Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

"A tale of forbidden love."

1919 1h 28m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 251

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.

“A tale of forbidden love.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Lillian Gish
Lucy Burrows
Richard Barthelmess
Cheng Huan
Donald Crisp
Battling Burrows
Arthur Howard
Burrows' Manager
Edward Peil Sr.
Evil Eye
George Beranger
The Spying One
Norman Selby
A Prizefighter
Ernest Butterworth
Secondary Role (uncredited)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: D.W. Griffith
Writers: D.W. Griffith, Thomas Burke
Languages: No Language
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

88 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

107 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by D.W. Griffith, shot by Billy Bitzer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor James Smith shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess and Donald Crisp carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A tale of forbidden love.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0009968 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

D.W. Griffith directs. Billy Bitzer behind the camera. James Smith cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in No Language.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2107 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by D.W. Griffith, shot by Billy Bitzer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor James Smith shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess and Donald Crisp carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A tale of forbidden love.".
8IMDB entry: tt0009968 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 11 themes, including "suicide", "london, england", "china", "boxer".

The technical file

Cinematography: Billy Bitzer
Editing: James Smith
Runtime: 88 min · 1h 28m
Status: Released
Box office: $2,400,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)

Also by

D.W. Griffith

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-06
★ 7/10
Richard Barthelmess and an almost porcelain-looking Lilian Gish are both great in this intimate, beautifully photographed, tale of a true love. Gish is a young girl from London's East end who is persistently brutalised by her violent pugilist father. Barthelmess is a man newly arrived from China bent on encouraging the British to seek the peaceful ways of the Buddha. From his small emporium, he espies this young girl and after one particularly horrific attack by her father, takes her in and nourishes her back to health. Sadly, bigotry and intolerance are still pretty rife and when her father discovers where she has taken refuge, tragedy ensues... It's a simple story, very well executed by D.W. Griffith with a delightful style to it. An early outing for Donald Crisp as her bruiser father is a little hammy at times, he flexes his muscles and his grimace a little too theatrically - but the story is tightly told with empathy for the girl, sympathy for the boy and a gently bubbling hatred for the father for whom just desserts can only be a matter of time.

Production companies