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

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 | Storekeeper

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernest Butterworth	...	(uncredited)
Fred Hamer	...	(uncredited)
Wilbur Higby	...	London policeman (uncredited)
Moon Kwan	...	Buddhist monk (uncredited)
George Nichols	...	(uncredited)
Karla Schramm	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
D.W. Griffith

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Thomas Burke		story "The Chink and the Child"
D.W. Griffith		writer

Produced by
D.W. Griffith	....	producer

Cinematography by
G.W. Bitzer

Film 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 (1983 version)
Carl Davis	....	conductor (1983 re-release)
Carl Davis	....	music adaptor (1983 re-release)
Carl Davis	....	music arranger (1983 re-release)
Louis F. Gottschalk	....	music arranger (uncredited)

Other crew
James B. Leong	....	interpreter: Chinese (uncredited)

Production Companies

• D.W. Griffith Productions
• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• United Artists (1919) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universum Film (UFA) (1923) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (1989) (USA) (VHS)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• Kino Video (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Sfinks (1922) (Poland) (theatrical)
• Grapevine Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)

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 | UK:15

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:

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:

Narrator: Above all, Battling hates those not born in the same great country as himself.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#22.4)" (2009)

Personally the best ever silent movie, completed in 1983

This has been one of my all-time favourite films since I taped it off UK Channel 4 1st October 1988 on its second showing, one to savour and revel in every few years. There really is no choice: the only version worth seeing is this one, the Brownlow & Gill UK remaster with Louis F. Gottchalk's themes lushly orchestrated by David Cullen and Carl Davis and the Thames Silents Orchestra. From a good silent film Broken Blossoms is beautifully transformed into a work of Art, the merger of the music and Billy Bitzer's visuals can be so striking. And the intelligent tinting was gorgeous too. Over the years I've even played it just for the music sometimes!

The story? Depressed Chinese ex-missionary in London falls under the spell of listless poverty-stricken beautiful white 15 yo daughter of violent boxer. The crafty and base whites think the worst, but we know that the yellow man's love remained pure - even his worst foe says this ... I know that most people today would hoot at the acting abilities displayed: Lillian Gish's pathetic submissiveness, Donald Crisp's over the top savage expressions and Richard Barthelmess's determinedly serious inscrutability, but appreciation of silent melodramas as a genre is really required rather than simply selecting just one film to watch, such as this. And then again some people have to get over a white man playing a Chinese man whilst simultaneously approving of miscegenation in these much more enlightened times! Would these same people be bothered if a Chinese played a white man? Along with Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, this was Griffiths' best work, pinnacles of the cinema.

Utterly spellbinding poetic stuff for the enlightened, dreadful if your favourites are cgi-riddled and no older than 6 months. And don't expect a remotely happy ending! The beauty that all the world missed smote him to the heart (paraphrase).