White Tiger is a 1923 American silent crime film directed by Tod Browning starring Priscilla Dean and featuring Wallace Beery in a supporting role.[1][2][3]
White Tiger | |
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Directed by | Tod Browning |
Written by | Tod Browning Charles Kenyon |
Starring | Priscilla Dean Matt Moore Wallace Beery |
Cinematography | William Fildew |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
In White Tiger, Browning, a former magician, provides an exposé of the “mystifying mechanics” of the famous chess-playing automaton widely exhibited in late 18th and early 19th century Europe and America.[4] The automaton fashioned to represent a Turkish chess master was an often convincing—though entirely fraudulent—representation of artificial intelligence: the device was actually operated by a human chess expert concealed within the cabinet below the chess board.[5] Browning, a great admirer of Edgar Allan Poe, combined Poe’s famous 1836 essay on the hoax with the author’s fascination with tales of mystery and the macabre.[6][7]
The protagonists in White Tiger use the “baffling” device to gain entrance to a wealthy estate and execute a jewel heist.[8] In exposing the fraud, Browning violates a precept of the magician's code of ethics; to never reveal the mechanics of an illusion.[9]