Orphans of the Storm (1921)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

Adolphe d'Ennery (novel) &
Eugène Cormon (novel) ...
(more)

Release Date:

28 December 1921 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Henriette and Louise, a foundling, are raised together as sisters. When Louise goes blind, Henriette swears to take care of her forever...

Plot Keywords:

Blindness | Guillotine | Aristocracy | French Revolution | Knife Fight

Cast

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

Production Companies

• D.W. Griffith Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1921) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universum Film (UFA) (1923) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Delta Expedition (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Grapevine Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1997) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Image Entertainment (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Kino Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Punto Zero (2007) (Italy) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1991) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Sfinks (1922) (Poland) (theatrical)

Also Known As:

Órfas da Tempestade (Brazil) (DVD title) [pt]
As Duas Orfãs (Portugal) [pt]
Dwie sieroty (Poland) [pl]
Las dos huérfanas (Spain) [es]
Le due orfanelle (Italy) [it]
Les deux orphelines (France) [fr]
Myrskyn lapset (Finland) (informal literal title) [fi]
Orpolapset (Finland) [fi]
Zwei Waisen im Sturm (Germany) [de]
Zwei Waisen im Sturm der Zeiten (Austria) [de]

Runtime:

150 min | Germany:152 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Orient Point, Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

D.W. Griffith Productions

Trivia:

It was the last movie the Gish sisters made together and Lillian's last film for Griffith.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)

Great French Revolution story

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.