Orphans of the Storm

Name: Orphans of the Storm
Director: D.W. Griffith
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Released: 1921
Duration: 2 h 30 min
Cast: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Creighton Hale, Monte Blue

1921 Drama History 150 minutes Directed by D.W. Griffith

About Orphans of the Storm

Before the Revolution, Henriette takes her adopted sister Louise to Paris to find a doctor for Louise’s blindness. She has promised not to marry until Louise can see the man. The Marquis de Praille has Henriette abducted to a party at his estate and leaves Louise in the street. The Chevalier de Vaudrey fights a duel and gets Henriette out. Mother Frochard lures the blind girl into a cellar and uses her as a beggar. Lillian Gish plays Henriette. Dorothy Gish plays Louise. Joseph Schildkraut plays Vaudrey. D. W. Griffith directed.

Cast & crew

More about Orphans of the Storm

Griffith produced it and wrote the adaptation of Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Cormon’s 1874 play Les Deux Orphelines. Billy Bitzer and Hendrik Sartov photographed it. James Smith edited. Louis F. Gottschalk wrote the score. United Artists released it in the United States. The Boston premiere was 28 December 1921. Wikipedia times it at 150 minutes. A technical note lists 13,500 feet in 14 reels. Lucille La Verne plays Mother Frochard. Morgan Wallace plays de Praille.

Themes

A promise not to marry until a blind sister can see
An abduction at the city gate
A cellar and the Revolution
Henriette
Louise
de Praille
de Vaudrey
Mother Frochard
French Revolution
Gish

Background

The story runs from the last years of the old regime into the Revolution. Griffith said he was talking about class hatred in his own time as well as 1790s Paris.

Making

Griffith used the 1874 orphan play and the Terror as a warning about Bolshevism. One line, spoken before the Committee of Public Safety, is “Yes I am an aristocrat, but a friend of the people.”

Audiences

Set against Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, and Way Down East, Wikipedia calls the commercial result a failure.

Look

Billy Bitzer and Hendrik Sartov shot the Paris streets, the abduction, and the revolutionary crowds.

Music

Louis F. Gottschalk wrote the score for the silent film.

Preservation

The film survives. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

Vaudrey is the aristocrat who helps Henriette. De Praille is the one who has her taken.
It is the last Griffith film with both Gish sisters.
Wikipedia cites a budget of $760,000 and gives two rental figures, $3 million worldwide and $2 million.
Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.