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| Photos (see all 14 | slideshow) | Videos (see all 2) |
| Lillian Gish | ... | Henriette Girard | |
| Dorothy Gish | ... | Louise Girard | |
| Joseph Schildkraut | ... | Chevalier de Vaudrey | |
| Frank Losee | ... | Count de Linieres | |
| Katherine Emmet | ... | Countess de Linieres | |
| Morgan Wallace | ... | Marquis de Praille | |
| Lucille La Verne | ... | Mother Frochard | |
| Sheldon Lewis | ... | Jacques Frochard | |
| Frank Puglia | ... | Pierre Frochard | |
| Creighton Hale | ... | Picard | |
| Leslie King | ... | Jacques-Forget-Not | |
| Monte Blue | ... | Danton | |
| Sidney Herbert | ... | Robespierre | |
| Lee Kohlmar | ... | King Louis XVI | |
| Marcia Harris | ... | Henriette's landlady | |
| Adolph Lestina | ... | Doctor | |
| Kate Bruce | ... | Sister Genevieve | |
| Flora Finch | ... | Starving peasant | |
| Louis Wolheim | ... | Executioner | |
| Kenny Delmar | ... | The Chevalier, as a boy | |
| James Smith | ... | Dancer | |
| Herbert Sutch | ... | Meat carver at fete | |
| Rose Smith | ... | Dancer | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Ruth Cleaver | ... | (uncredited) | |
| Tove Danor | ... | (uncredited) | |
| Dorothy McConnell | ... | (uncredited) | |
| Frank O'Connor | ... | Party guest (uncredited) | |
Directed by | |||
| D.W. Griffith | |||
Writing credits | ||
| Adolphe d'Ennery | (novel "Les deux orphelines") & | |
| Eugène Cormon | (novel "Les deux orphelines") | |
| D.W. Griffith | writer (as Gaston de Tolignac) | |
Produced by | |||
| D.W. Griffith | .... | producer | |
Original Music by | |||
| Brian Benison | (1996) | ||
| Louis F. Gottschalk | |||
| John Lanchbery | (2001) | ||
| William Frederick Peters | (as William F. Peters) | ||
Cinematography by | |||
| Paul H. Allen | |||
| G.W. Bitzer | |||
| Hendrik Sartov | |||
Film Editing by | |||
| James Smith | |||
| Rose Smith | |||
Art Direction by | |||
| Charles M. Kirk | |||
Costume Design by | |||
| Herman Patrick Tappe | (uncredited) | ||
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director | |||
| Herbert Sutch | .... | assistant director | |
Art Department | |||
| Charles E. Boss | .... | stand-by painter | |
| Edward Scholl | .... | set designer | |
| Frank Wortman | .... | set builder | |
Special Effects by | |||
| Edward Scholl | .... | special effects | |
Camera and Electrical Department | |||
| Paul H. Allen | .... | assistant camera | |
Editorial Department | |||
| Margaret Booth | .... | cutter | |
Other crew | |||
| Anatole Danashaw | .... | laboratory supervisor | |
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| Anastasia | The Phantom of the Opera | The Man in the Iron Mask | The Good Earth | Wait Until Dark |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| IMDb Drama section | IMDb USA section | Add this title to MyMovies |
Maybe I just love Griffith when he's big. This French Revolution film is flawed, certainly, but I also think it's very good. The narrative has such an excellent flow. Dorothy Gish plays the daughter of aristocrats, abandoned as a baby at the Notre Dame cathedral when her father is assassinated. A poor man wanders to the cathedral intending to abandon his newborn daughter, too, but when he sees the other bundle in the snow, he decides not only to keep his own daughter, but take up the other child as well. When she is an adult, she has lost her sight (and her adoptive parents) to a plague. The poor man's real daughter (played by Lillian Gish) takes care of her. There is an operation she can get in Paris which will reverse her blindness, and Lillian swears that she will get it for her. She also vows to remain unmarried until her sister can see once again. Unfortunately, as soon as they get to Paris, they become separated. An immoral aristocrat fancies Lillian and orders her kidnapped and brought to his midnight orgy. Poor, blind Dorothy is left alone, and a beggar woman (Morgan Wallace) and her two rapscallion sons (Sheldon Lewis and Frank Puglia) take her back to their hole in the wall, planning to use her affliction to their advantage. Everyone who passes by will have such pity on the blind girl and give them lots of their spare change. Thus the story splits into two halves (though definitely favoring Lillian), following both the rich and the poor at the beginning of the Revolution. There are several exceptional sequences, including the revelries of Bastille Day and Lillian's frightful approach to the guillotine. There are some very weird connections that Griffith makes between the French Revolution and American history and present. One character he tells us (in a footnote, no less) is the "Abraham Lincoln of France." The film's introductory title tells us that the French Revolution was begun by Anarchists and Bolsheviks, although they did, in fact, overthrow a [i]bad[/i] government. He also adds that we in America should never overthrow our own government, which sounds very odd. Perhaps he was so overly wary of the societal impact he had with Birth of a Nation that he thought, quite arrogantly, that his French Revolution film might stir up a revolution at home. Or perhaps he was responding to the scandals surrounding the current president, Warren G. Harding. I don't really know, but it's very interesting.