Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.
- Awards
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWilliam J. Walsh, an extra playing a soldier, was killed on set when a prop rifle he was leaning on went off by accident; although the weapon was loaded with a blank cartridge, the wadding from a blank fired at point-blank range is capable of inflicting serious injury or death.
- GoofsEarly in the Paris scenes there are two bare-chested revolutionaries. One has visible tan lines showing that he had worn a 20s lifeguard-style two-strap bathing suit.
- Quotes
Title Card: [Opening lines] TIME, - Before and during the French Revolution. Our story is of two little orphans who suffer first through the tyranny - selfishness - of Kingly bosses, nobles and aristocrats. After the King's Government falls they suffer with the rest of the people as much through the new Government, established by the pussy-footing Robespierre through Anarchy and Bolshevism. Strange that both these evil rulers were otherwise highly moral men except that they saw evil in all who did not THINK AS THEY DID. The lesson - the French Revolution RIGHTLY overthrew a BAD government. But we in America should be careful lest we with a GOOD government mistake fanatics for leaders and exchange our decent law and order for Anarchy and Bolshevism.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Love Goddesses (1965)
But Griffith's vision of the French Revolution is naive,to put it mildly.He was not apparently aware that the 1789 events were mainly a bourgeois move,and the poor were only a tool.The dichotomy Good Danton/Wicked Robespierre should make people who are looking for a sort of historical accuracy have a look at Wajda"s "Danton"(with G.Depardieu,in the eighties).
Forget history and you have a two-hour and a half silent movie with never a dull moment.Griffith is a wonderful storyteller,who had a great respect for his audience.Some sequences are still impressive today:the aristocratic orgy,when the Poor are starving at the gates of the palace is far from D'Ennery's timid depiction of the scene in the book;Lillian Gish,a wonderful actress who 'd been part of the cinema till the eighties,is so powerful in her part of the abducted maiden Henriette we can almost hear her when she screams out of despair:"is there a man of honor among you?Louise and the shrew who got her under her thumb begging in front of the cathedral as the snow is falling is a splendid picture,recalling a painter's work;even if Danton's coming to the rescue of a soon-to-be guillotined Henriette is thoroughly implausible,we cannot help but admire the director's maestria.
Few silent movies have stood the test of time as well as this one.
- dbdumonteil
- Sep 3, 2002
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Two Orphans
- Filming locations
- Mamaroneck, New York, USA(D.W. Griffith: Father of Film)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 30 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1