Broken Blossoms or the Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (original title)Reference View | Change View
- Not Rated
- 1h 30min
- Drama, Romance
- 20 Oct 1919 (USA)
- Movie
A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
Director:
Writers:
Award:
- 1 win.
- See more »
Photos and Videos
Cast verified as complete
| Lillian Gish | ... |
Lucy - The Girl
(as Miss Lillian Gish)
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| Richard Barthelmess | ... |
Cheng Huan - The Yellow Man
(as Mr. Richard Barthelmess)
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| Donald Crisp | ... |
Battling Burrows
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Arthur Howard | ... |
Battling Burrows' Manager
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| Edward Peil Sr. | ... |
Evil Eye
(as Edward Peil)
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| George Beranger | ... |
The Spying One
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| Norman Selby | ... |
A Prizefighter
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Ernest Butterworth | ... |
Secondary Role (uncredited)
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Frederic Hamen | ... |
Secondary Role (uncredited)
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Wilbur Higby | ... |
London Policeman (uncredited)
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Man-Ching Kwan | ... |
Buddhist Monk (uncredited)
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Bobbie Mack | ... |
Ringside Employee (uncredited)
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| Moy Ming | ... |
Minor Role (uncredited)
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Steve Murphy | ... |
Fight Spectator (uncredited)
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| George Nichols | ... |
Police Constable (uncredited)
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| Karla Schramm | ... |
Burrows' Girlfriend (uncredited)
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Bessie Wong | ... |
Girl in China (uncredited)
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Directed by
| D.W. Griffith | ... | (under the personal direction of) |
Written by
| Thomas Burke | ... | (adapted from 'The Chink and the Child' by) |
| D.W. Griffith | ... | (writer) |
Produced by
| D.W. Griffith | ... | producer (uncredited) |
Cinematography by
| G.W. Bitzer | ... | (photography by) |
Editing by
| James Smith | ... | (uncredited) |
Art Department
| Joseph Stringer | ... | set builder (uncredited) |
Visual Effects by
| Hendrik Sartov | ... | visual effects (uncredited) |
Camera and Electrical Department
| Karl Brown | ... | camera operator (uncredited) |
Music Department
| David Cullen | ... | orchestrator |
| Carl Davis | ... | conductor: 1983 re-release / music adaptor: 1983 re-release / music arranger: 1983 re-release |
| Joseph Turrin | ... | conductor |
| Louis F. Gottschalk | ... | music arranger (uncredited) |
Additional Crew
| Dorothy Gish | ... | representative |
| Man-Ching Kwan | ... | technical advisor (uncredited) |
| James B. Leong | ... | interpreter: Chinese (uncredited) |
Production Companies
Distributors
- United Artists (1919) (United States) (theatrical)
- United Artists (1919) (Canada) (theatrical) (as United Artists Corporation, Ltd.)
- Film Booking Offices (FBO) (1920) (United Kingdom) (theatrical)
- United Artists (1920) (Sweden) (theatrical) (as United Artists, A/B)
- Los Artistas Unidos de América del Sur (1920) (Argentina) (theatrical)
- Agence Générale Cinématographique (AGC) (1920) (Belgium) (theatrical)
- Sfinks (1922) (Poland) (theatrical)
- Universum Film (UFA) (1923) (Germany) (theatrical)
- Home Box Office Home Video (HBO) (1989) (United States) (VHS)
- Home Box Office Home Video (HBO) (1989) (United States) (video) (laserdisc)
- Warner Home Video (1989) (United States) (VHS)
- Republic Pictures Home Video (1991) (United States) (video) (laserdisc)
- Republic Pictures Home Video (1992) (United States) (VHS)
- Kino Video (1993) (United States) (VHS)
- Image Entertainment (1999) (United States) (DVD)
- Kino Video (1999) (United States) (DVD)
- Kino Video (2001) (United States) (DVD)
- Kino Video (2002) (United States) (DVD)
- Reel Media International (2004) (World-wide) (VHS)
- Alpha Video Distributors (2005) (United States) (DVD)
- Reel Media International (2007) (World-wide)
- Film Detective (2015) (United States) (DVD)
- Image Entertainment (United States) (video) (laserdisc)
Special Effects
Other Companies
- Dorothy Gish Company (courtesy of: Richard Barthelmess appears)
Storyline
| Plot Summary |
Cheng Huan is a missionary whose goal is to bring the teachings of peace by Buddha to the civilized Anglo-Saxons. Upon landing in England, he is quickly disillusioned by the intolerance and apathy of the country. He becomes a storekeeper of a small shop. Through his window, he sees the young Lucy Burrows. She is regularly beaten (by her prize-fighter father), underfed and she wears ragged clothes. Even in this deplorable condition, Cheng can see that she is a priceless beauty and he falls in love with her from afar. On the day that she faints in front of his store, he takes her in and cares for her. With nothing but love in his heart, he dresses her in silks and provides food for her. Still weak, she stays in his shop that night and Cheng watches over her. The peace and happiness that he sees last only until Battling Burrows finds out that his daughter is with a foreigner.
Written by Tony Fontana |
| Plot Keywords | |
| Taglines | tonight- you can enjoy the mystic throb of foreign souls; the flame, the fright, the glory of wondrous scenes. (Print Ad- Bismarck Daily Tribune, ((Bismarck ND)) 19 February 1920) See more » |
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| Parents Guide | View content advisory » |
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Box Office
| Budget | $88,000 (estimated) |
Did You Know?
| Trivia | The film was produced by D.W. Griffith for Adolph Zukor's Artcraft company, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. However, when Griffith delivered the final print of the film to Zukor, the producer was outraged. "How dare you deliver such a terrible film to me!" Zukor raged. "Everybody in the picture dies!" Infuriated, Griffith left Zukor's office and returned the next day with $250,000 in cash, which he threw on Zukor's desk. "Here," Griffith shouted, "If you don't want the picture, I'll buy it back from you." Zukor accepted the offer, thus making this the first film released by United Artists, the production company formed in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Griffith. It was a remarkably successful film, both critically and at the box office. See more » |
| Goofs | The intertitles state, "The Buddha says, 'What thou dost not want others to do thee, do thou not to others.'" It was actually not the Buddha but Confucius' teaching. See more » |
| Movie Connections | Featured in The Birth of the Movies (1951). See more » |
| Quotes |
Lucy Burrows:
Don't do it, Daddy! You'll hit me once too often - and then they'll - they'll hang yer! See more » |