The Toll of the Sea

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The Toll of the Sea

1922

55m

Romance

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89%

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18 Reviews

53%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

An American seaman (Kenneth Harlan) marries a Chinese girl (Anna May Wong), then deserts her.

Kenneth Taylor

Los Angeles Times

Taken all In all, Toll of the Sea is something more than a novelty; it has the usual interest and entertainment values, with just a little more than the usual warmth of the general run of pictures.

Oct 18, 2022

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New York Post Staff

New York Post

It is the first color picture made which has really intensified the third dimension, giving curves to the face and depth to the eye.

Oct 18, 2022

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C.A. Lejeune

Guardian

There are half a dozen scenes at least of which no producer in the world could be proud enough, simply because he would never realize how their beauty brings hope and promise to the drab-weary, disillusioned, frequenter of the screen.

Oct 18, 2022

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George T. Pardy

Exhibitor's Trade Review

It is a real achievement in the cinema art and a picture that will be long remembered and talked of.

Nov 10, 2023

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Harriette Underhill

New York Tribune

In color and in production it is one of the loveliest, daintiest pieces of art work that you could find.

Oct 21, 2022

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Robert E. Sherwood

LIFE

Miss Wong, I may say, is a remarkable pantomimist... with a quality of quiet sadness which is reminiscent of Lillian Gish.

Oct 18, 2022

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Audience Member

The best movie character ever portrayed: Anna May Wong as Lotus Flower!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

If you're familiar with the Madame Butterfly story the film holds nothing new storywise but this is a fascinating document being one of the earliest films shot in the two strip color process.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Audience Member

based on 'madame butterfly' also one of the first films lensed in technicolor

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

A beautiful & soulful tragedy about a beautiful Asain woman (Lotus Flower) who finds an American man who mysteriously has washed up at sea. Naturally she falls in love with him but sadly he must leave & in time forgets her, her story of loss is so touching & you really feel for her. This is actually a whole film in color which is an amazing achievement for 1922. This is a masterful that was only rediscovered in the mid 1980's. It's a must see silent that is much more than a common Melodrama.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

A film that should be seen by silent cinematic enthusiastic people. Its a simple story of love but one could say it shows the 'American dream' seeps into a Chinese girl and she marries an American only for him to go back to America and marry an American girl she's left literarily holding the baby. A film about diverse cultures? Men only wanting one thing to get it you get married? Its a sad story a shame the ending was loss.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

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Audience Member

The film is a loose adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly replacing 19th century Meiji era Japan with China. The film is well noted as being one of the earliest films to use the Technicolor film color film process. Toll of the Sea is certainly a must watch for any fan of the silent film era.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

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Chester M. Franklin

Director

Anna May Wong

Lotus Flower

Kenneth Harlan

Allen Carver

Beatrice Bentley

Barbara Carver

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Synopsis

An American seaman (Kenneth Harlan) marries a Chinese girl (Anna May Wong), then deserts her.

Director: Chester M. Franklin
Genre: Romance
Runtime: 55m