TOLL OF THE SEA

US, 1922, 55 minutes, Colour.
Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan.
Directed by Chester M. Franklin.

Toll of the Sea is a 1922 romantic melodrama. It was the first film to be made with two-colour Technicolor. It was restored during the '80s by the Film Archives at the University of Southern California.

The film was written by Frances Marion (from a play by David Belasco). It is a Chinese variation on the Madame Butterfly story. Anna May Wong is Lotus Flower, a young Chinese who falls in love with an American. She has a child by him. He pledges fidelity, but influenced by Americans in China, he returns to the United States and marries his fiancee. The couple return to China, the wife approaches Lotus Flower and offers to adopt the child. Lotus Flower gives the child to the wife - and then drowns herself. The motif of the sea and its cliffs goes right through the film from the opening with Lotus Flower playing on the cliffs and discovering the almost drowned man to her final succumbing to the sea. The background of a fishing village also highlights the theme of the sea. The film is brief, is made with acting restraint (in comparison with some of the histrionics of silent films). It is romantic - with drawings on the dialogue captions. The film is quite emotional.

Anna May Wong the star moved to a successful Hollywood career from this film. Director is Chester M. Franklin who worked with D. W. Griffith on children's films and continued to make feature films in the silent and sound era.

The film is an interesting example-of colour experimentation and creativity, an example of the romantic film which was to become the staple of Hollywood.