If pushed to the wall I think that most film historians will agree that the first great director/player team in American film is that of D.W. Griffith and Lillian Gish. The last collaboration of that team is Orphans Of The Storm in which sister Dorothy had a prominent role as another orphan.
The source for this film is a story of French origin, the kind of material it would be impossible to do today, it would date so. Lillian and Dorothy are a pair of adopted sisters, Dorothy is in fact of noble birth, but as an infant she was abandoned because her mother had married a commoner and such was not done in Bourbon France.
The story of Orphans Of The Storm is how Lillian and Dorothy raised together, get separated through time and circumstance and in between when they reunite, France undergoes a revolution.
Although Griffith's source of the story was French, he relied heavily on Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens. Carlyle's history and A Tale Of Two Cities by Dickens became the picture that the average person in the English speaking world had of those times in France it would have been what the movie-going public expected. As history Orphans Of The Storm falls way short.
As entertainment to this day the Gish sisters will tear your heart out with their troubles and turmoil. Playing the part of an aristocrat with a conscience like Charles Darnay in A Tale Of Two Cities is a young Joseph Schildkraut. It was clear he would have a long career ahead of him and his speaking voice enhanced his employment opportunities when sound came in.
Lillian Gish when she wrote her memoirs in the 1970s and who knew she still had a substantial career ahead of her, entitled the book, The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me. Reading that book and hearing interviews with her while she was alive, I don't think I ever heard any player convey more love for her art and her mentor than Ms. Gish did. From The Birth Of A Nation until The Whales Of August no one ever had a longer or more fruitful career in film than Lillian Gish.
I don't want to shortchange Dorothy either. Her part called for her to lose her sight and you will rarely see innocence portrayed quite as touchingly as she does in Orphans Of The Storm. An unseen hand of Providence protects those like Dorothy Gish. Doesn't hurt to have a caring sister.
If you're a silent movie fan, this film is an absolute must as well as a fan of the Gish sisters.
The source for this film is a story of French origin, the kind of material it would be impossible to do today, it would date so. Lillian and Dorothy are a pair of adopted sisters, Dorothy is in fact of noble birth, but as an infant she was abandoned because her mother had married a commoner and such was not done in Bourbon France.
The story of Orphans Of The Storm is how Lillian and Dorothy raised together, get separated through time and circumstance and in between when they reunite, France undergoes a revolution.
Although Griffith's source of the story was French, he relied heavily on Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens. Carlyle's history and A Tale Of Two Cities by Dickens became the picture that the average person in the English speaking world had of those times in France it would have been what the movie-going public expected. As history Orphans Of The Storm falls way short.
As entertainment to this day the Gish sisters will tear your heart out with their troubles and turmoil. Playing the part of an aristocrat with a conscience like Charles Darnay in A Tale Of Two Cities is a young Joseph Schildkraut. It was clear he would have a long career ahead of him and his speaking voice enhanced his employment opportunities when sound came in.
Lillian Gish when she wrote her memoirs in the 1970s and who knew she still had a substantial career ahead of her, entitled the book, The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me. Reading that book and hearing interviews with her while she was alive, I don't think I ever heard any player convey more love for her art and her mentor than Ms. Gish did. From The Birth Of A Nation until The Whales Of August no one ever had a longer or more fruitful career in film than Lillian Gish.
I don't want to shortchange Dorothy either. Her part called for her to lose her sight and you will rarely see innocence portrayed quite as touchingly as she does in Orphans Of The Storm. An unseen hand of Providence protects those like Dorothy Gish. Doesn't hurt to have a caring sister.
If you're a silent movie fan, this film is an absolute must as well as a fan of the Gish sisters.