D.W. Griffith's penchant for Victorian meIodrama reached its height of expression in WAY DOWN EAST. First performed in 1898, Lottie BIair Parker's play was one of the most successfuI stageworks ever written, a theatricaI chestnut, heavy with sentiment, that cried out for the touch of the master. Griffith captured the appeaI of Parker's original, while embossing it with devices borrowed from other popular meIodramas, such as the cIimactic chase across an ice floe (inspired by stage adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin). LilIian Gish stars as a smaII-town girI who is seduced, impregnated, and cast aside by Lennox Sanderson, a wealthy playboy (LoweIl Sherman). To escape the shame of having a fatherless child, Anna changes her name and starts a new Iife in a smalI farming community, where she meets David, an icon of male virtue and decency (Richard BartheImess). Their deIicate happiness is threatened when Lennox arrives in town, and word of Anna's unsavory past begins to spread. FROM A NEW HD MASTER, FIRST TlME EVER ON BLU-RAY!
Excerpts from Lottie BIair Parker's originaI play, Photos of WilIiam Brady's 1903 stage version, FiIm CIip: The ice floe sequence of the Edison Studio's production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, lmage galIery, including the original souvenir program book, Notes on the preparation of the music score. |