Main Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp, Edward Peil Sr., Arthur Howard
Release Year: 1919
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
Plot
Based on "The Chink and the Child", a story by Thomas Burke, Broken Blossoms is one of D.W. Griffith's most poetic films. Richard Barthelmess plays a young Chinese aristocrat who hopes to spread the gospel of his Eastern religion to the grimy corners of London's Limehouse district. Rapidly disillusioned, Barthelmess opens a curio shop and takes to smoking opium. One evening, Lillian Gish, the waif-like daughter of drunken prizefighter Donald Crisp, collapses on Barthelmess' doorstep after enduring one more of her father's brutal beatings. Barthelmess shelters the girl, providing her with the love and kindness that she has never known. Crisp, offended that his daughter is living with a "heathen," forces the girl to return home with him. In a terrible drunken rage, Crisp beats Lillian to death. Barthelmess arrives on the scene, kills Crisp, then kneels beside Lillian's body and takes his own life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Despite the great expense taken to recreate its London Limehouse-district setting, Broken Blossoms is one of D.W. Griffith's most intimate films, and some critics consider it his masterpiece. The director used his vast soundstage to tell the story of a young woman (Lillian Gish) whose love for a spiritual Chinese man (Richard Barthelmess) is thwarted by her abusive boxer father (Donald Crisp); the studio deemed the results too grim to be commercial, and Griffith was forced to buy Blossoms back and release it himself. The film is literally darker than anything the director had previously attempted: the controlled, non-location shoot allowed him to be more expressive with low light and shadow. In a pre-screening, the projectionist accidentally left on one of the theater's colored house lights, and Griffith liked the effect so much that he applied colored tints to subsequent prints. Aside from its technical achievements, Blossoms also features some of Gish's most evocative work. The actress' skills of gesture and pantomime are at their height, and her delicate, fragile performance deflects some of the attention away from Griffith's typically charismatic villain. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
D.W. Griffith - Director, James Smith - Editor, D.W. Griffith - Composer (Music Score), Louis F. Gottschalk - Composer (Music Score), Billy Bitzer - Cinematographer, Karl Brown - Cinematographer, Hendrik Sartov - Cinematographer, D.W. Griffith - Producer, Hendrik Sartov - Special Effects, D.W. Griffith - Screenwriter
