June 3 movie: Broken Blossoms. TCM followed The Cheat with this legendary 1919 D.W. Griffith movie. Along with Intolerance, Broken Blossoms was intended to respond to criticisms about the racism in Birth of a Nation. Well, Broken Blossoms may be every bit as racist as Birth of a Nation but Griffith clearly thought he was making a positive statement about racial tolerance. The horrible stereotypes were intended to be positive, sort of the 1919 version of "Asians are good at math." Richard Barthelmess stars as a gentle Chinese immigrant (known only as The Yellow Man) who takes in an abused girl played by Lillian Gish.
As with The Cheat I have to set aside my revulsion at the racial message and concede that the filmmaking is exceptional. As is the acting, especially Barthelmess, and no, he was not Asian. Of course it was common at the time, and for decades after, for white actors to play Asian characters. Barthelmess later starred in the horrible movie Son of the Gods, in which he plays a Chinese man passing as white, who finds out late in the movie that he really is white and was adopted by his Chinese family. Which plot twist works because audiences had already seen him as a Chinese character in Broken Blossoms.
Good commentary again from the guest expert, who pointed out a hilarious intertitle card that we noticed too: "Why are you so nice to me, Chinky?"
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