Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Broken Blossoms (1919)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

Broken Blossoms (1919)

In this silent film melodramatic classic from D.W. Griffith:

  • the sensitive and frail teenage Cockney waif Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish)
  • the scenes of her forced smile by pushing up the ends of her mouth with her fingers
  • the unforgettable death scene as her brutal and bigoted father Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp) savagely broke down the door as she cowered in a closet twisting to avoid him and later received the fatal blows
  • Lucy's death on her pillow while clutching her doll (her link to the Yellow Man) with a final finger-smile (her link to her father): (title-card) "Dying, she gives her last little smile to the world that has been so unkind"
Brutality of Battling Burrows


Lucy Burrows
(Lillian Gish)

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