This film is, of course, memorable for its historic place as the first widely released film to be produced in color, albeit using a two-tone process that detected only red and green. It's indeed a visually beautiful film, with costumes and settings deliberately chosen to show off the pleasant colors that the new process could represent. Unfortunately I felt that the film itself just wasn't very good. In fact, it's probably best as a definition of "overwrought." Good melodrama has to keep the audiences illusions about the importance of what is going on intact; "The Toll of the Sea" frequently becomes laughable.
The film is far too preoccupied with its own title cards: they are grandiloquent frequent, and frequently absurd or condescending. What is worse, major plot points, instead of being actually, filmed, are usually transmitted via title card. That's how we're let in on trivial details such as Elsie convincing Allan to say goodbye to Lotus Flower or Lotus Flower's son being born. That leaves the scenes that are actually filmed to consist mainly of characters (usually Lotus Flower) standing and emoting for long periods. I'm sure Anna May Wong is a good actress, but she's not given much of a chance to act here rather than to look sad for long periods. It's not good drama. I'm afraid the only thing to recommend this is, literally, the pretty colors.
The film is far too preoccupied with its own title cards: they are grandiloquent frequent, and frequently absurd or condescending. What is worse, major plot points, instead of being actually, filmed, are usually transmitted via title card. That's how we're let in on trivial details such as Elsie convincing Allan to say goodbye to Lotus Flower or Lotus Flower's son being born. That leaves the scenes that are actually filmed to consist mainly of characters (usually Lotus Flower) standing and emoting for long periods. I'm sure Anna May Wong is a good actress, but she's not given much of a chance to act here rather than to look sad for long periods. It's not good drama. I'm afraid the only thing to recommend this is, literally, the pretty colors.