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14: A Woman of Paris
HILE we were shooting Bella Donna, I began to hear rumors that Charlie Chaplin was going to make a picture in which he would not appear— a serious picture. At first nobody believed the rumors, but finally there was a definite announcement that the picture would be called Public Opinion and that it was to be a starring vehicle for Edna Purviance, who had been Charlie's leading woman in many of his comedies. Later the title was changed to A Woman of Paris, but in France it retained the title L'Opinion Publique.
When Chaplin decided to make A Woman of Paris, he was thirty-four years old and at the height of his career. For four years he had made one picture a year, each the product of months of mental travail in creating the story and planning the gags and more strenuous months of actual shooting. There had been The Kid, in which he had made Jackie Coogan a star, The Idle Class, Pay Day, and The Pilgrim. Then came the surprise announcement that he was going to make a serious picture in which he would not appear.
There are several explanations as to why he decided on this sudden shift to a field in which he might have suffered an expensive failure. Of those who were close to him at the time, some say that he wanted to prove that he could evoke tears as well as laughter. Others have said that he had promised Edna Purviance that he would make her a star and that that was the chief reason why A Woman of Paris was produced.
But whatever his reason for making it, this movie was a milestone in my career. And although I didn't know it at the time, I
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