The Birth of a Nation 1915 N/R, 159 min. Genre: Drama / Adventure / Western / Romance aka: The Clansman
Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden, Ralph Lewis, Donald Crisp, Raoul Walsh, Eugene Pallette, Elmo Lincoln, Robert Harron, John Ford, Joseph Henabery, Howard Gaye, Walter Long
With this epic film, Hollywood reached new heights in the production of extravaganzas. However, it is also an example of how filmmaking can be used as propaganda–in this case, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. The film begins with lifelong friends the Camerons (Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, and Mae Marsh) being separated from the Stonemans (Lillian Gish, Ralph Lewis, and Robert Harron) by the Civil War and the Mason Dixon line. When the war ends, Ben Cameron (Walthall) organizes a secret group, the Ku Klux Klan, to "restore" order. Music and battle noises were added for a 1930 reissue.
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Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl 1919 N/R, 90 min. Genre: Drama / Romance aka: Broken Blossoms
Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp, Arthur Howard, Edward Peil Sr., George Beranger, Norman Selby, Wilbur Higby, Moon Kwan, George Nichols
In this D.W. Griffith silent classic, Lillian Gish plays the undernourished, abused daughter of a brutal prizefighter, Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp). When she passes out in front of a shop owned by a newly arrived Chinaman (Richard Barthelmess), he takes her in and attempts to protect her from her father. He had also loved her from afar before rescuing her. Alas, her father finds out where she is hiding.
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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages 1916 N/R, 163 min. Genre: Drama / Romance aka: Intolerance
Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Howard Gaye, Elmo Lincoln, Walter Long, Bessie Love, Tully Marshall, Erich von Stroheim, Monte Blue, Donald Crisp, Robert Harron, F.A. Turner, Sam De Grasse, Vera Lewis, Eleanor Washington
This great film presents four stories, each in a different era from ancient Babylon to the present. All of the stories involve man's intolerance to man. The stories include a mountain girl in Babylonia and religious rivalry at the time, Pharisees' condemnation of Jesus Christ, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris and how it coincides with two Huguenots preparing for marriage, and social reformers in modern America destroying the lives of a young couple.
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Lady of the Pavements 1929 N/R, 93 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Lupe Velez, William Boyd, Jetta Goudal, Albert Conti, George Fawcett, Henry Armetta, William Bakewell, Franklin Pangborn
In this, D.W. Griffith's last silent film, Count Karl von Arnem (William Boyd) marries cabaret performer Nanon (Lupe Velez) and only later falls in love with her.
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Orphans of the Storm 1921 N/R, 150 min. Genre: Drama
Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Losee, Katherine Emmet, Morgan Wallace, Lucille La Verne, Sheldon Lewis, Frank Puglia, Creighton Hale, Monte Blue, Sidney Herbert, Lee Kohlmar, Marcia Harris, Leslie King
Set during the French Revolution, this is another of D.W. Griffith's great spectacles. It is the story of two orphans, Henriette and Louise (Lillian and Dorothy Gish), who were raised as sisters. After Dorothy goes blind, the two leave for Paris in an attempt to find someone to cure Dorothy. But they get separated as the war unfolds around them.
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Way Down East 1920 N/R, 145 min. Genre: Drama / Romance
Director: D.W. Griffith Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Creighton Hale, Kate Bruce, Mary Hay, Emily Fitzroy, Porter Strong, George Neville, Edgar Nelson, Norma Shearer, Vivia Ogden, Josephine Bernard, Mrs. Morgan Belmont
Poor country girl Anna Moore (Lillian Gish) leaves her home in Maine and visits Boston where she is tricked into a sham marriage to Lenox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). After Anna becomes pregnant, Lenox leaves her, she gives birth, and the baby dies. Anna finds shelter at Squire Bartlett's (Burr McIntosh) estate and falls in love with his son David (Richard Barthelmess). When the Squire, who is a religious zealot, learns about Anna's background, he is furious and orders her out of the house and into a fierce snowstorm. David searches for Anna, finds her being swept down the river on an ice floe, saves her life, and asks her to marry him.
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| 1. Abraham Lincoln (1930)
2. The Birth of a Nation (1915) aka: The Clansman
3. Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) aka: Broken Blossoms
4. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) aka: Intolerance
5. Lady of the Pavements (1929)
6. Orphans of the Storm (1921)
7. Way Down East (1920)
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