• Madame Butterfly (1915 silent film)

2/1/22 (Tues)

I realized after writing about the Fritz Lang Butterfly that I never posted this review of the older silent version of the opera. I found this film by chance online when doing research for my Kabuki version of Butterfly [which finally debuted in Dec 2024]. The only names I recognized were Mary Pickford in the title role and David Burton as a Japanese prince who wants to marry her – casting that wouldn’t go over well today.

The story is taken broadly from the opera but changed in significant ways. The biggest difference is that Butterfly is not a geisha for hire but the daughter of a well-to-do family, which changes the dynamics considerably. She is first shown with Suzuki at a creepy fortune teller, who warns her ominously against marriage with anyone from afar. (The marriage broker comes up to him afterwards and tells him to stop scaring away potential customers since foreigners pay more.) On the way back, she literally runs into Pinkerton when their carriages clash. He then spots her at a Kabuki performance, and events develop from there despite opposition from the wary Suzuki (an amusing Olive West). He is encouraged to marry her by a fellow officer, who says he can just dump her whenever he leaves Japan. Pinkerton carries through with the ceremony, but immediately raises the family’s ire when he dismisses them from the celebratory dinner so as to spend time with Butterfly. Incensed, they disown here for marrying this barbarian.

As the days pass, Pinkerton seems to tire of her quickly, and when an order comes in notifying him to leave for the US on the next ship, he hardly gives his wife a thought. He passes money to Suzuki for their living expenses and, as in the opera, says offhandedly that he’ll be back when the robins nest. He then leaves unceremoniously. Butterfly is courted thereafter by a wealthy prince but, loyal to her absent husband, puts off the suitor by spiking his drink, prompting him to leave furiously.

We move forward 2-3 years. Playing with her half-American child, she is jubilant to hear that Pinkerton’s ship has finally returned. But her joy is short-lived when, visiting the consulate, she discovers that he has come back with an American wife. She becomes even more despondent when the wife asks for the baby, saying that he’ll have a better life abroad. Butterfly, in a state of shock, dutifully hands over the baby. There is a brief scene showing her unsheathing a dagger, suggesting an ending in line with the opera, but in the end she walks slowly and dismally into a pond until she is completely gone in a scene reminiscent of the later Sansho Daiyu. Unlike the opera, Pinkerton does not come looking for her at the end.

The sets are fairly realistic, not as cheesy as I had imagined, and the movements, while hardly perfect, suggest that they at least consulted with someone with a knowledge of Japan (which was just three years into the Taisho Era at the time). The acting was stereotypical, of course, starting with a miscast Pickford. But at least they came up with some fresh variations without sticking too blindly to the opera. As this is a major production just a few years after the opera’s debut, it makes an interesting watch.