The movie that brought Charlie Chaplin's career full-circle
Charlie Chaplin had a transformative impact on cinema, with one movie bringing one of Hollywood's most important careers full-circle.
(Credit: Doctor Macro)
Film » Cutting Room Floor
Sat 18 January 2025 4:30, UK
In addition to creating one of cinema’s most indelible characters, Charlie Chaplin had a transformative impact on cinema that extended far beyond the corners of the screen.
At his peak he was one of the most famous people on the planet regardless of their profession, and had audiences falling over themselves to catch a glimpse of his latest work. Chaplin also had an incredibly keen mind for the business when he wasn’t a superstar, though, and used it to change the industry forever.
In 1919, he co-founded United Artists, which gave him complete creative control and autonomy over his projects. Based on the returns, it was a risky investment well worth making by his partners, who allowed Chaplin to stretch his wings, diversify the number of roles he played onscreen and off, and set the stage for actors and filmmakers to begin wrestling their destinies away from the studio system in favour of carving their own path.
The first feature to emerge from Chaplin under United Artists was 1921’s The Kid, but it was the release of A Woman of Paris two years later that brought him full circle. Of course, he would have had no idea at the time, but half a century after the silent romantic drama was rolled out to cinemas, it doubled as the final flourish of his filmography.
At first glance, there’s nothing overly remarkable about the film. Edna Purviance’s Marie St Clair stars as a young woman abandoned by her fiance at a railway station, breaking her heart and ruining her dreams of a new life in the French capital. Instead of heading off alone, she meets Adolphe Menjou’s wealthy Pierre Revel before becoming embroiled in a love triangle when her former flame shows up a year later.
It may not have broken any moulds, but it was huge for Chaplin. At 82 minutes, it was his first feature-length undertaking, and he didn’t want to stretch himself too thin as either a writer, director, producer, or uncredited editing assistant. To that end, he removed himself from the cast almost entirely, playing a brief cameo as a hotel porter.
Not only was A Woman of Paris the actor and filmmaker’s first independent feature and first feature in general, but it was also the only movie Chaplin made where he didn’t play a significant part onscreen. It was influential in its own right for its use of complex characterisations, particularly for central female characters, and it would provide a fitting footnote to the legendary performer’s career 50 years on.
A year before his death in 1977, Chaplin dived back into A Woman of Paris, significantly re-editing the film and composing a brand new musical score to replace Louis F Gottschalk’s original compositions. If he felt compelled to get rid of the soundtrack in favour of his own work, then it must have bugged him for a long time that the soundscape never matched his vision.
Following its reissue five decades later, the fresh score for A Woman of Paris was Chaplin’s final creative contribution to cinema before his passing. It was a full-circle moment, if ever there was one, considering how it had helped usher in a new era of independent filmmaking in the 1920s.
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