RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Ian (Flash Review)The crux of this film begins with two orphan girls living in the same house and one goes blind from disease. The sister sparks a mission for them to head to Paris to find a doctor to cure her. During their adventure the French Revolution hits and they are separated. The blind girl is taken in by a smarmy old hag (film's words. Ha) while the sister has been courted by an aristocrat. During the Revolution, many aristocrats are rounded up and many put to death. Will the sister escape death and be reunited with her sister and will her sister ever see again? There is a lot of meat on the bone of this story that runs around 2.5hr and it really keeps you engaged. There is some neat edits and certain scenes have very modern editing that help ratchet up the tension. Another one of the influential epic films directed by D.W. Griffith.

st-shot With the French Revolution as backdrop DW Griffith exposes his constant heroine Lillian Gish to depraved aristocrats and blood thirsty revolutionaries in Orphans of the Storm. Made during the Red Scare in America Griffith takes the opportunity to promote democracy and denigrate runaway Bolshevism in this silent epic filled with his signature montage and grand compositions.Louise (Dorothy Gish) the abandoned daughter of an aristocrat is taken in by the destitute Girards. Raised as a sister with Henriette she loses her sight but has a fierce protector in her sibling who travels with her to Paris on the eve of full revolt led by Danton and Robespierre. Through the diabolical machinations of of an aristo she is separated from her sister and spends most of the film attempting to re-unite with her and avoid the guillotine. In her search she is assisted by the aristocrat DeVaudry (Joseph Schildkraut) as well as Danton (Monte Blue) who can find time from overthrowing the country to rescue Henriette from the blade. Griffith straddles the fence in this history piece with praise for individuals but condemnation for both sides. Most of the aristocrats are degenerates, the revolutionaries blood lusting and depraved and Griffith fills his canvases with scenes of bacchanalian reverie and sadistic cruelty to drive the point home. Danton may be a champion of the people but Robespierre and Jaques "Never Forget" seem bent on revenge and blood letting while the decent side of the aristos is represented by Henriette's compassionate pursuer DeVaudry.Politics aside Storm is filled with sumptuous sets and crowd scenes that convey the frenzy of the moment and the accompanying delirium of be headings and dancing in the street. Lillian Gish is both delicate and determined and in scenes with Dorothy the two are quite touching to watch. Monte Blue's Danton is a bit over the top but the sharp venal features of Robespierre and Jaques Never Forget seething with hatred express themselves perfectly with a mere look. While it may not be the mega epic that Intolerance and Birth of a Nation are Orphans of the Storm proves that size isn't everything and it remains one of Griffith's best efforts.

JoeytheBrit Henriette (Lillian Gish) and her sort-of adoptive sister Louise (Dorothy Gish) must travel to Paris on the eve of the French revolution so that Louise can have an operation to reverse the blindness she suffered as a result of the plague (which also claimed her adoptive parents). However, they soon become separated once in Paris: while Louise is left at the mercy of an unscrupulous beggar woman, Henriette finds herself the target of a salacious nobleman with plans to ravish her at his midnight orgy.How's that for bodice-ripping melodrama? D. W. Griffith, who could still just about do no wrong back in 1921, produced yet another drama on an epic scale, little realising he was on the cusp of an irreversible decline that would see him unable to win work of any kind within a decade. There's little sign of his powers waning here as he delivers a big, ambitious spectacle that sets the intimate relationship of two half-sisters against the broad canvas of the French revolution. Judging from the inter-titles, Griffith's prime motivation was to highlight the similarities between the manipulation of the revolution by such men as Robespierre with the then-recent revolution in Russia and the dangers of such an event occurring in (gasp!) America. Of course, we all now know that D. needn't have worried himself, but his sincerity is certainly evident in the attention to detail, and the lavish sets and costumes of the film. The debauched midnight party is something to behold, and put me in mind of all those modern day films and videos in which young and edgy directors think they're doing something special by adding a kitsch glamour to the frocks and wigs of the noble women in their period films. The fact is Griffith was eighty years ahead of them.Sadly, as with most of Griffith's films when viewed today, there's a down-side due to the horrendous over-acting of some of his players. Lillian Gish is OK most of the time – she always seemed to exercise an admirable restraint in her performances no matter who she was working under – but her little sister Dorothy goes over the top a little too often. Even she is outplayed by Monte Blue, who plays Danton, in his big climactic scene; clutching one hand to his chest, he holds his other aloft as if tightly grasping a half-inflated balloon partially filled with water, and pulls wild faces as he begs the People's Court to have mercy on the poor little orphans. As a device to emphasise the drama of the moment it no doubt worked fine ninety years ago, but today such displays border on the comical.The pace of the film is surprisingly good considering its age and running time – a bum-numbing 150 minutes – and despite introducing the audience to a large cast of characters within the first ten or fifteen minutes, Griffith does a good job of not confusing his audience. Needless to say, the last reel, with the customary race against time to save the imperiled heroine, is a master-class in cross-cutting and still manages to get pulses racing even today.Despite the melodramatics from certain members of the cast, I found Orphans of the Storm a more accessible and enjoyable film than the likes of Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, which are held in higher esteem by most people. Griffith's touch seems much more assured than with BoaN, and the storyline is obviously less fragmented than it is in Intolerance.

wes-connors Before and during the French Revolution, "Orphans of the Storm" Lillian and Dorothy Gish (as Henriette and Louise Girard) "suffer through tyranny and selfishness." During the Plague, the sisters lose their parents, and Dorothy goes blind; but, Lillian vows to care for her sister forever, declaring, "I'll see for you." And, she does, for awhile... When the sisters learn the city may hold a cure for Dorothy's blindness; they journey to Paris. There, Lillian is accosted by lusty aristocrat Morgan Wallace (as Marquis de Praille), but she rejects his advances. Mr. Wallace decides he must have Lillian, and arranges to have her abducted for an upcoming orgy; this leaves the blind Dorothy helpless, on the streets of Paris. She is rescued by street beggar Frank Puglia (as Pierre Frochard); unfortunately, his mother Lucille La Verne is a cruel hag, who abuses Dorothy. Joseph Schildkraut (as Chevalier de Vaudrey) falls for, and rescues Lillian, but finding her blind sister during the French Revolution proves to be quite le problème.D.W. Griffith and company are triumphant in this (yet another) breathtakingly beautiful film; the direction, photography, sets, and editing, and performances are superb. Lillian and Dorothy Gish are flawless as the "Orphans of the Storm" (this was the last Griffith/Gish cinematic team-up). The children who play the Gish sisters look and act amazingly like their adult counterparts. Mr. Schildkraut is quaint, yet charming, as Lillian's leading man; he is a romantic ideal, kissing her tears and stroking her face; after the revolution, he becomes quite strong. Dorothy's relationship with poor Puglia is an unexpected pleasure; Puglia is given, and gives, a surprisingly vivid characterization; as his mother, Ms. La Verne is deliciously wretched - you can almost see her tonsils as she cackles! The "Frochard" family (La Verne, Puglia and Sheldon Lewis) help give the film a Charles Dickens touch. Monte Blue is thunderous as revolutionary Danton, and Creighton Hale quirky as Picard. One of the characters gets it in the end. ********** Orphans of the Storm (12/28/21) D.W. Griffith ~ Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Puglia