Broken Blossoms
Encyclopedia
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl is a 1919 silent film
directed by D.W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists
and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish
, Richard Barthelmess
and Donald Crisp
, and tells the story of young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It is based on Thomas Burke
's The Chink and the Child.
) leaves his native China
because he "dreams to spread the gentle message of Buddha
to the Anglo-Saxon lands." His idealism fades as he is faced with the brutal reality of London
’s gritty inner-city. However, his mission is finally realized in his devotion to the “broken blossom” Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish
), the beautiful but unwanted and abused daughter of boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp
).
After being beaten and discarded one evening by her raging father, Lucy finds sanctuary in Cheng’s home, the beautiful and exotic room above his shop. As Cheng nurses Lucy back to health, the two form a bond as two unwanted outcasts of society. All goes astray for them when Lucy’s father gets wind of his daughter's whereabouts and in a drunken rage drags her back to their home to punish her. Fearing for her life, Lucy locks herself inside a closet to escape her contemptuous father.
By the time Cheng arrives to rescue Lucy, whom he so innocently adores, it is too late. Lucy’s lifeless body lies on her modest bed as Battling has a drink in the other room. As Cheng gazes at Lucy’s youthful face which, in spite of the circumstances, beams with innocence and even the slightest hint of a smile, Battling enters the room to make his escape. The two stand for a long while, exchanging spiteful glances, until Battling lunges for Cheng with a hatchet, and Cheng retaliates by shooting Burrows repeatedly with his handgun. After returning to his home with Lucy’s body, Cheng builds a shrine to Buddha and takes his own life with a knife to the stomach.
or Intolerance
, Broken Blossoms is a small-scale film that uses controlled studio environments to create a more intimate effect.
Griffith was known for his willingness to collaborate with his actors and on many occasions join them in research outings.
The visual style of Broken Blossoms emphasises the seedy Limehouse
streets with their dark shadows, drug addicts and drunkards, contrasting them with the beauty of Cheng and Lucy’s innocent attachment as expressed by Cheng’s decorative apartment. Conversely, the Burrows' bare cell reeks of oppression and hostility. Film critic and historian Richard Schickel
goes so far as to credit this gritty realism with inspiring “the likes of Pabst, Stiller
, von Sternberg
, and others, [and then] re-emerging in the United States in the sound era, in the genre identified as Film Noir
".
Griffith was unsure of his final product and took several months to complete the editing saying “I can’t look at the damn thing; it depresses me so.”
in New York City
as part of the D.W. Griffith Repertory Season. According to Lillian Gish's autobiography, theaters were decorated with flowers, moon lanterns and beautiful Chinese brocaded draperies for the premiere. Critics and audiences were pleased with Griffith’s follow-up film to his 1916 epic Intolerance
. Contrasting with Intolerance’s grand story, set and length, Griffith charmed audiences by the delicacy with which Broken Blossom’s handled such a complex subject.
The scenes of child abuse
nauseated backers when Griffith gave them a preview of the film; according to Lillian Gish in interviews, a Variety reporter invited to sit in on a second take left the room to vomit. She said Griffith himself was sickened while directing her in the closet scene.
In 1996, Broken Blossoms was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Broken Blossoms was released during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the USA, a fear known as the Yellow Peril
. The phrase "yellow peril" was common in the U.S. newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst
. It was also the title of a popular book by an influential U.S. religious figure, G.G. Rupert, who published The Yellow Peril; or, Orient vs. Occident in 1911. Griffith changed Burke's original story to promote a message of tolerance. In Burke’s story, the Chinese protagonist is a sordid young Shanghai drifter pressed into naval service, who frequents opium den
s and whorehouses; in the film, he becomes a Buddhist missionary whose initial goal is to spread the word of Buddha and peace (although he is also shown frequenting opium dens when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his gambling companions from fighting.
writes:
The scene is also used to demonstrate Griffith’s uncanny ability to create an aural effect with only an image. Gish’s screams apparently attracted such a crowd outside the studio that people needed to be held back.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
directed by D.W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
, Richard Barthelmess
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
and Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
, and tells the story of young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It is based on Thomas Burke
Thomas Burke (author)
Thomas Burke was a British author. He was born in Eltham, London.His first successful publication was Limehouse Nights , a collection of stories centered around life in the poverty-stricken Limehouse district of London...
's The Chink and the Child.
Plot
Cheng Huan (Richard BarthelmessRichard Barthelmess
Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
) leaves his native China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
because he "dreams to spread the gentle message of Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
to the Anglo-Saxon lands." His idealism fades as he is faced with the brutal reality of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
’s gritty inner-city. However, his mission is finally realized in his devotion to the “broken blossom” Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
), the beautiful but unwanted and abused daughter of boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
).
After being beaten and discarded one evening by her raging father, Lucy finds sanctuary in Cheng’s home, the beautiful and exotic room above his shop. As Cheng nurses Lucy back to health, the two form a bond as two unwanted outcasts of society. All goes astray for them when Lucy’s father gets wind of his daughter's whereabouts and in a drunken rage drags her back to their home to punish her. Fearing for her life, Lucy locks herself inside a closet to escape her contemptuous father.
