The Toll of the Sea
About The Toll of the Sea
In 1919 Lotus Flower pulls the American Allen Carver from the surf in China, and they marry in Chinese fashion. His friends talk him into sailing home without her. She names their son Allen. When Carver returns with his American wife, Elsie, Lotus Flower pretends the boy belongs to neighbors, asks Elsie to take him to the United States, tells the child Elsie is his real mother, and walks into the sea.
Cast & crew
More about The Toll of the Sea
Frances Marion wrote it and Chester M. Franklin directed, with Herbert Kalmus producing for the Technicolor company and Metro Pictures releasing it. Anna May Wong's first leading role is Lotus Flower. Kenneth Harlan plays Carver.
Themes
Making
The two-color camera split the lens image and ran at twice the usual frame rate, so the company needed much more light. Every scene, including the one interior, was shot outdoors. The interior was made in sunlight under a muslin sheet.
Reviews
Variety called Wong "extraordinarily fine" and "an exquisite crier without glycerin." The New York Times said she "should be seen again and again on the screen."
Technique
It is the second Technicolor feature, after The Gulf Between (1917), and the first color feature that did not need a special projector.
Preservation
Treated as lost until the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored it in 1985 from the 35mm nitrate camera negative, under Robert Gitt and Peter Comandini. The last two reels were missing. They filmed a California beach sunset with an original two-color Technicolor camera for the close.
Notes
- It opened at the Rialto Theatre in New York on November 26, 1922, and went into general release on January 22, 1923.
- The plot moves the Madama Butterfly story from Japan to China.
- Beatrice Bentley plays Elsie. Priscilla Moran, billed as Baby Moran, is the son.
- Hal C. Kern edited.
- The restored version is in the DVD set Treasures from American Film Archives.
Scenes
- Lotus Flower puts on her bridal gown to greet Carver and finds Elsie with him.
- She tells the boy that Elsie is his real mother.
- The sun goes down on the water after she speaks to the sea.
Influenced by
- Madama Butterfly, reset in China
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheTollOfTheSeanovember261922)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Toll of the Sea (1922).webm)
- Treasures from American Film Archives (DVD)
Quotes
Oh, Sea, now that life has been emptied I come to pay my great debt to you.
