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Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
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Overview
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View company contact information for Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl on IMDbPro.Release Date:
1922 (Poland) morePlot:
A frail waif, abused by her brutish boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
1 win moreUser Comments:
Personally the best ever silent movie, completed in 1983 moreUS TV Schedule:
| Mon. July 20 | 12:15 AM | TCM |
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| Lillian Gish | ... | Lucy Burrows (as Miss Lillian Gish) | |
| Richard Barthelmess | ... | Cheng Huan (as Mr. Richard Barthelmess) | |
| Donald Crisp | ... | Battling Burrows | |
| Arthur Howard | ... | Burrows' manager | |
| Edward Peil Sr. | ... | Evil Eye (as Edward Peil) | |
| George Beranger | ... | The Spying One | |
| Norman Selby | ... | A prizefighter |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
90 minCountry:
USAColor:
Black and White (tinted screen)Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 moreSound Mix:
SilentCertification:
Australia:MFilming Locations:
Fine Arts Studios - 4516 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USAFun Stuff
Trivia:
Lillian Gish did not want to make the picture and D.W. Griffith had to work hard to persuade her to do it. She later said she was glad she consented. moreGoofs:
Continuity: During the boxing scene, when the two fighters enter the ring; Battling is wearing his robe in one shot, and in the next shot it is off. moreQuotes:
Scrubwoman: [wearily to Lucy] Whatever you do, dearie, don't get married. moreFAQ
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This has been one of my all-time favourite films since I taped it off UK Channel 4 1st October 1988 on its second showing, one to savour and revel in every few years. There really is no choice: the only version worth seeing is this one, the Brownlow & Gill UK remaster with Louis F. Gottchalk's themes lushly orchestrated by David Cullen and Carl Davis and the Thames Silents Orchestra. From a good silent film Broken Blossoms is beautifully transformed into a work of Art, the merger of the music and Billy Bitzer's visuals can be so striking. And the intelligent tinting was gorgeous too. Over the years I've even played it just for the music sometimes!
The story? Depressed Chinese ex-missionary in London falls under the spell of listless poverty-stricken beautiful white 15 yo daughter of violent boxer. The crafty and base whites think the worst, but we know that the yellow man's love remained pure - even his worst foe says this ... I know that most people today would hoot at the acting abilities displayed: Lillian Gish's pathetic submissiveness, Donald Crisp's over the top savage expressions and Richard Barthelmess's determinedly serious inscrutability, but appreciation of silent melodramas as a genre is really required rather than simply selecting just one film to watch, such as this. And then again some people have to get over a white man playing a Chinese man whilst simultaneously approving of miscegenation in these much more enlightened times! Would these same people be bothered if a Chinese played a white man? Along with Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, this was Griffiths' best work, pinnacles of the cinema.
Utterly spellbinding poetic stuff for the enlightened, dreadful if your favourites are cgi-riddled and no older than 6 months. And don't expect a remotely happy ending! The beauty that all the world missed smote him to the heart (paraphrase).