Orphans of the Storm
Director: D.W. Griffith
Year Released: 1921
Rating: 2.5
Henriette (Lillian Gish), raised with her blind, adopted twin sister Louise (Dorothy Gish), decides to take ol' Sis to Paris to help find a cure for her blindness, only to end up smack dab in the middle of something called the French Revolution, with the notable historical figures like Robespierre (Sidney Herbert) and Danton (Monte Blue) making obligatory appearances. Though Griffith's capturing of the fever of the revolution is astounding from an cinematic point-of-view, I felt the story of the two sisters and even the love story aspect (between Henriette and Chevalier du Vaudrey) is almost treated as an afterthought to Griffith commanding hundreds of extras to create a ruckus. Once the mass revolt is underway for the whole last half of the movie, the transparent and poorly developed title 'orphans' become almost extras themselves.
