Broken Blossoms Outake Lobby Card from 1919

DW Griffith’s 1919 silent film Broken Blossoms was based on a short story (The Chink and the Child) set in London’s old Chinatown of Limehouse from Thomas Burke (part of his Limehouse Nights). While the movie was shot in the US it was meant to be in London’s East End and the sets were considered quite realistic (see Anne Witchard’s Thomas Burke’s Dark Chinoiserie). “The Yellow Man” falls in love “The Girl” who is abused by her father the pugilist Battling Burrows. Plenty of yellowface from Richard Barthelmiss as a Chinese and a lot of pouting from Lillian Gish. However, the film begins in China: “At the turn-stiles of the East – The bund of a great Chinese treaty port” with some sailors out on the town. Here then is a colour lobby card for the movie (which was obviously shown in black and white) and uses a scene I think cut from the final edit of the movie….