Did You Know?
Norma Shearer has a bit part in one scene. Shearer's mother and sister are extras as well, as is another future luminary of the talkies, Una Merkel.
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The waterfall seen in long shot at the climax is Niagara Falls, a site unrelated to, and far from, where the ice floe rescue scenes were shot.
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The ice floes seen at the climax drifting above and going over the waterfall were actually wood constructions, as the scene was shot out of season. The waterfall itself was only a few feet high, going no further down than what is seen at the bottom of the film frame.
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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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While there is a lot of inter-cutting in the editing, the basic ice floe scenes were filmed in White River Junction (Hartford Village), Vermont during the late winter.
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During the filming of the ice floe scenes, a fire had to be built underneath G.W. Bitzer's camera in order to keep it warm enough to run.
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The scene with Anna lying unconscious on the ice floe, floating toward the waterfall, was developed solely for the film version of "Way Down East". The scene appears in neither the venerable stage play version credited to Lottie Blair Parker, nor the novel "elaboration" by Joseph R. Grismer, published in 1900. The scene in the film was apparently inspired by the success of the "Perils of Pauline" series of "cliffhanger" film shorts starring Pearl White, and was written and filmed to augment the film's box-office appeal.
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Clarine Seymour, a regular player in D.W. Griffith's films at that time, was originally cast in the role of Kate, Squire Bartlett's niece and David Bartlett's fiancée. Seymour had actually completed most of her scenes when she fell ill from a strangulated intestine. She died on April 25, 1920, following emergency surgery. Griffith replaced Seymour in the role with dancer Mary Hay, who resembled Seymour in long shots. Although David Bartlett does not marry Kate in "Way Down East", Richard Barthelmess, who played David, later married Mary Hay.
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Robert Harron, a D.W. Griffith regular, shot himself under mysterious circumstances after the world premiere of this film in New York City. Harron, whom Griffith was grooming as a film director, was reportedly despondent over losing the leading man roles in both this film and Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl to Richard Barthelmess, formerly an juvenile lead in Dorothy Gish comedies. Although according to Lillian Gish, Harron on his deathbed denied that he had attempted suicide, it is still unclear whether the shooting was a deliberate suicide attempt or accidental.
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Including among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
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No cast credits are on the print. However, since some cast members are more important than others, any who is identified only by a character name in the inter-titles is considered credited, and they are listed in the order they are found.
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