We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
cc
170
her in sympathetic roles. Her worldly new role of a demimondaine confused many people. So good was her portrayal that she managed to arouse considerable sympathy in spite of a role in which she brought tragedy to others. Nevertheless Adolphe Menjou "stole" the picture from her. In France, later, Miss Purviance made "The Education of a Prince," directed by Henry Diamant-Berger, which was not released in this country. And in 1926 Chaplin, seeking to bring her out of retirement, put Josef von Sternberg under contract to direct her in a film, variously entitled "The Sea Gull" and "The Woman of the Sea." It did not turn out well although Chaplin, in an effort to salvage it, himself directed some additional scenes. After one preview he decided not to release it. The reason gossip gives for its withdrawal is that Eve Southern, in the second lead, again stole the film from Edna who, by the standards of that period, had become too "mature."
For directorial and script assistants on "A Woman of Paris" Chaplin had the ambitious Eddie Sutherland and the clever Monta Bell. To be assured of authentic French atmosphere he hired Jean de Limur and Harry d' Abbadie d'Arrast. All four later became directors on their own. Production began in December 1922, in a by now completely enclosed studio equipped with the best lighting and production installations. In some nine months of shooting, Chaplin used nearly half a million feet of film and spent $800,000.
"A Woman of Paris" opened at the Lyric Theatre, New York, on October 1, 1923. Presented twice a day at advanced prices, it was Chaplin's first United Artists picture. Chaplin himself was not billed, but he appeared in it briefly, and almost unrecognizably, as a porter.
Although a great critical success, the fact that both Chaplin and his type of comedy were lacking, went against it and the "big audience" was lukewarm to it. It