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| Tookey's Review |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1919 |
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| Genre: |
DRAMA
SILENT
IMPORTANT
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
BW |
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| Length: |
105 |
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A Chinese Buddhist (Richard Barthelmess) tries to save an East End girl (Lillian Gish, pictured) from her brutal father (Donald Crisp).
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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| Hilariously dated, but visually stunning and still packing an emotional punch: D.W.Griffith's melodrama about everyday Limehouse folk, starring Lillian Gish at her touching best, Billy Bitzer's magnificent photography, and (on the latest prints) a luscious new Carl Davis score. On reading the script, producer Adolph Zukor told Griffith: "You bring me a picture like this and want money for it? You may as well put your hand in my pocket and steal it. It isn't commercial. Everyone in it dies!" Even so, for an outlay of $88,000, it made a profit of $700,000. Contemporary critics were largely unimpressed; nowadays, it's considered a silent classic. |
| (It was remade, unimpressively, in 1936) |
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, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp