A Salem sailor marries a Manchu princess for honor, then brings her home to his OTHER fiancée. Oops.
Gerrit Ammidon, despairing of any chance to marry his love, Nettie Vollar, because of a bitter feud between his father and her grandfather, sails to China to "get away from it all". While in Shanghai he rescues a beautiful young woman being attacked by a gang of street toughs. She turns out to be Taou Yuen, a Manchu princess. Gerrit discovers that, unless she finds a husband, she will be put to death, and he agrees to marry her. They return to Java Head, the Ammidon family home in Salem, Massachusetts, but Gerrit's "homecoming" has some unexpected consequences.
Production
Paramount built elaborate Shanghai sets for a film nobody can watch.
Costume
Leatrice Joy's Manchu princess wardrobe — lost to time, immortal in stills.
Director
George Melford
Leatrice Joy
Taou Yuen
Jacqueline Logan
Nettie Vollar
Alan Roscoe
Gerrit Ammidon (as Albert Roscoe)
Arthur Stuart Hull
William Ammidon
Rose Tapley
Rhoda Ammidon
Betty Bronson
Janet Ammidon
George Fawcett
Barzil Dunsack
Raymond Hatton
Edward Dunsack
Helen Lindroth
Kate Vollar
Frances Hatton
Nurse
Audrey Berry
Sidsall Ammidon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Only stills and lobby cards survive — the last known print reportedly burned in the 1965 MGM vault fire.
Based on a popular 1919 novel; the 'yellow peril' romance genre was peak 1920s escapism for anxious Americans.
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