D.W. Griffith

Don Druker, Chicago Reader wrote:
One of D.W. Griffith’s most beautiful films, a 1919 tale of the chaste love of a Chinese man (Richard Barthelmess) for the frail daughter (Lillian Gish) of a loutish boxer. It perfectly fuses all the elements of Griffith’s style: tender drama played off against scenes of violence; a rich, operatic sense of character and emotion; and a dreamlike acting style, given particular force by the subtlety of Gish’s performance and the strength of Barthelmess’s.Read More »

Art Cinema Corporation production; distributed by United Artists Corporation. / Produced by Joseph M. Schenck. Screenplay by Sam Taylor, with dialogue by George Scarborough, from the short story “La Paiva” by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller. Set design by William Cameron Menzies. Costume design by Alice O’Neill. Theme song “Where Is the Song of Songs for Me?” by Irving Berlin. Cinematography by Karl Struss. Assistant cameraman, G.W. Bitzer. Intertitles by Gerrit Lloyd. Edited by James Smith. Music arrangement by Hugo Riesenfeld. Presented by Joseph M. Schenck. / © 4 February 1929 [LP79]. Premiered 22 January 1929 at the United Artists Theatre in Los Angeles, California. General release, 16 February 1929. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. Movietone sound-on-film sound system. / A silent version of the film was also released in eight reels at 7495 feet. / Silent film, with talking sequences, synchronized music and sound effects.Read More »