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smashing. Pierre merely suggests that perhaps the gentleman in the next room might like some chocolates. At a later meeting of the two rivals Pierre's suavity is highlighted by his offering and lighting a cigarette for the other man.
In possibly the outstanding sequence in the picture, a succession of images and movements take the place of dialogue. As Marie bemoans her lot Pierre points out the window to a mother trying distractedly to manage a brood of dirty, quarreling, bawling children. When he fingers her diamond necklace significantly she rips it off and tosses it angrily out the window. But when a tramp picks it up Marie darts down after him while Pierre blandly plays his saxophone.
Another interesting sequence of shots irised in and out contrasts the activities of the principal characters at a certain hour of the night.
Tragic though it is "A Woman of Paris" is not without Chaplinesque humor, satire, and irony. The obsequious head-waiter is played by Henry Bergman in customary Chaplin comedy style. The comedian himself contributes a comic bit when, as a porter, he nonchalantly drops a heavy trunk to the floor. While a boisterous girl is pawing him, Pierre telephones to Marie that he is having "just a quiet little party with friends." When Marie first visits Jean's studio, the embarrassment of his poverty is heightened when a napkin, unfolded, reveals holes.
Possibly the most humorous sequence is the massage episode. While Marie is being massaged (below camera range), a stony-faced masseuse mechanically goes about her work, clearly revealing which part of the body she is at, and pretends to be paying no attention to Marie's gossiping girl friends, yet absorbing every remark. The pantomime of this scene could have found a place in any of Chaplin's comedies.
"A Woman of Paris" introduced the comedy of man