The Washington times., 1919-10-20
PALACE AND COLUMBIA.


IL IL not beyond the ordinary per
sons conception that beauty unpre-
cedented might be found in the so--
did tale OF a brutal murder, OF swift
ayenxfnz death, and OF suicide? Per-
hAos-but not beyond the vision Of
David wark Griffith, magician OF the
screen. wizard OF film artistry, who
in Broken Blossoms" has made OF
a narrowing tale Of filth and DEAN
a picture so beautifully sad, that
what feeling Of horor there might be
eAgendered In the hearts OF specta-
tara Immediately Is lost in the sense
OF xrief that is strangely soothing
beautiful
perhaps that simple word. beauti-
fui, seems too often repeated mere
yet one can not help but use II again
AAd again No other word expresses
fktfnxly what Broken Blossoms
csnveys. Few eyes among the thou
sands which saw first presentations
Of the film at the Columbia or Pai-
ace Theaters yesterday were dry
when The End" flashed silenty on
the screen. Griffith's utter command
Of motion picture art has never been
demonstrated so wondrously as In
this adaptation Of Thomas Burke's
srhe Chink and the Child" from his
sLmehouse Nights" series.
The tale Is simple-a young China
man his dream OF converting the oc-
esdent shattered against the realities
OF London life, has contented himself
with maintaining a little shop In the
Lamehouse section OF the metropolis.
rbere he learns to love from a dis
tAnce Lucy, the fifteen-year-old, tear
Axed daughter OF Battling Burrows,
A hIdeous, detestable brute of man,
who makes of the girl the target for
his outbreaks Of rage
There comes a time when, beaten
By. her father, the girl staggers
blindly through the fog-filled strests
and stumbles into the shop Of the
cAinaman- He cares for her-the
hrst Kindness the child has ever
known He takes her to his rooms,
where he receives her and bedecks
her az q princess His love remains
ever a pure. holy thing.
But The Spying One learns, and tells
the Battler. He, finding a sense OF
Outraged parenthood. vows vengeance.
Finding the girl in the Chinaman's
, rooms. he wrecks the quarters and
drags the girl home, where he
beats her to death The Chinaman
follows, and attacked by the prize
hghter, shoots him to death Then
he carries the bruised little body OF
. tie girl senderly back to his rooms,
. where he drapes the body in oriental
dnery and then ends his own life.
|, There Is - happy ending there
vet the picture leaves one with an
anomalous sense OF happiness In its
utter sadness
The photography Is beyond COM
parison- The screen now radiates
sbrilliance in its scenes OF action
now a mzuve softness in its scenes of
rp hzf rf1r min rfaS
with no jarring subtitle to mar the
Z deep beauty of their simplicity. There
are scenes In a weird eiuish fog
scenes of horror and Of death In all,
II is the sort of thing one would ex-
pect from Grifhth-yet even beyond
that expectation
~. Lillian Gish is The Girl. She does
not sct-she rather seems to feel the
terror of the death that she knows
vs. near. Her scene in the closet,
trapped, with her father battering at
the door TO beat her to death Is so
terrifying that more than one in the
= audience was forced to turn away.
Words are weak to express apprecia-
tfon OF her wonderful work.
- Richard Barthelmess, a youth OF
rare ability, Is the Chinaman. No
eburiesaue makeup spoils the role as
he portrays it. He plays the part
With a sense Of dramatic value that
makes IL one of the epic portrayals in
motion picture annals
Donald Crisp. as Battling Burrows,
10 a ngure that must remain In ones
mind as the personifcation of bru-
-rAlity-of hatefulness-of crime.
.ss Broken Blossoms" came heralded
. A the eighth art It came heralded
az the greatest motion picture ever
produced Few indeed can there be
who dissent