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sabotai · 11-16-2006, 11:58 PM

Orphans Of The Storm (1921)
Directed By: D.W. Griffith
Starring: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Losee
Length: 150 min

Griffith's last movie starring Lillian Gish (along with her sister, Dorothy Gish)

Henriette (Lillian Gish) and Louise (Dorothy Gish) are orphans who are raised together as sisters. Louise goes blind and Henriette promies to take care of her. They make a trip to Paris in search of a cure for Louise's blindness. Along the way, an aristocrat takes an interest in Henriette, but she refuses. Apon reaching Paris, the aristocrat kidnaps Henriette, leaving Louise alone.

Louise is taken in by a begger, who imprisons her and forces her to beg on the streets. Meanwhile, Henriette is saved by a kind aristocrat named Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut). She falls in love with him, and he helps her to find her sister. She says she can not be with him until she finds her sister.

The movie is set in the same time period as the French Revolution, so unlike a movie like Through The Back Door, that has to rely on coincidence, forced situations and weak chacters to keep it moving, this film had a lot of external conflict to keep the sisters apart.

I said in a previous review that it seems like Lillian Gish plays the same part over and over again, and the same thing goes for this film. The tortured woman who expierences bad moment after bad moment, until the end where everything works out. Same exact character here.

While I have appriciated Griffith's movies, one of the reasons I haven't enjoyed them as much is because they seem to follow the same basic formula. Lillian Gish plays a woman with "baggage". In this movie, it's her lost, blind sister. In Way Down East, it was having an illegitimate child. In Broken Blossoms, it was her father. She ends up falling in love, in some form, with a man who, at first, can't or won't accept her baggage (mostly because of social conventions). But, in the end, after the climax that the external force of the movie has built up, all is well.

Each movie puts its own twist on the basic premise. In Broken Blossoms, for instance, it had a trajic ending. In Way Down East, instead of the climatic conflict being between people, it was a person against nature. And in this movie, her baggage is wanted (her blind sister), instead of unwanted.

However, having said all of that, and after seeing the same basic plot a couple of times, I would have to say that this one is my favorite. It had lots of action, a constantly changing backdrop (the French Revolution), and interesting characters. I still wouldn't give this a very high Entertainment Rating, but higher than the previous Griffith/Gish movies. However, its Historical Rating suffers as it is not remembered nearly as well as a movie like Way Down East, or any of Griffith's other masterpieces.

I haven't given many of Griffth's movies high marks, but I'm really appriciative of his work. While I won't feel the urge to watch any of his movies again (maybe the Babylon story in Intolerance), I do admire his work. He was definitely a visionary when it came to directing. He may have been formulatic when it came to writing, but his ability to direct and innovate with camera angles, at the very least, make the films easy to watch.

Entertainment Rating: 6/10
Historical Rating: 5/10

11-16-2006, 11:58 PM	#73
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	Orphans Of The Storm (1921) Directed By: D.W. Griffith Starring: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Losee Length: 150 min Griffith's last movie starring Lillian Gish (along with her sister, Dorothy Gish) Henriette (Lillian Gish) and Louise (Dorothy Gish) are orphans who are raised together as sisters. Louise goes blind and Henriette promies to take care of her. They make a trip to Paris in search of a cure for Louise's blindness. Along the way, an aristocrat takes an interest in Henriette, but she refuses. Apon reaching Paris, the aristocrat kidnaps Henriette, leaving Louise alone. Louise is taken in by a begger, who imprisons her and forces her to beg on the streets. Meanwhile, Henriette is saved by a kind aristocrat named Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut). She falls in love with him, and he helps her to find her sister. She says she can not be with him until she finds her sister. The movie is set in the same time period as the French Revolution, so unlike a movie like Through The Back Door, that has to rely on coincidence, forced situations and weak chacters to keep it moving, this film had a lot of external conflict to keep the sisters apart. I said in a previous review that it seems like Lillian Gish plays the same part over and over again, and the same thing goes for this film. The tortured woman who expierences bad moment after bad moment, until the end where everything works out. Same exact character here. While I have appriciated Griffith's movies, one of the reasons I haven't enjoyed them as much is because they seem to follow the same basic formula. Lillian Gish plays a woman with "baggage". In this movie, it's her lost, blind sister. In Way Down East, it was having an illegitimate child. In Broken Blossoms, it was her father. She ends up falling in love, in some form, with a man who, at first, can't or won't accept her baggage (mostly because of social conventions). But, in the end, after the climax that the external force of the movie has built up, all is well. Each movie puts its own twist on the basic premise. In Broken Blossoms, for instance, it had a trajic ending. In Way Down East, instead of the climatic conflict being between people, it was a person against nature. And in this movie, her baggage is wanted (her blind sister), instead of unwanted. However, having said all of that, and after seeing the same basic plot a couple of times, I would have to say that this one is my favorite. It had lots of action, a constantly changing backdrop (the French Revolution), and interesting characters. I still wouldn't give this a very high Entertainment Rating, but higher than the previous Griffith/Gish movies. However, its Historical Rating suffers as it is not remembered nearly as well as a movie like Way Down East, or any of Griffith's other masterpieces. I haven't given many of Griffth's movies high marks, but I'm really appriciative of his work. While I won't feel the urge to watch any of his movies again (maybe the Babylon story in Intolerance), I do admire his work. He was definitely a visionary when it came to directing. He may have been formulatic when it came to writing, but his ability to direct and innovate with camera angles, at the very least, make the films easy to watch. Entertainment Rating: 6/10 Historical Rating: 5/10 Last edited by sabotai : 05-03-2009 at 09:39 PM.