A Woman of Paris (1923)

Director:	Charles Chaplin
Actors:	Carl Miller, Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, Clarence Geldart, Lydia Knott, Charles K. French, Betty Morrissey, Malvina Polo

Charles Chaplin's A Woman of Paris caught everyone off guard. Not only was it the famed comic's first drama, but the art of filmmaking was suddenly enriched because of it. Chaplin brought a new subtlety to the era's often heavy-handed style of drama. "Mr. Chaplin has given other directors a postgraduate course in the use of simplicity for the achievement of effectiveness", the prominent fan magazine Photoplay said.

The story, set in an aristocratic Paris that filmmaker Chaplin skewers with keen-eyed detail, stars Edna Purviance as a femme who abandons her rural fiancé Jean over a misunderstanding, becomes the mistress of a Parisian man-about-town (Adolphe Menjou) and then faces an emotional crossroads when she reencounters Jean. Chaplin himself appears only in a bit role, lugging a trunk through a train depot.