“CHAPLIN GETS SERIOUS”

By Raymond Benson

When the famous United Artists studio was formed in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin, the organization was intended to showcase works by the four principles as well as other talents in Hollywood at the time. Chaplin then made his first feature film, The Kid, released in 1921. It was a huge success. For his next feature, however, Chaplin made the radical decision to produce and direct a serious drama in which he did not appear.

Because of his clout with the studio and in Hollywood, he was indulged. A Woman of Paris, a silent film released in 1923, was indeed a serious drama about class/societal differences. It starred Edna Purviance, a popular leading lady mostly known for the earlier comedy shorts in which she appeared with Chaplin himself. And, no, Chaplin, the “Little Tramp,” is nowhere to be seen… but wait! Isn’t that Chaplin walking on, almost unrecognizable and uncredited, as a train porter? Yes! But very few people at the time would have realized it.

A Woman of Paris often gets lost in discussions about Chaplin’s features. His comic masterpieces take up all the space. That said, A Woman of Paris should not be discounted. It is indeed a wonderful picture that broke new ground in the way realism was presented in the silent era. Upon its release, the movie garnered excellent reviews from critics, but audiences weren’t interested. If it was supposed to be a Chaplin movie, they wanted to see the Little Tramp and laugh. The film was more or less a failure.

Chaplin re-issued the film late in his life, in 1976, with a brand new orchestral score that he composed himself. He also deleted about eight minutes total from the picture to tighten it up. This re-release was re-evaluated and proclaimed just as much a masterpiece as his more well known comedies.

The story is relatively simple. The era in which it takes place is ambiguous, but it’s most certainly late 1800s or early 1900s in France. Marie St. Clair (Purviance) lives in a small village with her cruel stepfather. She and her lover, an artist named Jean (Carl Miller), plan to run away to the big city of Paris to elope, never to return. Jean’s parents, however, are also not the nicest in the world. Jean’s father wants his son to have nothing to do with Marie, as she is considered to be even of a lower class than his family. While enacting the couple’s plans to flee to Paris, an accident of circumstances prevents Jean from joining Marie at the train station (his father dies suddenly). Marie believes Jean has jilted her and goes on to Paris alone. A year later, Marie is enjoying Paris high society life as a courtesan. She is involved with a very wealthy cad, Pierre (Adolphe Menjou), who has no loyalty to Marie or anyone else. Fate intervenes, though, and Marie runs into Jean, now living alone in Paris as a painter. Their relationship is rekindled, but now, with Pierre in the picture, it’s a triangle of manners, social navigating, and betrayals. Marie finds herself on a path toward tragedy, of course, but the eventual outcome might surprise some.

In its brief 81 minutes, A Woman of Paris is captivating and always interesting for any audience who can meet a silent picture on its own terms. Most dramas of the period were performed in a somewhat exaggerated melodramatic fashion, but here the acting is extremely naturalistic. The characters on the screen behave like real people. This was unusual for 1923. Edna Purviance is fine in the lead role, but it is Adolphe Menjou, as the always-smiling heavy of the piece, who steals the picture. Chaplin’s direction of the proceedings is assured and never sentimental. One would have thought that the master of pathos (in his comedies) might have overlain a serious drama with too much of it. Here, pathos is practically non-existent, and that’s a good thing.

The Criterion Collection’s new Blu-ray release is a 4K digital restoration of the 1976 re-release version, and it looks marvelous. It features Chaplin’s gorgeous score, but there is also the option to play an alternate score, created in 2005, by Timothy Brock.

A new supplement is an insightful video essay by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance. Other supplements are either ported over from the old MK2 DVD (“Chaplin Today: A Woman of Paris” featurette with appearances by Liv Ullmann and Michael Powell; deleted scenes; and archival footage) and other vintage pieces, one in French with English subtitles and an audio interview with cinematographer Roland Totheroh. There are trailers and, in the packaging, an essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson and notes on the Brock score by the composer.

For fans of Charles Chaplin, silent film dramas, and Hollywood history. Recommended.

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