Way to the East

At the beginning of the film, we see a young girl, Anna Moore, leaving her home in a small village in New England and going to her rich relatives in Boston . There she meets a certain Lennox Sanderson, a first-class womanizer who has turned a young provincial to his head, and under his onslaught a naive girl enters into a fake marriage with him. Then Sanderson leaves Anna, learning about her pregnancy. She is forced to return to her remote place, but the newborn baby soon dies, as does Anna's mother. She remains all alone and begins to wander around the neighborhood in search of at least some work.

An unhappy woman finds a job as a maid with landowner Bartlett. David, the son of Squire Bartlett, falls in love with her. But Anna Moore strongly opposes his advances, remembering her failed “marriage”. Moreover, Lennox appears on the estate, settling in the neighborhood and this time bestowing upon Kate, squire Bartlett's niece.

As a result of subsequent events, the past of Anna Moore is nevertheless opened up and Squire Bartlett exposes the unfortunate woman to the door while a blizzard dominates the street. Before leaving, the girl still manages to say a few words in her defense and throws words of anger and denunciation to the villain Sanderson who was invited to the house, pointing directly at him as a seducer and father who left her unborn child. Anna runs away into the raging weather, not noticing anything in front of her eyes. Reaching the river and exhausted, she falls on the ice without feelings. On the river, meanwhile, begins the movement of ice and floe with Anna Moore moving in the direction of the waterfall. David, in love with Anna, who rushed after her to search, came to the rescue in time and saved her beloved just a minute before she died.

In the final, Squire Bartlett asks for forgiveness from Anna, the villain Sanderson is confounded and expelled, and the lovers get married.

•   - On September 3, 1920, the world premiere of the film took place at the New York 44th Street Theater . The box office success was impressive; it’s enough to recall the fact that the film is considered the second most profitable among Griffith films and the fourth among the silent films in the entire history ^[3] .
•   - The European premiere of the film took place on January 16, 1922 in Stockholm , ( Sweden ).
•   - since February 10, 1926 , the film was shown in the USSR under the names “Far in the East”, “Waterfall of Life”.

Background

The little-known writer and playwright Lotti Blair Parker ^[1] wrote the play in the 1890s . At the same time, an enterprising producer and theater director William A. Brady bought out the rights to the production and finished the play and put it on stage. In 1900 On the basis of the play, Joseph R. Grismere will write a novel, and his wife, actress Phoebe Davis, from 1897, will play a major role in the production and will make 4,000 performances with her on stage. Until 1909, the play was one of the most commercially successful in the United States , but was considered obsolete by the time it was screened in the 1920s ^[4] . And when Griffith bought the rights to film it from William A. Brady for a fabulous sum of $ 175,000 at that time (then he paid $ 7,000 more for Lotty Blair Parker) ^[5] , many of his surroundings were perplexed about it and twisted finger to the temple in relation to this act of the director. Even the leading lady, actress Lillian Gish , who has worked with Griffith for many years, didn’t believe in the success of the upcoming production, which she wrote in her memoirs “Films, Mr. Griffith and I” ^[6] . However, the doubts of all skeptics disappeared with the release of the picture on the screen: it was one of the most commercially successful films of the director, which brought a significant profit (with a total production cost of $ 700,000, the fees were $ 4,500,000) ^[7] .

Shooting

The filming continued for eight months, 76,000 meters of film were spent, of which only 4,000 were included in the final version of the film. It was the first Griffith film filmed at his DW Studios Griffith Productions for his recently founded on a set with Charles Chaplin , Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks of the United Artists company. Griffith bought 28 acres of land in Mamaroneke ( Westchester County , New York ). Although “The Road to the East” was commercially successful, the film was Griffith’s last hit at the box office. The studio will continue to produce his film Orphans of the Storm ( 1921 ), several films from Dorothy Guiche , the only directorial work of Lillian Guiche “ Modeling Her Husband ” ( 1920 ) and several other films, but they will not be as financially successful as “Path to the East” and the studio will close in 1925 ^[8] .

