Way Down East (1920)

A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

Lottie Blair Parker (from the play by), William A. Brady (play),

Stars:

Lillian Gish, Josephine Bernard, Mrs. Morgan Belmont

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lillian Gish	...	Anna Moore
Josephine Bernard	...	Mrs. Emma Tremont
Mrs. Morgan Belmont	...	Diana Tremont
Lowell Sherman	...	Lennox Sanderson
Burr McIntosh	...	Squire Bartlett
Richard Barthelmess	...	David Bartlett
Kate Bruce	...	Mrs. Bartlett
George Neville	...	Constable Rube Whipple
Porter Strong	...	Seth Holcomb
Vivia Ogden	...	Martha Perkins
Edgar Nelson	...	Hi Holler
Mary Hay	...	Kate Brewster - the Squire's Niece
Creighton Hale	...	Professor Sterling
Emily Fitzroy	...	Maria Poole - Landlady
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louise Lawson II	...	Bit Player

Storyline

The callous rich, portrayed by Lennox, think only of their own pleasure. Anna is but a poor country girl whom Lennox tricks into a fake wedding. She believes that it is true, but secret, while he has his way with her. When she is pregnant, he leaves her and she must have the baby, named Trust Lennox, on her own. When the baby dies she wanders until she gets a job with Squire Bartlett. David falls for her, but she rejects him due to her past and then Lennox shows up lusting for Kate. Seeing Anna, he tries to get her to leave, but she doesn't, and she tells no one about his past. When Squire Bartlett learns of her past from Martha, the town gossip, he tosses Anna out in a snow storm. But before she goes, she fingers the respected Lennox, as the father of her dead baby and the spoiler of herself.

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Plot Keywords:

fake wedding | country girl | dead mother | river rescue | last second rescue | 

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Taglines:

A simple story for plain people.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

3 September 1920 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mädchenlos

Filming Locations:

Farmington, Connecticut, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

D.W. Griffith Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min 107 min (1931 re-release) 126 min (Alpha Video)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scenes on the ice floes were not only very dangerous to film, but for Lillian Gish, they had lasting ill effects. Until the day she died, her right hand was somewhat impaired due to the extended filming where her hand was in the icy water.

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Quotes

Anna Moore: This man, an honored guest at your table, why don't you find out what HIS life has been?

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Connections

Featured in American Masters: Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me (1988)

User Reviews

Gish Suffers Nobly

"Way Down East" will probably be a hard pill for many filmgoers to swallow, as it's a silent and very long, but I would recommend you give it a try, as it's also pretty entertaining.

Lillian Gish gets put through her melodramatic paces by the granddaddy of modern cinema, D.W. Griffith. Griffith was a master at building his movies up to intolerably exciting finales, and this film is no exception. A classic set piece puts Gish trying to escape across a frozen river, jumping from one drifting block of ice to the next. And consider that this was in the day before special effects, and it's even quite possible that Gish did all of the stunts herself.

A slice of early cinema that goes down easily if you give it the chance.

Grade: A-