His Birthright

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = His Birthright | image = His Birthright poster.jpg | alt = | caption = Film poster. | director = William Worthington | writer = | screenplay = | story = Sessue Hayakawa<br />Denison Clift | based_on =  | producer = Sessue Hayakawa | starring = {{Plainlist| *Sessue Hayakawa *Marin Sais *Howard Davies *Mary Anderson *Tsuru Aoki}} | narrator = | cinematography = Robert Newhard | editing = | music = Joseph O'Sullivan "Nipponese" | studio = Haworth Pictures Corporation | distributor = Mutual Film | released = {{Film date|1918|09|08|USA}} | runtime = 50 minutes | country = | language = Silent (English intertitles) | budget = | gross = }} right|thumb|Still of Sessue Hayakawa as Yukio. '''''His Birthright''''' is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by William Worthington for Haworth Pictures Corporation. Sessue Hayakawa produced the film and played the lead role.<ref name="Miyao2007">{{cite book|last=Miyao|first=Daisuke|authorlink=Daisuke Miyao|title=Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ2wHVKG1HcC&pg=PA165|date=28 March 2007|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-3969-4|page=165}}</ref><ref name="Bean2011">{{cite book|last=Bean|first=Jennifer M.|title=Flickers of Desire: Movie Stars of the 1910s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqMCcepZ4MoC&pg=PA112|date=12 July 2011|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-5072-5|page=112}}</ref> The rest of the cast includes Marin Sais, Howard Davies, Mary Anderson, and Hayakawa's wife Tsuru Aoki.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/1960-HIS-BIRTHRIGHT |title=His Birthright |work=afi.com |access-date=March 21, 2024}}</ref>

==Plot== As described in a film magazine,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Reviews: ''His Birthright'' |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=7 |issue=8 |page=26 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=New York City |date=August 24, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald07exhi}}</ref> Yukio is a Japanese-American whose father, a naval officer, failed to return to his mother after the honeymoon. The mother commits harakiri and the son becomes determined to kill his father and goes to America. Influenced by a female German spy, Yukio steals an important document from his father, who is now an admiral. Rebuffed by the woman and ashamed to have sunk to the level of a thief, he then decides to recover the paper. He does so after a desperate battle with the woman's colleagues and returns the document to his father, who descends upon the place with police and captures the spies. Yukio announces that he came to take his father's life, but the admiral tells him that he loved Yukio's mother and did not return to her as he could not find her. Taking his place as the admiral's son, Yukio is now determined to join the U.S. army and fight in World War I, a cause in which Japan and America are united.

==Cast== *Sessue Hayakawa as Yukio *Marin Sais as Edna Kingston *Howard Davies as Adm. John Milton *Mary Anderson as Helen Milton *Tsuru Aoki as Saki San *Sidney De Gray as James Barnes (credited as Sydney De Grey) *Harry von Meter as Adm. von Krug *Mayme Kelso as Mrs. Harland Smith

== Release == Soon after the New Orleans release of ''His Birthright'', the film was seized by Naval Intelligence officers at the Palace on September 18th. A complaint was lodged by friends of Rear Admiral John B. Milton, stationed at New Orleans Navy Yard, who felt that the similar name of Howard Davies' character reflected poorly on the Rear Admiral.<ref>{{Cite book |last= |url=https://archive.org/details/variety52-1918-9/page/n3/mode/2up |title=Variety |date= |work= |publisher=Variety Publishing Co. |others= |location=New York City |publication-date=September 20, 1918 |pages=3 |language=en}}</ref>

== Reception == Variety's review was largely positive, praising the acting and settings, but found the plot element of Admiral John Milton having a love affair with a Japanese woman to be disagreeable. The reviewer said they would have preferred if the man was an ordinary American citizen who had to "bear the disgrace of being confronted with an illegitimate son."<ref>{{Cite book |last= |url=https://archive.org/details/variety52-1918-9/page/n45/mode/2up |title=Variety |date= |publisher=Variety Publishing Co. |others= |location=New York City |publication-date=September 20, 1918 |pages=45 |language=en}}</ref>

==Preservation== Only 3 of the 5 reels of ''His Birthright'' are known to survive and they are held by the EYE Filmmuseum in the Netherlands.<ref>{{cite web|date=|others=|title=The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: His Birthright|url=https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.3018/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240327205454/http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.3018/|archive-date=March 27, 2024|access-date=2025-03-29|website=memory.loc.gov|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="silentera">{{cite web|url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/H/HisBirthright1918.html|title=Progressive Silent Film List: ''His Birthright''|access-date=March 21, 2024|publisher=silentera.com}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == {{commons category|His Birthright}} * {{IMDb title|0184572}}

Category:1918 drama films Category:1918 films Category:American silent drama films Category:American silent feature films Category:Films directed by William Worthington Category:American black-and-white films Category:Haworth Pictures Corporation films Category:Mutual Film films Category:1918 American films Category:1918 English-language films