Cast
- Lillian GishLillian GishLillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
as Lucy Burrows - Richard BarthelmessRichard BarthelmessRichard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
as Cheng Huan - Donald CrispDonald CrispDonald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
as Battling Burrows - Arthur Howard as Burrows' manager
- Edward Peil Sr.Edward Peil Sr.Edward Peil Sr. was an American film actor. He appeared in over 370 films between 1913 and 1951. He was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...
as Evil Eye - George BerangerGeorge BerangerGeorges Augustus Alexandre Roger de L'ile de Beranger , born George Augustus Beringer, was the seventh child of Adam Beringer and Caroline Mondientz. He was an Australian actor and film director. He played Shakespearean roles at the age of sixteen and left Australia in 1912 and began film work in...
as The Spying One - Norman Selby as A prizefighter
Production and style
Unlike Griffith’s more extravagant earlier works like The Birth of a NationThe Birth of a Nation
The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. Griffith also co-wrote the screenplay , and co-produced the film . It was released on February 8, 1915...
or Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
, Broken Blossoms is a small-scale film that uses controlled studio environments to create a more intimate effect.
Griffith was known for his willingness to collaborate with his actors and on many occasions join them in research outings.
The visual style of Broken Blossoms emphasises the seedy Limehouse
Limehouse
Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east....
streets with their dark shadows, drug addicts and drunkards, contrasting them with the beauty of Cheng and Lucy’s innocent attachment as expressed by Cheng’s decorative apartment. Conversely, the Burrows' bare cell reeks of oppression and hostility. Film critic and historian Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
goes so far as to credit this gritty realism with inspiring “the likes of Pabst, Stiller
Mauritz Stiller
Mauritz Stiller was a Finnish-Swedish actor, screenwriter and silent film director, who was mostly active in Sweden.-Life:...
, von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
, and others, [and then] re-emerging in the United States in the sound era, in the genre identified as Film Noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
".
Griffith was unsure of his final product and took several months to complete the editing saying “I can’t look at the damn thing; it depresses me so.”
Reception
Broken Blossoms premiered in May 1919, at the George M. Cohan TheatreGeorge M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as part of the D.W. Griffith Repertory Season. According to Lillian Gish's autobiography, theaters were decorated with flowers, moon lanterns and beautiful Chinese brocaded draperies for the premiere. Critics and audiences were pleased with Griffith’s follow-up film to his 1916 epic Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
. Contrasting with Intolerance’s grand story, set and length, Griffith charmed audiences by the delicacy with which Broken Blossom’s handled such a complex subject.
- “ Reviewers found it ‘Surprising in its simplicity’...the acting seemed nine days’ wonder -no one talked of anything but Lillian’s smile, Lillian turned like a tormented animal in a trap, of Barthelmess’ convincing restraint. Few pictures have enjoyed greater or more lasting success d’estime.”
The scenes of child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
nauseated backers when Griffith gave them a preview of the film; according to Lillian Gish in interviews, a Variety reporter invited to sit in on a second take left the room to vomit. She said Griffith himself was sickened while directing her in the closet scene.
In 1996, Broken Blossoms was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Themes
Cruelty and injustice against the innocent are a recurring theme in Griffith's films and are graphically portrayed here. The introductory card says, "We may believe there are no Battling Burrows, striking the helpless with brutal whip — but do we not ourselves use the whip of unkind words and deeds? So, perhaps, Battling may even carry a message of warning."Broken Blossoms was released during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the USA, a fear known as the Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
. The phrase "yellow peril" was common in the U.S. newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
. It was also the title of a popular book by an influential U.S. religious figure, G.G. Rupert, who published The Yellow Peril; or, Orient vs. Occident in 1911. Griffith changed Burke's original story to promote a message of tolerance. In Burke’s story, the Chinese protagonist is a sordid young Shanghai drifter pressed into naval service, who frequents opium den
Opium den
An opium den was an establishment where opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America and France...
s and whorehouses; in the film, he becomes a Buddhist missionary whose initial goal is to spread the word of Buddha and peace (although he is also shown frequenting opium dens when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his gambling companions from fighting.
The 'closet scene'
The most-discussed scene in Broken Blossoms is Lillian Gish’s “closet” scene. Here Gish performs Lucy's horror by writhing in the claustrophobic space like a tortured animal who knows there is no escape. There is more than one anecdote about the filming of the “closet” scene, Richard SchickelRichard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
writes:
- “It is heartbreaking – yet for the most part quite delicately controlled by the actress. Barthelmess reports that her hysteria was induced by Griffith’s taunting of her. Gish, on her part, claims that she improvised the child’s tortured movements on the spot and that when she finished the scene there was a hush on stage, broken finally by Griffith’s exclamation, ‘My God, why didn’t you warn me you were going to do that?’”.
The scene is also used to demonstrate Griffith’s uncanny ability to create an aural effect with only an image. Gish’s screams apparently attracted such a crowd outside the studio that people needed to be held back.
External links
- Broken Blossoms at Google VideoGoogle VideoGoogle Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...
. - In-depth analysis of Broken Blossoms at filmsite.org