![Broken Blossoms [DVD] [1919] - Front_Standard](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/1062/10622784_sa.jpg;maxHeight=93;maxWidth=93)
Special Features
- Filmed introduction by Lillian Gish including excerpts from Gish's film Romola (1925 MGM)
- The complete text of Thomas Burke's original story
- A recording of the 1919 song "Broken Blossoms"
- D.W. Griffith on leading ladies
- About the score
Synopsis
Broken Blossoms
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, Rovi
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, Rovi
Cast & Crew
Lillian Gish - Lucy Burrows
Richard Barthelmess - Cheng Haun, the Yellow Man
Donald Crisp - Battling Burrows
Edward Peil Sr. - Evil Eye- Arthur Howard - Burrow's Manager