A snowstorm and events on the river were filmed in three different places. The blizzard, by the way, the director specifically waited to add credibility to what is happening on the screen, despite the additional filming costs in the days of idleness. When the blizzard raged, they filmed day and night, so as not to miss the moment. During the filming, a big bonfire was made so that the oil in the movie camera would not freeze. The crew was also warming by the fire. Lillian Guiche felt all the weather badly because she was wearing only a thin dress and a small shawl. Her figure stumbled in the snow and constantly fell into a pile of giant snowdrifts. Ice actually froze on the eyelashes of the actress, which Griffith effectively captured in a close-up shot.

The main part of the rescue scenes on ice was filmed near the White River Junction village ( Vermont ) in March. The river was still frozen, so the crew members had to cut the ice into pieces. The scenes with Anna Moore at the waterfall were filmed on the river near Farmington ( Connecticut ) during the spring - the ice had already melted and melted, so that it was necessary for the carpenters to create it from painted plywood, but they were even more dangerous for the film crew ^[8] .

“The Way to the East” is one of the most famous and interesting films of the master, but it will be the last of those. Griffith's subsequent work will not be expressive, the director will begin to lose a sense of novelty and style, and even "young talents will come on his heels", which he will also learn something about. For example, in connection with this film, one of the most famous film historians Georges Sadul writes that the final scene of the film of the Soviet film director Vsevolod Pudovkin's “ Mother ” ( 1926 ) was influenced by the scene of the icebreaker Griffith’s “Path to the East” ^[9] .

The differences between rural and urban lifestyles are shown in Griffith through the most dramatic story about a provincial girl who was used when she tried to arrange her life in the city. Deceived through a fake marriage and left with a sick child, Anna Moore is trying to start a new life, despite her “shameful” past. The culmination of the film are precisely those final scenes where an unhappy woman dying in the ice is saved by her lover. These scenes are classic examples of world cinema. These scenes were not in the play of Blati Parker, nor in the later written novel by Joseph R. Grismmer, published in 1900. According to some reports, this scene was inserted into the film under the impressions of the successful film series “ Dangerous Adventures of Polina ” with Pearl White in the title role, one of the Hollywood stars of those years. In her films, the main focus was always on action and trick scenes.

The cast of the two main performers, Lillian Gish and Richard Bartelmess, is flawless in this film. And by the way, Lillian Gish until her death (and she lived for almost a hundred years) had a handache after the filming of this film. The scenes on the drifting ice are shown moments where she lies, immobilized and unconscious, her hair and one arm were lowered into cold water. The actress got frostbite and, until her death, the pain in her hand did not leave her.

• Popular in the 1930s, Hollywood star Norma Shearer , the wife of one of the bosses of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, Irving Talberg , is taking her first steps here - she appears in the episodic role of a dancer on a holiday. And moreover, not one, but along with her in the same and in the same tiny episodes her mother and sister will perform.

• Clarine Seymour , one of Griffith's regular actresses of those years, was originally assigned to the role of Kate, the niece of Squire Bartlett. The actress will actually play all the episodes intended for her role, when suddenly she feels sharp pains due to intestinal obstruction. She will die on April 25, 1920 as a result of an emergency unsuccessful operation. Griffith replaced Seymour by dancer Mary Hay, who had been doubler Seymour before and replaced her on distant plans. Although David, the hero of the film “The Way to the East” still does not marry Kate, as it was imposed on him by his parents in the plot of the film, in real life the actor who played David Richard Bartelmes will marry actress Mary Hay (the bride who did not take place on him for the film) .

• Robert Harron , one of the favorites of David Wark Griffith and a regular performer of roles in almost all of his films, will shoot himself under mysterious circumstances after the world premiere of the film “Way to the East” in New York . Harron, whom Griffith cherished and cherished as a director, was reportedly depressed by the fact that Griffith in his last two successful projects did not give him the main role (this refers to the films “ Broken Shoots ” ( 1919 ) and “The Way to the East” ( 1920 ). In both of these films, Richard Bartelmess played the main roles, as Harron believed - he took his place. By the way, Barthelmes previously played in comedies with Dorothy Guiche , and Robert Harron was engaged to her (so according to other sources) could shoot himself out of jealousy towards Dorothy.) Although, according to Lillian Guiche (sisters Dorothy ), Harron on his deathbed denied any attempt at suicide at all, so it was still not clear whether that suicide or an accident?

• Way down east

• Path to the East on the Internet Movie Database