1922 film by Chester M. Franklin
The Toll of the Sea
is a 1922 American silent
drama film
directed by
Chester M. Franklin
, produced by the
Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation
, released by
Metro Pictures
, and featuring
Anna May Wong
in her first leading role. The film was written by
Frances Marion
and directed by Chester M. Franklin (brother of director
Sidney Franklin
), with the lead roles played by Wong and Kenneth Harlan. The plot was a variation of the
Madama Butterfly
story, set in China instead of Japan.
The film was the second Technicolor feature (after 1917's
The Gulf Between
), and the first Technicolor color feature anywhere that did not require a special projector to be used for screenings.
[1]
The film premiered on November 26, 1922, at the
Rialto Theatre
in New York City, and went into general release on January 22, 1923.
[2]
Plot
[
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]
Anna May Wong on the set of
The Toll of the Sea
In 1919, a young Chinese woman, Lotus Flower, sees an unconscious man floating in the water at the seashore, and quickly gets help for him. The man is Allen Carver, an American. Soon the two have fallen in love, and they get married "
Chinese fashion
". Carver promises to take her with him when he returns home. Chinese Gossips warn her that he will leave without her, and one states she has been forgotten by four American husbands, but Lotus Flower does not believe them. However, Carver's friends discourage him from fulfilling his promise, and he returns to the United States alone.
Lotus Flower gives birth to a son, whom she names Allen after his father. When the older Allen finally returns to China, Lotus Flower is at first overjoyed. She dresses in her elaborate Chinese bridal gown to greet him. However, he is accompanied by his American wife, Elsie. Allen has told Elsie about Lotus Flower, and it is Elsie who persuaded her husband to tell Lotus Flower the real situation. When the boy is brought to see his father, Lotus Flower pretends he is the child of her American neighbors. Later, though, she confides the truth to Elsie and asks her to take the boy to America. She tells the child that Elsie is his real mother. After Elsie takes the boy away with her, Lotus Flower says, "Oh, Sea, now that life has been emptied I come to pay my great debt to you." The sun is then shown setting over the water, and it is implied that Lotus Flower drowns herself.
Cast
[
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]
Production
[
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]
Because the
Technicolor
camera divided the lens image into two beams to expose two film frames simultaneously through color filters, and at twice the normal frames per second, much higher lighting levels were required. All scenes of
The Toll of the Sea
were shot under "natural light" and outdoors, with the one "interior" scene shot in sunlight under a
muslin
sheet.
Reception
[
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]
Variety
described Wong as "extraordinarily fine" and "an exquisite crier without glycerin."
The New York Times
, said that she was "naturally Chinese" and succeeded in a difficult role,
[3]
and that "She should be seen again and again on the screen."
[4]
Photoplay
referred to her "fair skin, soft-golden blond hair and youthful-looking dark brown eyes." In England, critics praised her for "practically carrying the film", and noted that her performance was delivered with "real restraint and subtlety that only a true artiste can attain."
[3]
Preservation status
[
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]
Allen Carver is rescued from the sea
The Toll of the Sea
Once believed to have been
lost
, the film was restored by the
UCLA Film and Television Archive
, under the supervision of Robert Gitt and Peter Comandini, from the
35mm
nitrate film
original camera negative
in 1985.
[5]
As the final two reels were missing, Gitt and Comandini used "an original two-color Technicolor camera" to shoot a sunset on a California beach, "much as the film's original closing must have looked."
[5]
Home media
[
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]
The restored version is available as one of the titles included in the 4-DVD box-set
Treasures from American Film Archives, 50 Preserved Films
.
[6]
Google Doodle
[
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]
On January 22, 2020, a
Google Doodle
celebrated
Anna May Wong
, commemorating the 97th anniversary of the day
The Toll of the Sea
went into general release.
[7]
[8]
See also
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Film Screenings (June 7, 2015)"
.
Museum of Modern Art
. Retrieved
July 6,
2015
.
- ^
"The Toll of the Sea"
. silentera.com.
- ^
a
b
Hodges, Graham Russell Gao
(2004).
Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend
(3rd ed.). Chicago: Chicago Review Press Incorporated. pp. 33?35.
ISBN
978-1-64160-883-1
.
- ^
"THE SCREEN; Up From the Ghetto"
.
The New York Times
. November 27, 1922. p. 18
. Retrieved
June 12,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Slide, Anthony
(January 1, 2000).
Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States
. McFarland. p. 109.
ISBN
9780786408368
. Retrieved
July 8,
2015
.
- ^
"Archived copy"
. Archived from
the original
on September 23, 2006
. Retrieved
August 3,
2006
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
"Celebrating Anna May Wong"
. January 22, 2020
. Retrieved
January 22,
2020
.
- ^
Holcombe, Madeline (January 22, 2020).
"Google Doodle celebrates Anna May Wong nearly 100 years after her first leading role. Here's why she's in focus"
.
CNN
.
External links
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