A Major Disappointment

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I must admit that only recently I learned that the FIRST two-color Technicolor movie was neither "Doctor X" from 1932, as most people believe, nor Douglas Fairbanks' "Black Pirate" from 1926 - it was a most BEAUTIFUL and moving drama called "Toll of the Sea" from 1922! And it was believed lost for many years, but then restored most carefully by the UCLA - and now it shines in its BRIGHTEST colors again (maybe even brighter than they originally were...)! And that's not the only astonishing thing about this GREAT project (which certainly was a HUGE risk at the time for the producers, because to make a whole Technicolor feature film at the time must have meant VAST expenses, and nobody knew, of course, how the public would react) - maybe even MORE astonishing is the fact that the heroine of this bold venture was an Asian: Anna May Wong, in one of her sweetest and most beautiful appearances! The story is quite sad, about a Chinese girl who falls in love with an American stranded on the rocks close to her house after a shipwreck; he marries her and promises her that he'll take her 'over to those United States', as she believes (although her friends know better: one of them tells her that she's been forsaken by FOUR American husbands already - a little sideswipe at the morals of American sailors...) - and she waits for him with the little son she's given birth to in the meantime to come back and take her; well, he DOES come back, but with another wife...A MOST remarkable movie in SO many aspects - the colors, the Asian background, the (then still taboo) subject of interracial marriage - and yet, it seems to be almost forgotten today. It's HIGH time to find ways to get young people interested in old movies again!!

This rare and delicate silent drama, unseen for over fifty years, was the first film made in two-strip Technicolor. Today it might be considered little more than a museum artifact, but not even the predictably heavy-handed period emoting can hide the charm and simplicity of the story, a bittersweet romance about a young Chinese girl who rescues and falls in love with a shipwrecked American naval officer, only to find herself abandoned soon afterward. The production was financed by the Technicolor Corporation, and many artists (Maxfield Parrish among them) were intrigued by the handsome pastel color schemes, highlighted in the strikingly detailed costume and set designs. The screening I attended (in February 1986, at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California) marked only the fourth exhibition of the reconstructed print.

I just finished watching "The Toll of the Sea" for the first time. What a beautiful and moving film! Anna May Wong was perfect in her "Butterfly "role as Lotus Flower. She was so beautiful and had such wonderful expressiveness in her face, eyes, movements, gestures. It was a performance that mesmerised me, that touched me profoundly. And she was only a teenager when she made that film! In the end, the other characters are really only supporting props for her portrayal of a deeply wounded and utterly sacrificial love for a shallow husband and sweet child. The supporting actors do their jobs effectively but it is Lotus Blossom we care for most. To think that this gem was thought lost! This is the first time I've seen an entire silent film using The two-strip Technicolor technique. I've only seen clips from "The Black Pirate", the sequences in "Ben Hur" and the Exodus episode from "The Ten Commandments". I found its use in "The Toll of the Sea" very effective, particularly in conveying an ambiance of the exotic in the film and adding lustre and richness to the settings. I haven't thought too much about the personal emotional impact it may have on the viewer. When I watch the film again I'll try to analyse this factor.The piano score has a very nice delicacy which underlines the feelings and reactions of the various characters. I thought it quite sensitive and telling.An utterly beautiful film!

This 1922 film is apparently the first feature length film ever made in color, which alone makes it worth watching. It stars the beautiful, incomparable Anna May Wong, who was 17 at the time. She already shows remarkable maturity as an actress. The story unfolds when Lotus Flower discovers a Caucasian man floating in the sea and enlists help to save him. They fall in love and get married. Does the love last? This film is very dramatic, and it lasts under one hour. The story is told simply, with interesting twists in the tale. The film was thought lost for years until it was found, with the ending needing to be re shot. See it for the historical, pioneering aspect of it. But, most important, see it for the great performance of Anna May Wong. This movie cements the brilliant and varied versatility that she had as an actress.