Orphans of the Storm (1921)

Historical Melodrama. - Orphans of the Storm review by Steve

Lavish historical epic which places its characters within the events of the French Revolution. It failed at the box office, perhaps because of its lengthy and complicated narrative. The picture is further confused by DW Griffith's position on the uprising. The film was made four years after the Russian revolution and this is primarily anti-Bolshevik propaganda. By the end of the film it feels like the aristocrats prevailed.

The films of Griffith and Lillian Gish were starting to go out of fashion by 1921. And this title came to stand for the excesses of Victorian melodrama. But Orphans of the Storm succeeds as a spectacle. The recreation of Paris is magnificent. The cast of extras is vast and the costumes are fabulous. Griffith manoeuvres Gish into a fresh cliffhanger every ten minutes and disentangles her at the last possible instant.

This works because the director is so good at suspense, and also because Lillian Gish is such an immense screen presence. She transcends the classic archetype of early cinema; a virtuous woman who must suffer because the world is hostile, but who is rewarded for her purity.

Griffith doesn't frame Gish in close-up as much as usual. We see her in long shot, a fragment trapped in the whirlwind of events. Inevitably the film climaxes with Lillian on the guillotine and Danton riding to the rescue... As melodrama it is formulaic, though entertaining, as history it is bunk, but as a spectacle and a vehicle for Lillian's poignant fragility, it is a triumph.