Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

Thomas Burke (story)
D.W. Griffith (writer)

Release Date:

1922 (Poland)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Father | London | China | Storekeeper | Chinese

Awards:

1 win

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 20

12:15 AM

TCM

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

Also Known As:

Broken Blossoms (USA) (short title)
Scarlet Blossoms
The Chink and the Child

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White (tinted screen)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Fine Arts Studios - 4516 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

D.W. Griffith Productions

Trivia:

The film's premiere engagement included a live prologue featuring a dance routine performed by actress' Carol Dempster'. During Dempster's dance the stage was illuminated by blue and gold footlights. Later, during the screening of the film, a stagehand accidentally switched on the blue and gold footlights used during Dempster's dance, and the lights cast upon the movie screen tinted the film in an unusual way. D.W. Griffith, standing in the rear of the auditorium, was so surprised and delighted at the blue and gold-tinted effect of the footlights on his movie that he ordered all copies of Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) tinted in those colors during certain key sequences.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: While Lucy is looking into the window of Cheng Huan's shop, director D.W. Griffith, in his shirtsleeves and wearing a vest, can briefly but very clearly be seen reflected in the window, briskly walking into the shot and sitting down in a chair beside the camera. This occurs in the shot immediately following the intertitle "The girl with the tear-aged face."

Quotes:

Scrubwoman: [wearily to Lucy] Whatever you do, dearie, don't get married.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Shining (1980)

Terror and Passion

BROKEN BLOSSOMS (United Artists, 1919), directed by DW Griffith, is a little film that is not only quite melodramatic, but terribly, terribly sad. In fact, it is labeled as America cinema's first tragedy. Unlike Griffith's two epic masterpieces of THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and INTOLERANCE (1916), each running more than two hours in length, BROKEN BLOSSOMS, is in fact a simple story focusing on three central characters (Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp and Lillian Gish in order of their appearance) that deals with touchy subject matters ranging from racial prejudice to child abuse, topics that are still sensitive issues today.

Based on Thomas Burke's "The Chink and the Child," the story begins in China where Cheng Haun, also known as The Yellow Man (Richard Barthelmess), a young idealist, who comes to the London slums where he hopes to convert rude Westerners to the gospel of the gentle Buddha. But instead he makes his living by running a curio shop. Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp), a small-time prizefighter by which the title cards describes as "an abysmal brute, a gorilla from the jungles of East London," lives with his illegitimate daughter, Lucy (Lillian Gish), a tragic figure who waits on him hand and foot, and in return for her loyalty and devotion, he releaves his frustrations by abusing her, whether it be frightening her with his rough exterior, making her wait for her meals while he finishes his, in spite of her being half starved and left with nothing but empty plates, or having her whipped for any little accidental incident. So terrified of him, when her father commands her to smile, the frightful Lucy simply pushes up the corners of her mouth with her fingers. One evening, after accidently spilling food over her father's hand, the angry Burrows takes out his whip and beats Lucy. After leaving her alone and in a semi-conscious state, Lucy stumbles out of the house and walks over to the Chinese curio shop where she faints in front of Cheng Haun's door. Cheng Haun, who had earlier taken notice of this tragic girl, finds and takes her in, carrying her upstairs and tending to her wounds. While under his care, Lucy, who is called "White Blossom" by the Chinaman, is treated with love and sensitivity, something she has never known through her entire life. Through his kindness, he surrounds Lucy with flowers, dolls and Chinese finery. When a man (Edward Piel), who happens to be a friend of Battling Burrows, comes to patronize the curio shop, he notices Lucy upstairs, and loses no time to come to the arena and notify Burrows. Believing the worst, Burrows completes his ringside fight and sets out to get "the dirty Chink" and to "learn them both."

