A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923)

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writer:

Charles Chaplin (written by)

Release Date:

25 February 1924 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean when he fails to meet her at the railway station...

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Railroad Station | Death Of Boyfriend | Broken Home | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Edna Purviance	...	Marie St. Clair
Clarence Geldart	...	Marie's Step-Father (as Clarence Geldert)
Carl Miller	...	Jean Millet
Lydia Knott	...	Jean's Mother
Charles K. French	...	Jean's Father (as Charles French)
Adolphe Menjou	...	Pierre Revel
Betty Morrissey	...	Fifi
Malvina Polo	...	Paulette

Runtime:

USA:78 min (1976 release)

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (1978 re-release) | Silent

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Spain:T | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

Chaplin Studios - 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Trivia:

On New Year's Day 1924, Edna Purviance was at a party with oil tycoon Courtland Dines and Mabel Normand when Normand's chauffeur, "defending Mabel Normand's honor" shot Dines with a gun owned by Mabel Normand. Dines refused to testify at the trial where the chauffeur (Horrace Greer, who was an escapee from a chain gang living under an assumed name) was found not guilty. As a result of Purviance's arms-length relationship to this scandal, this film was banned in several US cities.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Chaplin Today: Modern Times (2003) (TV)

Interesting Change of Pace From Chaplin

If nothing else, you have to give Charlie Chaplin a lot of credit for taking a shot at something so different from his usual fare. (Though he himself only appears on-screen for a few seconds this time, he did almost everything else in the production.) And while "A Woman of Paris" is certainly a cut below his comedy features, it's a pretty good melodrama, and you'd have to think that with experience Chaplin could have gone on to become almost as effective with straight melodrama as he was with his sentimental comedies. It's not really surprising that after this he returned to comedy for good, but that was just to keep audiences happy, not because he couldn't do drama, since this is a decent effort.

Chaplin's own frequent lady Edna Purviance is convincing as the young woman whose tangled love affairs pull her away from her true love and into a set of tangled relationships in the empty, decadent world of the Parisian idle classes. Except for being rather contrived - there are far too many coincidences and pat developments in the plot, and they do not work as well in serious drama as they would in a comedy - the story is interesting and fairly creative. It does get a bit heavy at times, since there is very little comic relief, but Adolphe Menjou helps keep it from getting unbearably serious with a good performance as the carefree, irresponsible Pierre. He shows that even without dialogue he can make this kind of character lively and memorable.

Since it doesn't quite measure up to the standard of either the best Chaplin features or the best silent melodramas, "A Woman of Paris" may not have a niche of its own, except for its historical interest. But it's quite an interesting change of pace from Chaplin, and an above average movie that's worth seeing.