BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: D.W. Griffith
Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp
Probably one of the saddest movies ever made, a romantic tragedy starring Lillian Gish as a 15-year-old waif who escapes from her abusive father in London's squalid Limehouse District and finds temporary comfort and safety in the care of a Chinese shopkeeper who adores her. Donald Crisp as the girl's father is way over the top, but Gish and Richard Barthelmess, as the sympathetic "Yellow Man", play their roles with heartbreaking restraint. This is the film that established Gish's reputation as the silent era's finest actress, and her hunched body language speaks volumes, suggesting a cowering creature who's been beaten all her life and knows that, sooner rather than later, she's going to be beaten again. Two famous scenes stand out. In one, the girl's father orders her to smile, and she responds by using two fingers to push up the corners of her mouth. In the other, she hides in a closet, waiting for the old man, armed with a hatchet, to break the door down, a portrayal of emotional disintegration that prefigures "The Wind".
