A country girl is seduced and abandoned. The child dies, but a good young man rescues her from the rapids of a river and marries her. Anna Moore (Lillian Gish), having left her family, goes to the city in search of work. There she meets a man who seduces her and marries her, but her wild husband soon abandons her. A child is born but dies after a few days. Alone and desperate, Anna finds refuge with a good family, where young David (Richard Barthelmess) falls in love with her. When her husband reappears, however, Anna is banished…
A typically Griffithian Victorian melodrama, with a memorably pathetic Lillian Gish, especially famous for the thrillingly paced sequence on the river ice. It was post-synchronised with the addition of a colour sequence and later remade (‘Way Down East’ 1935) under the direction of Henry King.
– PRIMA PROIEZIONE: NEW YORK, 3 SETTEMBRE 1920.
subject: Lottie Blair Parker, Joseph R. Grismer
script: William A. Brady, Joseph R. Grismer, Lottie Blair Parker
photography: G.W. Bitzer, Charles Downs, Hendrik Sartov
music by: Louis Silvers
mounting: James Smith, Rose Smith
scenography: Clifford Pember, Charles Seessel
color: Bianco & Nero
taken from: Play by William A. Brady; play " Way Down East" by Joseph R. Grismer; play "Annie Laurie" by Lottie Blair Parker.
production company: David W. Griffith Productions
distribution: ROAD SHOW - UNITED ARTISTS CORPORATION
Su gentile concessione dell'Ente dello Spettacolo
