gavin6942
A naive country girl (Lillian Gish) is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.Although it was Griffith's most expensive film to date, it was also one of his most commercially successful. "Way Down East" is the fourth highest grossing silent film in cinema history, taking in more than $4.5 million at the box office in 1920. That is an astounding number, and to be ranked fourth... it would probably today not be considered Griffith's best, and to think it easily out-performed Chaplin and Keaton...Similar to other Griffith productions, "Way Down East" was subjected to censorship by some American state film censor boards. For example, the Pennsylvania film board required over 60 cuts in the film, removing the mock marriage and honeymoon between Lennox and Anna as well as any hints of her pregnancy, effectively destroying the film's integral conflict. Exactly how the film could make any sense without the core of its plot is beyond me.
mlevans
One of D.W. Griffith's last big commercial successes, 'Way Down East' represents much that was good in Griffith's directorial style and much that was wanting in it. Overall, it is a very solid movie and leaves the viewer satisfied in the end. It is certainly not the ideal film to show someone who has never watched a silent feature film, however.Anyone who has studied film history knows about the famous ice flow scene in which Lillian Gish put herself at tremendous risk in real-life blizzard conditions. This is the climax, but it comes only after a long and occasionally dragging journey.The lovely Ms. Gish plays Anna Moore, a naïve small town girl, tricked into a fake marriage by notorious womanizing playboy Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). Finding out about the sham only after telling Sanderson she is pregnant, she is abandoned and later evicted after both her mother and the baby die. Her past later catches up with her after she has established herself as a beloved maid in the Bartlett household, where son David (matinee idol Richard Barthlemess) is in love with her. It is when her past is revealed and Squire Bartlett (Burr McIntosh) throws her out into a blizzard that the famed ice flow sequence takes place.There are some faults in 'Way Down East.' It is long – probably a bit longer than it needs to be. Plenty of time is spent in establishing the various characters, both major and minor, and the locales. There are a few spots where things seem to drag a bit. Of course Griffith strongly moralizes as usual, too. One fault that some critics have flagged that I do not necessarily agree with is Griffith's insertion of comedy relief. In many films of the era this did indeed mar films. In 'Way Down East,' though, the bumbling minor characters have a charm of their own and are naturally enough melded into the story that their actions do not seem to be at all intrusive to me. Vivia Ogden as the gossip Martha Perkins is quite good and her interaction with Seth Holcomb (Porter Strong), a goateed old goat who always seems to be at the Bartletts, is enjoyable. We are told Seth has followed her around for 20 years and she doesn't seem to mind his attention. Shy 'Professor' Creighton Hale is amusing at times, flirting clumsily with both Martha and the squire's niece Kate (Mary Hay.) Perhaps rolly polly hired hand Hi Holler (Edgar Nelson) could be dispensed with, but his screen time is limited and not a distraction. The music is at times heavy handed, but is appropriate in mood setting – including the forays into comic relief.True, this is a potboiler melodrama with some heavy-handed Griffith preaching. Still, it also includes Griffith's famed build-up of intensity and speed as the climax is neared. It is also pictorially attractive, with snow-covered New England countrysides and landscapes. Also, Gish and Barthelmess never looked better. As other have noted, Gish by 1920 had fully come into her own as an actress and could make a very strong argument for being the best of all silent screen actresses.There are other silent films much easier to sit through in their entirety. This one is worth the effort, though. Griffith, warts and all, could tell a good story.
