Line #13 Film/TheTollOfTheSea


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8	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toll_of_the_sea_1.jpg]]
9	[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} "1922 Silent Classic in Perfect Natural Color"]]]]
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14	''The Toll of the Sea'' is a 1922 silent drama film loosely based on ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' (it however isn't the first film adaptation of the opera, as Creator/MaryPickford starred in a truer incarnation six years earlier). It was Creator/AnnaMayWong's first leading role. The film is especially notable for being the second technicolor feature film. The first one was the [[MissingEpisode lost]] film ''The Gulf Between'' from 1917.
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16	The film centers around a young woman known as "Lotus Flower" who lives in China in the late 1910s and early 1920s. She saves an American soldier from a shipwreck and marries him soon afterwards, despite the disapproval of her peers. Her husband Allen Carver leaves for sea and doesn't come back. Three years later, Lotus Flower is raising a toddler-aged son alone while she waits for her husband to come back and take them to America. One day though, a letter arrives from Allen saying that he's coming back to China. Lotus Flower and her son wait patiently, oblivious to the fact all is not right.
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18	''The Toll of the Sea'' was considered to have been lost in the 1967 MGM Vault fire incident, however a copy was rediscovered in 1985. That copy was missing the final two rolls, but thankfully it was just a sunset scene so a similar scene was filmed to emulate the lost one.
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21	!!Provides examples of:
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23	* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: This movie takes place in China between the years 1919 and 1922.
24	* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Carver, who is basically a terrible person, forgets about Lotus Flower after going home, getting together with his childhood sweetheart.
25	* AdaptationNameChange: Cio-Cio-san, a.k.a. "(Madame) Butterfly", becomes "Lotus Flower" and B.F. Pinkerton becomes "Allen Carver". Pinkerton and Cio-Cio's son Dolore becomes "Little Allen". Kate Pinkerton becomes Barbara "Elsie" Carver.
26	* AdaptedOut: Cio-Cio-san's maid Suzuki, all her relatives (Lotus Flower is apparently an orphan), her suitor Yamadori, the American consul Sharpless, and the slimy marriage-broker Goro (his JerkassHasAPoint role is taken over by two catty female neighbors). The plot is stripped down to its bare essentials, with all the non-central characters left out.
27	* AgeLift: Her age is never mentioned but Lotus Flower seems slightly older than the initially fifteen year old Cio-Cio-san. Anna was seventeen when she did the film, subverting DawsonCasting.
28	* AsianBabymama: Allen ran off for about three years after getting his wife pregnant, while Lotus was left to raise their kid alone until he returned with a new wife.
29	* CassandraTruth: Lotus Flower's bitchy "friends" tell her that Carver will leave her behind in China and forget about her. They're right.
30	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Allen chooses his American childhood sweetheart Elsie over his Chinese wife.
31	* GiveHimANormalLife: Lotus gives away her son to Allen and his new wife so that he can have a happier life with his father in America.
32	* HappilyAdopted: Invoked. Lotus tells her son that she was simply taking care of him until his real mother came along. [[spoiler:She then gives him to Allen and his new wife]].
33	* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: ''Madame Butterfly'' is considered the TropeCodifier after all.
34	* RescueRomance: Lotus Flower finds Allen unconscious in the sea after a shipwreck and takes him to safety.
35	* {{Retraux}}: The restored version begins with credits for the 1985 restoration and notes on the restoration. This sequence was given scratches and flickering to make it look like the rest of the film.
36	* SoundtrackDissonance: The restoration makes some odd musical choices, like using whimsical melody "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_the_Hours Dance of the Hours]]" (the tune from "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah", if that's familiar) for the heartbreaking scene where Allen tells Lotus Flower that he will not be taking her to America.
37	* SuicideBySea: [[spoiler:Lotus Flower]] throws herself into the ocean after [[spoiler:giving her son to Allen and Elsie]]. This isn't shown onscreen, but the final intertitle, interspersed between shots of the sea, makes the implication clear.

Context Film / TheTollOfTheSea