''A Woman of the Sea'', also known by its working title ''Sea Gulls'', is an unreleased

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

produced in 1926 by the Chaplin Film Company. It is one of only two lost Charlie Chaplin films (the other being '' Her Friend the Bandit''), having been destroyed by Chaplin himself as a tax writeoff. The now

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

starred

Edna Purviance Olga Edna Purviance (; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with hi ...

Raymond Bloomer Raymond Bloomer (December 9, 1886 – November 1, 1948), was an American actor. He appeared in 22 films between 1913 and 1927. Filmography External links * * * American male film actors American male silent film actors Male actor ...

Eve Southern Eve Southern (born Elva L. McDowell; August 23, 1900 – November 29, 1972) was an American film actress. She appeared in 38 films from 1916 to 1936. In 1930 she was selected by portrait artist Rolf Armstrong as one of the film industry's ...

and Charles French, and was directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Plot

Joan ( Purviance) and Magdalen (

Sothern Sothern is a surname, and may refer to: * Alan Sothern (born 28 July 1987), Irish field hockey player * Ann Sothern (1909–2001), American film and television actress * Denny Sothern (1904–1977), major league baseball player * E. H. Soth ...

) are the daughters of a fisherman in Monterey. Magdalen is engaged to Peter ( Bloomer), a lowly fisher, until a writer ( Whitman) comes to town. Both Joan and Magdalen fancy the writer, but Magdalen wins him over in the end and he takes her back to the big city. Joan and Peter then marry and stay in Monterey. Many years later, Magdalen returns and attempts to break up her sister's marriage, only to fail.

Cast and crew

Cast

as Joan * Eve Sothern as Magdalen *

as Peter * Gayne Whitman as the Writer * Charles French as the FatherDavid Robinson, ''Chaplin: His Life & Art'' (Toronto, ON: William Collins Sons and Co. Ltd., 1985), 743. The

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

was also credited by Josef von Sternberg since it was so heavily featured in the film.

Crew

*Director: Josef von Sternberg *Producer: Charlie Chaplin *Directors of Photography:

Paul Ivano Paul Ivano, ASC (May 13, 1900 – April 9, 1984), was a Serbian– French– American cinematographer whose career stretched from 1920 into the late 1960s. Born Paul Ivano Ivanichevitch, to Serbian parents in Nice, France, he served for two year ...

and Eddie Gheller *Camera Operator: Mark Marlatt *Set Decoration: Charles D. "Danny" Hall Assistant Directors: Charles Hammond, George Sims (Peter Ruric) and Riza Royce

Production details

The film was in production for about six months, mainly in the Los Angeles area, including indoor scenes at Chaplin's studio. During a twelve-day period, outdoor scenes were filmed on location in the

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...

and Carmel coastal area in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Principal photography began in January and concluded on June 2, 1926.David Robinson, ''Chaplin: His Life & Art'' (Toronto, ON: William Collins Sons and Co. Ltd., 1985), 384. Post-production lasted for three weeks, with the final film being seven reels long with 160 intertitles. The entire production cost $90,000 to make. Chaplin produced the film as a starring vehicle for his former leading lady Purviance, and to help establish Von Sternberg, whose 1924 experimental film ''

The Salvation Hunters ''The Salvation Hunters'' is a 1925 American silent drama film which marked the directorial debut of the 30-year old Josef von Sternberg. The feature stars Georgia Hale and George K. Arthur, and would bring Sternberg, "a new talent", to the at ...

''had greatly impressed Chaplin. This was the only time Chaplin produced a film in which he neither starred nor directed. His involvement in the production was minimal, as he was concurrently working on his problem-plagued film '' The Circus'' (released 1928). This was Purviance's final American film, followed by a French feature film, ''

Education of a Prince ''Éducation de Prince'' (English: ''Education of a Prince'') was a silent French film released in 1927. The French title has been spelled slightly differently over the years. It was adapted by the director Henri Diamant-Berger from the play b ...

'' (1927), after which she retired from movies. Von Sternberg held a preview in Beverly Hills in early July 1926 against Chaplin's wishes.John Baxter, ''Von Sternberg'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010), 56-60. The general impression from the few that saw it was that it was a beautiful film, but with little substance. John Grierson called the film "extraordinarily beautiful- but empty." Von Sternberg's secret screening, the lack of a plot and Purviance's poor performance caused Chaplin to decline to release it. It went untouched until the U.S. Internal Revenue Service took an interest in Chaplin's finances. The negatives were burned on June 21, 1933 in front of five witnesses as a total loss for tax purposes. Some evidence suggests that a copy of the film survived at the Chaplin studio until at least late 1946, but no copy exists in the current Chaplin film archives."A Woman of the Sea,” Charlie Chaplin Archive, accessed August 25, 2016, http://www.charliechaplinarchive.org/ricerca. In 2005, over 50 previously unknown production stills were discovered in the private collection of Purviance's relatives. Except for a few images in print and a few words in books over the years, nearly nothing has been known about the film. The working title for ''A Woman of the Sea'' was ''Sea Gulls'', as written in the shooting schedule that still survives. The original title list also has survived from the film. The information from the shooting schedule and title list has been combined with the production stills, and was published in 2008.

References in other media

The film, and Chaplin himself, figure prominently in

Tim Powers Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels '' Last Call'' and ''Declare''. His 1987 novel ''On Stranger Tide ...

' fantasy novel ''

Three Days to Never ''Three Days to Never'' is a 2006 fantasy novel by Tim Powers. As with most of Powers' novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes and prominent historical figures have been involved in supernatural or occul ...

'' (Morrow, 2006). Though rooted in established facts, the fictionalized Chaplin is attributed motives—and the film attributed traits—that are largely invented by Powers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woman of the Sea, A 1926 comedy films 1926 films American black-and-white films American silent feature films Films directed by Josef von Sternberg Lost American films Silent American comedy films Unreleased American films 1920s American films