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 | Limehouse | Boxer | Chinese | Buddhism

Awards:

1 win

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:

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) was produced by D.W. Griffith for Adolph Zukor's Artcraft company, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. But 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, and Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) thus became the first film released by United Artists, the production company formed in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith. Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) was a remarkably successful film, both critically and at the box office.

Goofs:

Factual errors: 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.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Slanted Screen (2006)

A very beautiful ugly film

The subjects this film deals with are ugly, but the whole thing is done in a beautiful way.

Subjects dealt with are racism, poverty and the reasons why.

The way Griffith deals with these subjects is the contrasts settings. Look at the room above the Chinaman's shop: opulent, festooned with the finest oriental silk. Compare that with the stark squalor of the abode of Lucy and her bruiser of a father. Then there is the education and sophistication of the orientals compared to the simplistic, ill-thought-out racial prejudice of Battling and his cronies.

I also enjoyed the boxing match. Very realistic - not the fantastic nonsense of your Rocky-type bout where a man all but beaten to a jelly suddenly pulls some heavy punches from nowhere and wins the fight.

The acting, as has been mentioned elsewhere, is terrific from all three of the principal characters. Also, their characters are well-drawn. Even Battling Burrows - complete with cauliflower ear - is more than a mere heavy: he boxes for a living, he drinks, he lives in a slum with few worldly possessions. Why?

I find it hard to believe that the films they make nowadays are nowhere near as good as this. Whatever happened to progress?

This film spawned the famous song "Limehouse Blues."