162
Broken
Blossoms
Release date 13th May 1919
Country : USA
Running time : 90 mins
Genre : Romance
Starring Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp
Screenplay based on Thomas Burke's Limehouse Nights
Directed by D.W.Griffith
Release date 13th May 1919
Country : USA
Running time : 90 mins
Genre : Romance
Starring Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp
Screenplay based on Thomas Burke's Limehouse Nights
Directed by D.W.Griffith
A Chinese missionary, Cheng Huan becomes the store-keeper of a small shop. Nearby lives Lucy Burrows who is regularly beaten by her prizefighter father. Cheng Huan falls in love with her from afar. One day Lucy passes out in front of his store, Cheng takes her in and cares for her but her prizefighter father finds out with tragic consequences for everyone.
A bit dated in subject matter but still powerful and moving tragic inter-racial romance, it was quite daring for the time to show a sympathetic oriental though Griffith doesn't quite escape charges of racism in the tone of the film and the fact he didn't use a Chinese actor. Having said that it is hard to think of anyone better in the male lead than Barthelmess but this is Gish's film, it is her greatest performance.
The sequence where Gish is trapped in a tiny room spinning round as Donald Crisp hammered on the door was so intensely acted that it made a Times magazine journalist nauseous. When Griffith felt compelled to increase the realism by taunting Gish, a passerby had to be restrained from intervening.
Adolph Zukor who was originally going to release the film through Paramount told Griffith it wasn't commercial because "everybody dies", United Artists took over the distribution and it was a box office hit.
DVD
available from Kino Video (also Image Entertainment edition see reviews
below) :
http://www.amazon.com/
Silent Era
DVD Authority
Digitally Obsessed
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Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
Broken Blossoms image from
http://www.silentera.com/
