Broken Blossoms: Deluxe Edition (1919)

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General		Extras
Category	Silent Drama	Menu Audio-Multi mini-screen live action. Booklet-12 pages, well illustrated but poor text.
Rating
Year Of Production	1919
Running Time	88:49
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	D.W. Griffith
Studio Distributor	Griffith Feat Films Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Lillian Gish Richard Barthelmess Donald Crisp Arthur Howard Edward, Sr. Peil George Beranger Norman Selby
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	$24.95	Music	Louis F. Gottschelk (original silent credit)

    I was immensely pleased to see that Beyond Home Entertainment had locally released D.W. Griffith's 1919 silent classic Broken Blossoms. While this melodramatic tear-jerker is still able, after ninety years, to tug at the heartstrings the release is disappointing in its lack of technical information regarding the release, and the total absence of any extras on the disc itself.

    Adapted from a story by Thomas Burke, the screenplay, with the alternative title The Yellow Man and the Girl, opens on a young man in China. He is simply identified as The Yellow Man (Richard Barthelmess), and we see him planning an adventurous journey to London where he intends to spread the peace and love of Buddha's teachings amongst the unenlightened  Anglo-Saxons. Some years later we meet him again in London's Limehouse district, where he is now a "Chink" storekeeper. His dreams have come into conflict with the sordid reality of London life. We see him lounging against a shop front - part of a wonderful studio re-creation of this district of London - and our modern day sensibilities would lead us to suspect that he has stooped to earning his income in the streets as well as in his shop. He seeks the comfort of the opium den, the "scarlet house of sin", where the drug helps him escape his reality, and where he also indulges in the card game of fate, Fantan. The depths of his ironic existence are reached when he overhears two English men of the cloth discussing as expedition to China "to convert the heathen".

    Looking out of the shopfront window of his store, The Yellow Man regularly glimpses the frail beauty of Lucy (Lillian Gish), an abused young girl who lives with her boxer-father, Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp), "an abysmal brute - a gorilla of the jungles of East London". The tiny female figure is a regular punching bag for the grimacing brute, and the women Lucy encounters, mainly "women of the street", warn her against the perils of marriage and of prostitution. After a particularly vicious bashing by Burrows, Lucy staggers into the Yellow Man's empty store and collapses to the floor, where the surprised young man finds her. The "first gentleman she has ever known"  nurses her, dresses her in silks and protectively watches over her. A particularly nasty acquaintance of Burrows, Evil Eye (Edward Peil) discovers Lucy's sanctuary and informs the enraged boxer. The righteous father drags his daughter away from the safety of the store and the three principal characters are set on courses that can only end disastrously.

   This was a small film by Griffith's standards, being shot in only eighteen days. (Every lover of movies must see Griffith's Intolerance, undoubtedly the greatest spectacle ever filmed.) Working for the first time entirely within studio walls, Griffith recreates a damply brooding, atmospheric London, which seems to weep in empathy with the two would-be lovers. It goes without saying that Lillian Gish (Night of the Hunter) was/is one of the greatest female stars the film world ever produced. Here, at twenty-four playing a fifteen year-old, she was already a hugely popular performer, and this film only increased her popularity. Of course the performance is pantomime by today's standards, but those huge luminous eyes are riveting. Perhaps the most dated aspect of her portrayal is the famed  finger-induced "smile". The first time the tiny figure contorts her face in this way, it is almost embarrassing. Director Griffith has her repeat this action, I think, four times during the film. By the final instance, it is remarkably moving. Those people knew how to manipulate an audience.

    The surprise of the film may well be Richard Barthelmess (Only Angels Have Wings). Here a young man, one year older than Gish, he possesses a graceful, almost feline, slimness  reminiscent of a younger, more innocent, Jude Law. His performance is much more still than his co-stars - perhaps he was playing "inscrutable" - and is more acceptable to a modern audience. By contrast, Donald Crisp (Lassie come Home / How Green Was My Valley) is enormously over-the top as he grotesquely grimaces his way  through scene after scene

    Technically the film is remarkably impressive, with sets, costumes, lighting and camerawork (G.W.Bitzer) contributing towards the artistic unity of the film. The original film titles credit the score to Louis F. Gottschelk, but I suspect that what we actually get with this version is Carl Davis's adaptation of that original score, augmented by some organ passages. I do have in my library a Laser Disc release by Landmark Laservision of a 1974 version with a newly composed piano score by William Perry. I apologise for my lack of specifics regarding this release, and would greatly appreciate feedback from anyone who does have more information.

    Broken Blossoms still has the power to be deeply moving, with its simple story of a love blossoming in a world of racial and personal cruelty. The condition of the film is quite good, although there is no indication of the source material. The film is tinted throughout, and at times the tints are alarmingly vivid. I have never seen a silent film so richly tinted. This is a bare bones release, which is to be deplored, but every serious student of the movies has to experience the work of  D. W. Griffith.  
 

Video

    I  cannot pretend to be an expert on the many releases that have been made of this film. A visit to the Internet Movie Data Base will reveal expert comment on releases by Kino and Alpha, amongst others, with discussions of the various source material utilised. Unfortunately there is not one word with this release to give any indication of the source used, or any "work" that was done in preparing this release - if any. I do possess a laser disc release of a 1974 version, which at least credits the "restorer" and composer of the, then, new score. This laser disc version has a more detailed, less damaged image, and utilises much more subtle tints. It would appear that the best version may be the Brownlow and Gill UK remaster for the BBC, with Louis F Gottchalk's score orchestrated by David Cullen and Carl Davis.

    The condition of the print used by Beyond  Home Entertainment is disappointing, but it does not prevent enjoyment of the film. The entire footage - with the exception of a damaged moment or two - is intact, and for that we must be grateful.
   
    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of slightly less than 1.33:1.The original was 1.37:1.
    
    The image varies enormously, with many sections quite sharp, and others, mainly close-ups, almost out of focus.
    Shadow detail is at times very poor - considerably better on the laser disc version.
    There is a moderate amount of low-level noise.
    The entire film is tinted, ranging from sepia to blue, yellow, green and a startlingly deep pink.
    Compression problems are evident in many shots, with the shop interiors being particularly bad.
    There is a moderate amount of telecine wobble, some sprocket damage, and negative scratches and flecks throughout.

    This is a single layer disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

        There is only one audio stream on this local release, English in Dolby Digital 2.0, surround encoded at 224 Kbps.
        The score is very dated mono, with the sound quality indicating that it is probably pre 1950s.

Audio Ratings Summary

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   The only "extra" with this Collectors Edition is the twelve page booklet, which slips into a slot inside the three-fold cardboard packaging.
    .

Main Menu :

       This is quite attractive, with twelve mini-screens all with live action from the film, using different tints. Orchestral audio from the film.

       Options presented are : Play Movie
                                           Chapter Selection : Twelve chapters on three screens, with thumbnails. Screens one and three have the organ music from film.
Booklet :         
        This twelve page insert, which slips inside the cover of the three-fold cardboard packaging,  is well illustrated but sadly lacking in any worthwhile information pertaining to this release. Half the booklet tells "The Story of Broken Blossoms". Why? This is hardly a convoluted plot. The second half of the booklet says a little about making the film, a little about Gish, Barthelmess, and Griffith. The author, an unidentified Graeme Dickenson, concludes with making the odd comment that Donald Crisp's winning of the supporting actor Oscar in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley, was  "a great achievement since his performance as Burrows is a little more theatrical than that of his co-stars". What on earth has one to do with the other? Whatever happened to logic?

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