MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 2,834 this week

Way Down East (1920)

 -  Drama | Romance  -  3 September 1920 (USA)
7.7
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.7/10 from 2,736 users  
Reviews: 42 user | 19 critic

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:

Writers:

(from the play by), (play), 3 more credits »
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2369 titles created 4 months ago
 
a list of 1553 titles created 11 months ago
 
a list of 66 titles created 20 Feb 2011
 
a list of 1006 titles created 7 months ago
 
a list of 1000 titles created 3 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Way Down East (1920)

Way Down East (1920) on IMDb 7.7/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Way Down East.

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

West Point II (1927)
Certificate: Passed Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

Wealthy Brice Wayne enters West Point and, though he does well on the football field, angers fellow cadets with his arrogance. Disciplined by the coach he yells "To hell with the Corps!" ... See full summary »

Director: Edward Sedgwick
Stars: William Haines, Joan Crawford, William Bakewell
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

A prince must woo the now wealthy dancer he once abandoned in order to keep her money in the country in order to keep it from crashing economically.

Director: Erich von Stroheim
Stars: Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Roy D'Arcy
Dodsworth (1936)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

A retired auto manufacturer consents to a European vacation to please his vain wife, who is in denial about her age and uses the trip as a chance to flirt with other men.

Director: William Wyler
Stars: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas
Summertime (1955)
Romance | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

A lonely American woman unexpectedly finds romance in Venice, Italy.

Director: David Lean
Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda
Certificate: Passed Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

Childhood friends are torn apart when one of them marries the woman the other once fiercely loved.

Director: Clarence Brown
Stars: John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter
The Sheik (1921)
Adventure | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

A charming Arabian sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert.

Director: George Melford
Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Ruth Miller
Love Story (1970)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young ... See full summary »

Director: Arthur Hiller
Stars: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, John Marley
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

Plain, repressed spinster falls for a dashing young medical student, but he prefers the wilder life, until it's too late.

Director: Peter Glenville
Stars: Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, Rita Moreno
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

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.

Director: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

Tom Brown shows up at Harvard, confident and a bit arrogant. He becomes a rival of Bob McAndrew, not only in football and rowing crew, but also for the affections of Mary Abbott, a ... See full summary »

Director: Jack Conway
Stars: William Haines, Jack Pickford, Mary Brian
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7/10 X  

Peg and her father live a simple life in an Irish fishing village. One day Sir Gerald arrives at the village to tell Pat that Peg is heir to estate of her grandfather, who hated Pat. The ... See full summary »

Stars: Marion Davies, Onslow Stevens, J. Farrell MacDonald
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
Josephine Bernard ...
Mrs. Emma Tremont
Mrs. Morgan Belmont ...
Diana Tremont
Lowell Sherman ...
Burr McIntosh ...
...
Kate Bruce ...
Mrs. Bartlett
George Neville ...
Constable Rube Whipple
Porter Strong ...
Vivia Ogden ...
Edgar Nelson ...
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
Edit

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. Written by Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

A simple story for plain people.

Genres:

Drama | Romance

Certificate:

Not Rated | See all certifications »
Edit

Details

Country:

Release Date:

3 September 1920 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Mädchenlos  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$700,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (1931 re-release) | (Alpha Video)

Sound Mix:

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See  »
Edit

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. See more »

Quotes

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

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
Gish Suffers Nobly
3 January 2006 | by (United States) – See all my reviews

"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-


12 of 15 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Great movie....BUT ricaniusrhubarb
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - story? naletof
Color ending? virtourist
Image... buffyologist
Downton Abbey reference belaglik
Discuss Way Down East (1920) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?