Broken Blossoms (1919)
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, (more)
- Director(s):
- D.W. Griffith
- Category:
- Romance
Member Rating
My RatingTheatrical Release Information | See Details About All Versions
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
- Theatrical Feature Running Time:
- 90 mins
Complete Cast:
- Lillian Gish - Lucy Burrows
- Donald Crisp - Battling Burrows
- Arthur Howard - Burrow's Manager
- Wilbur Higby - London Policeman
- Karla Schramm
- George Nichols - London Policeman
- Richard Barthelmess - Cheng Haun, the Yellow Man
- Edward Peil Sr. - Evil Eye
- George Andre Beranger - The Spying One
- Kid McCoy - A Prizefighter
- Ernest Butterworth Sr.
- Director(s):
- D.W. Griffith
- Writer(s):
- D.W. Griffith
- Producer(s):
- D.W. Griffith
- Categories:
- Romance
- Closed Captioning:
- Check All Versions
- Subtitles:
- Check All Versions
- 1996 - Library of Congress - U.S. National Film Registry
