More

Black Roses

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, Myrtle Stedman, Andrew Robson, Toyo Fujita

Synopsis: Veteran Japanese star Sessue Hayakawa both produced and starred in this melodramatic silent crime drama which co-starred his wife Tsuru Aoki. Hayakawa played Yoda, a Japanese architect hired as groundskeeper for retired criminal Benson Burleigh (Andrew Robson). Burleigh is murdered by members of Read More

Where Lights Are Low

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Goro Kino

Synopsis: This Sessue Hayakawa film was based on the Lloyd Osborne novel East Is East. T'Su Wong Shih (Hayakawa), a Chinese prince, is in love with Qwan Yin, the gardener's daughter (Gloria Payton). His uncle, however, demands that he stick to custom and enter into a marriage that has already been arranged. Read More

The Swamp

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Bessie Love, Janice Wilson, Frankie Lee, Lillian Langdon

Synopsis: Sessue Hayakawa wrote the story for this simple little drama. Wang (Hayakawa) is a Chinese vegetable peddler in the slum area of a big city. He befriends a little boy, Buster (Frankie Lee), and meets the boy's mother, Mary (Bessie Love). Mary has been deserted by her no-good husband, and when Wang Read More

An Arabian Knight

Synopsis: Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa is cast as an ancient Egyptian donkey boy in An Arabian Knight. The humble Hayakawa rescues high-born Lillian Hall from lascivious pasha Fred Jones. All this brouhaha is actually a dream experienced by Hall. In the tradition of the "flashback" sequences in the Read More

The Devil's Claim

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: Sessue Hayakawa plays Akbar Kahn, a Persian writer who lives in New York's Greenwich Village. Kahn cooly uses Indora (Colleen Moore) to provide fodder for his stories without realizing how cruel he is being. A sociology student, Virginia Crosby (Rhea Mitchell), sees the whole situation and goes to Read More

The Dragon Painter

Actors: Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, Edward Peil Sr.

Synopsis: This was one of Sessue Hayakawa's more unusual films. His character, Tatsu, is a brilliant but half-mad artist who lives in the mountains and is constantly searching for his soul mate, whom he calls his "dragon princess." He finds her in the city -- she is Ume Ko (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's real-life Read More

The Bravest Way

Synopsis: Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa was one of the most popular leading men in American silent films-this despite the fact that orientals were traditionally (and stereotypically) cast as villains at the time. In The Bravest Way, Hayakawa carries self-sacrifice to the nth degree. He is so devoted-in a Read More

The Secret Game

Synopsis: Even popular Japanese leading man Sessue Hayakawa was swept up into the distinctly occidental intrigues of WWI in William C. DeMille's The Secret Game. Flying in the face of the "Yellow Peril" scare fomented by such reactionaries as William Randolph Hearst, the film cast Hayakawa as heroic Read More

Each to His Kind

Synopsis: Japanese film star Sessue Hayakawa carries the dramatic weight of this "Never the Twain Shall Meet" melodrama. Rhandah (Hayakawa), a British-educated Hindu, finds that his education means nothing when he falls in love with bigoted white girl Amy Dawe (Viola Vale). Seething with hatred, Rhandah Read More

Honorable Friend

Synopsis: Charismatic Japanese film star (Sessue Hayakawa and his charming wife Tsuri Aoki were teamed in the complicated melodrama Honorable Friend. The story takes place in an Japanese community in coastal California, where crooked antique dealer Kayosho (Raymond Hatton) holds sway as the richest man in Read More

Victoria Cross

Synopsis: This picture, based on the play by Paul Potter, has the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny as its backdrop. Although Ralph Seton (Lou Tellegen), a major in the English army, has served honorably, now in Cawnpore he has sunk into a life of decadence. Sir Allan Strathallan (Ernest Joy) comes down to bring Seton the Read More

Alien Souls

Synopsis: Despite an industrywide reluctance to cast non-Caucasians in leading roles in the mid-teens, Japanese stage star Sessue Hayakawa was one of the most popular film personalities of the era. In Alien Souls, Hayakawa plays a wealthy importer, who assumes the responsibility of raising his late friend's Read More

After Five

Synopsis: It was probably pretty simple for William C. DeMille to adapt this comedy stage hit to the screen -- he and his brother, director Cecil B. DeMille, were the playwrights. When his broker friend offers big returns, Ted Ewing (Edward Abeles) invests both his own money and that of his fiancée, Nora Read More

Temptation

Synopsis: Famed opera singer Geraldine Farrar had just recently achieved silent film stardom with Carmen (a part she had also sung on stage). She and producer/director Cecil B. DeMille teamed up again for yet another success with Temptation. Farrar, rather predictably, plays aspiring opera singer Renée Read More

The Cheat

Synopsis: The Cheat was the picture that "made" the reputation of director Cecil B. DeMille. Broadway star Fannie Ward plays an irresponsible socialite who uses the charity funds entrusted to her to play the stock market. When she loses the money, Ward is afraid to tell her husband Jack Dean, so she Read More

The Typhoon

Synopsis: The Typhoon was not Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa's first film, as has frequently been reported, but it was the film that vaulted him into stardom. In a momentary fit of jealous rage, a Japanese diplomat murders his mistress. By rights, he should be arrested for his crime, but in the greater Read More

The Wrath of the Gods

Synopsis: Produced and co-written by Thomas H. Ince, The Wrath of the Gods (aka The Destruction of Sakura-Jima) was a major undertaking that included a shipwreck (filmed off the coast of Santa Monica) and an erupting volcano. The five-reel melodrama starred future director Frank Borzage, blond Gladys Brockwell Read More

The Hateful God