Charles Chaplin's only attempt at serious drama is one of the most important films in the history of cinema; made in 1923, it was completely missing from distribution for over 50 years, the subject of intensive searches by devoted film buffs. In December 1976, when the Museum of Modern Art "premiered" the film--with a new score composed by Chaplin--the response was ecstatic, critic Andrew Sarris calling it "the best film of 1976." Edna Purviance and Adolphe Menjou star in a story of a French country girl who moves to Paris and becomes the mistress of a wealthy playboy. Their affair is treated by Chaplin with a sophistication lost to Hollywood with the advent of the Production Code. New York magazine reported in 1978: "The film should be seen, if only for the performance that defined Adolphe Menjou's style and made him a star.... On Menjou's features and dapper figure the angel and the devil, sweetness and cynicism, play together. The philanderer who has done everything still has the capacity for surprise; but it is matched by an infinite melancholy...."