In spite of a dated screenplay and the use of a white actor (Barthelmess) in an Oriental role, BROKEN BLOSSOMS is still timely. Lillian Gish gives an Academy Award winning performance playing the 15-year-old Lucy Burrows. Academy Award meaning that if the best actress award had existed in 1919, Gish would definitely have been recognized with that honor, a difficult assignment for which she handled in a believable manner. In famous climatic "closet scene" in which Gish's character of Lucy locks herself in the closet to avoid another brutal whipping from her father, is as realistic as any performance could be. As Burrows tries to break through the door apart, piece by piece, with an ax, the terrified Lucy, with no place to run nor hide, goes into a frenzy like an trapped animal. In spite of this being a silent film, one can virtually hear the screaming through the screen. For this scene alone, Gish has proven her capability as one of the finest actresses of the silent screen.

With such a depressing theme as it is, BROKEN BLOSSOMS reportedly became a surprise hit upon its release. A very untypical Griffith production to say the least, the sole reason of the film's success is the way Gish portrays Lucy on screen, ranging from her tragicly sad face and shoulder-length hair which adds to the believability to her character, knowing full well that Gish was by then a young woman in her early twenties portraying a child of about 12 to 15. Donald Crisp, who would appear as lovable fathers in numerous family films during the 1940s, as well as earning an Academy Award as best supporting actor in HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941), was surprisingly effective as the prizefighter with the colley-flower ear and a very mean disposition. Fortunately for him, this unsympathtic role did not ruin his future in films. It's been claimed that Crisp performed his scenes at night while he was directing another film by day. Unlike the usual stereotype in which the Chinese are portrayed as heartless villains, a theme most common in films during that time, Barthelmess offers a very fine but sensitive portrayal as the caring and peaceful Chinaman against the wicked ways of the world. This is the film that helped establish Barthelmess to the starring ranks and a successful career through most of the 1920s. He and Gish would be reunited under Griffith's direction in another classic tale, WAY DOWN EAST (1920).

With a limited amount of actors listed in the cast, the supporting players consists of Arthur Howard as the fighting manager; Edward Piel as Evil Eye; Norman "Kid McCoy" Selby as a prizefighter; and George Nicholas as the Policeman. And was that Roscoe Karns as the reporter in the final portion of the story?

BROKEN BLOSSOMS was one of the twelve selected silent films that was presented on public television's 1975 presentation of THE SILENT YEARS, as hosted by Lillian Gish, who, prior to the showing, discussed about how the movie came about. Thomas Burke's story, "The Chink and the Child" was brought to the attention of DW Griffith by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Selecting Gish to play the girl, Gish felt she was incapable of playing a child, but with Griffith's insistence, she went ahead and gave one of the best poignant performances of her career. Griffith filmed BROKEN BLOSSOMS at Paramount but production head Adolph Zukor told Griffith that a film like this wouldn't be successful because this isn't commercial. So Griffith bought back the film and had it distributed through United Artists. Gish also went on in saying that during production she had acquired a high fever due to the Spanish flu, as well as how she accidently came about the memorable scene in which she places her two fingers up her mouth to make the smile. The 1988 Thames video presentation with the Carl Davis score includes an added bonus of Gish prior to the movie discussing the history and making of BROKEN BLOSSOMS, almost reciting those same words she did for THE SILENT YEARS. In later years, BROKEN BLOSSOMS had been released through different video distributors. The Republic Home Video, formerly Blackhawk, released BROKEN BLOSSOMS the way it had been shown on THE SILENT YEARS, at shorter length of 76 minutes accompanied by an organ score, compliments from the Paul Killiam collection. The Thames and later KINO Video collections (with pleasing orchestral score) comes closer to the original length of 90 to 95 minutes, restoring the opening segment and plot development set in China involving Barthelmess as Cheng before coming to the Limehouse district of England. The restored KINO version is the one shown whenever presented on Silent Sunday Nights on cable television's Turner Classic Movies.

BROKEN BLOSSOMS has become the kind of movie in which success only comes but once. This tragic tale was remade in England (with sound) in 1936, but very little is known of it today, except for the fact that Griffith was originally slated to be the director. The 1919 original, however, may not be the sort of movie for all tastes, but it is one that will be long remembered, thanks to the remarkable direction by the master, D.W. Griffith, and sensitive portrayals of Gish and Barthelmess.