The Toll of the Sea (1922)

Director: Chester M Franklin
Starring: Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley

Synopsis:
A Chinese woman finds an American washed ashore, falls in love and is ultimately forsaken by him.

Impressions:
As a matter of cinema history, this is the first film to successfully use the two-strip Technicolor and it comes off rather well. Perhaps it's due to the extra effort given to the restoration of the print, but the colors come off as more vibrant than other two-color films I've seen. If you like romantic tragedy, you should be able to appreciate this movie. The overly PC will likely bristle at the stereotypically broken English of Lotus Flower and the other Chinese characters, but, hey, at least there's no one in yellowface. As a piece of history or in its own right, it's certainly worth watching.

Rating:
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