lugonian
WAY DOWN EAST (United Artists, 1920), subtitled "a simple story about plain people," reunites director D.W. Griffith with his BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) co-stars, Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess, in an old-fashioned story based on a vintage play that turned out to become something of a commercial success and one of the true classics of the silent screen to be still remembered today. Aside from the simple-minded story consisting of country people and snobbish relatives, with a tragic heroine, a farm boy and an interloper of society whose three specialties happen to be "ladies," "ladies" and "ladies," heading the cast, it's most crucial scene, set during a violent snow storm, is the key factor of the entire photo-play, given the most realistic effect filmed on location in Vermont during the dead of winter, with Gish suffering more in real life in the freezing cold than the heroine she was portraying. And how she suffered for the art of film making as demonstrated with the close-up of Gish's frozen face in the snow storm sequence. Set in a remote village in New England, the story begins with Anna Moore (Lillian Gish), a poor girl living with her widowed mother (Mrs. David Landau) who has fallen into hard times. At her request, Mrs. Moore advises Anna to seek aid from her rich relatives in Boston. Upon her arrival at the Tremont mansion, the snobbish daughters treat Anna like an outsider, while playboy Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman), one of the party guests, takes a sudden interest in her. Because of her naive ways, Anna falls into the clutches of Lennox, who tricks her into a mock marriage and bound to secrecy from his father from whom he lives on his support. When Anna discovers she is going to have a child, she insists that he tell his family. Lennox on the other hand tells her the truth about not really being married, and walks out on her. After her mother dies, Anna seeks seclusion in a rooming house where she has her baby alone. Because the child is ill, she sends for a doctor, but it is too late. The child is dead. Since there is no proof of her having a husband, Anna is turned out by an unsympathetic landlady, Mrs. Poole (Emily Fitzroy), which leads her to a farm where she is taken in and cared for by the kindly Mrs. Bartlett (Kate Bruce), even though her husband, the Squire (Burr McIntosh), "the richest farmer in the neighborhood," has his suspicions. Anna finds love and happiness with their son, David (Richard Barthelmess), but things start to fall apart upon the arrival of Lennox, along with Martha Perkins (Viva Ogden), the town gossip, learning the truth about Anna's past, thus spreading the news to the Squire, who then orders the grief-stricken Anna out of his house, into the cold.The popularity of WAY DOWN EAST prompted reissues in later years in shorter prints, with the trimming of some comedy relief and other scenes from its original 140 to 107 minutes. For decades, a 1930s reissue with Vitaphone sounding score, often similar to the underscoring of THE JAZZ SINGER (1927), was the version available for theatrical and later video cassette from various distributors, notably Blackhawk and Grapevine Video. It's interesting to point out that while this is and remains a classic of the silent screen, why television revivals were limited? The icy river sequence was clipped for the American Film Institute tribute to Lillian Gish when televised in 1983. Even by watching this scene that leaves anyone with a cold feeling would want to go see this movie. Another scene worth noting is the crucial one where Anna (Gish) performs her own baptism on her dead baby, "Trust Lennox." In 1984, WAY DOWN EAST made news in movie magazines when, after five years of hard work, was restored to its original length and revived at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, much to the delight of silent film enthusiasts. Although the shorter version is an audience pleaser, the longer version does help make sense to the missing scenes such as whatever became of Anna's mother, for example. However, comparing the two, the restored version gives credit to the leading players and their roles in the opening while the restored version, available on both VHS and DVD format through Kino Video, does not, although its re-recording to the original soundtrack sounds almost similar to the 1930s reissue, slightly slower in tempo, but good overall.Other members of the cast include: Josephine Bernard (Mrs. Tremond); Porter Strong (Seth Holcomb); George Neville (Reuben Whipple); Edgar Nelson (Hi Holler); and Creighton Hale (Professor Sterling).Unlike BROKEN BLOSSOMS, where the characters played by Barthelmess and Gish are of equal status, WAY DOWN EAST belongs to Gish while Barthelmess has little to do, except for the key scene near the end. As famous as WAY DOWN EAST has become, the 1935 Fox Film remake starring Rochelle Hudson and Henry Fonda is something to consider in comparing to the original, but as remakes go, there's no comparison to the original, especially with the sincere performance by Lillian Gish giving one of her best screen performances of his career. Regardless of this being old-fashioned film making in the D.W. Griffith tradition, it's old-fashioned appeal and timeless theme that's actually part of the charm. Watch for it whenever it plays again on Turner Classic Movies. (***)
