Orphans of the Storm ***** (1921, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Lucille La Verne) – Classic Movie Review 5218

Writer-producer-director D W Griffith’s 1921 big-budget ($1,000,000) historical romantic drama, based on the 1874 French play Les Deux Orphelines by Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Cormon, is the last of his series of really great silent epic films and provides a dramatically and visually exciting panoramic view of the French Revolution.

It stars silent movie superstars Lillian and Dorothy Gish as orphaned sisters Henriette and Louise Girard, who are swept up in the ferment of 1789. When Louise goes blind, Henriette swears she will always look after her, but they are separated when an aristocrat lusts after Henriette and abducts her. However, the aristocrat Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut) is kind to Henriette, and the two fall in love.

[Spoiler alert] But Henriette is arrested for sheltering her aristocrat lover, who has been condemned to die for being an aristocrat, and she is tried for treason after harbouring him. Also condemned to death, she is saved on her way to the guillotine by revolutionary hero Danton (Monte Blue).

Oppressive interior sets vie with sweeping crowd scenes, it is imaginatively shot in black and white by cinematographer Hendrik Sartov, and exciting editing makes the final reel an edge-of-the-seat experience. The running time is an epic 150 minutes. Orphans of the Storm is directed by D W Griffith, written by D W Griffith [as Gaston de Tolignac], shot by Hendrik Sartov (with Paul H Allen and G W Bitzer), and produced by D W Griffith, with Art Direction by Charles M. Kirk.

Also in the cast are Lucille La Verne, Morgan Wallace, Frank Puglia, Creighton Hale, Sheldon Lewis, Sidney Herbert (as Robespierre), Lee Kohlmar (as King Louis XVI) and Louis Wolheim (Executioner).

It followed Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and Broken Blossoms as his last major hit.

Frank Puglia makes his debut in Orphans of the Storm as Pierre Frochard.

Frank Puglia was appearing on stage in 1921 when he was spotted by D W Griffith, who hired him there and then, and he makes his debut here as Pierre Frochard. Puglia, who plays Uncle Enzo in his last film Mr Ricco (1975), ended up with 240 credits. He died on 25 October 1975, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5218

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