The Cheat 1931

The Cheat

1931 · United States · Directed by George Abbott · 74 min

TenseBleak Best saved for later · For patient viewers Drama

Debt, secrecy, and coercion tighten around a married woman after private risk-taking gives a predatory man power over her.

What to expect

George Abbott’s remake of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 film transfers a famous silent melodrama into pre-Code speech and Tallulah Bankhead’s forceful screen presence.

How to ease in

Watch who controls information in each scene. The drama is less about a single bad decision than about how money and social judgement make disclosure dangerous.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes sexual coercion, assault, branding violence, racialised exoticism, marital deception, and victim blaming.
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Debt, secrecy, and coercion tighten around a married woman after private risk-taking gives a predatory man power over her.

A secret changes weight depending on who is allowed to name it. I watch the heroine fight not only a man, but the story society is ready to tell about her.

Open the note ↓

A secret changes weight depending on who is allowed to name it. I watch the heroine fight not only a man, but the story society is ready to tell about her.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

Wikidata 74-minute listing74 min74 minutes reproduces the single duration stated by the source. The listing does not identify a cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration.Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-22

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