Way Down East (1920) on Netflix
Lennox Sanderson, a wealthy man about town, draws Anna Moore into a wedding ceremony that is not real. She takes work with the Bartlett family, where David falls for her.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb7.3/106,372 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
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Plot summary
Anna Moore, a poor country girl, is tricked by Lennox Sanderson, a wealthy man about town, into a wedding that is no marriage at all. She believes the ceremony to be real, though it must be kept secret. In time she tells him she is expecting a child, and he then explains what the ceremony truly was and abandons her. Anna brings up her son, Trust Lennox, by herself. She takes a place in the household of Squire Bartlett, where David, the squire's son, falls for her though he is unofficially engaged. She turns him away because of her past. Lennox arrives at the Bartlett house as an old family friend, and when he sees Anna there he urges her to leave.
Cast
- Josephine Bernardas Mrs. Emma Tremont
- Mrs. Morgan Belmontas Diana Tremont
- Patricia Fruenas Diana's Sister
- Florence Shortas The Eccentric Aunt
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Way Down East (1920)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess performed their own stunts on the ice floes because no stunt doubles were used; Gish's hair froze, she lost feeling in her hand, and her right hand was somewhat impaired for the rest of her life.
- The frozen river where the ice-floe climax was shot had to be sawed or dynamited before filming, a small fire was kept burning beneath the camera so its oil would not freeze, and director D. W. Griffith was frostbitten on one side of his face.
SPOILER
Pennsylvania's film censor board demanded more than 60 cuts of Way Down East, removing the mock marriage, the honeymoon between Lennox and Anna and any hint of her pregnancy, so audiences in that state saw a child appear suddenly shortly before its death.- Clarine Seymour, who had appeared in four earlier Griffith films, was cast as Squire Bartlett's niece Kate, but after her early death Mary Hay took the role and Seymour's scenes were reshot.
- The ice-floe sequence was shot at White River Junction, Vermont, but the actual waterfall used was only a few feet high, so the long shot showing a large drop was filmed at Niagara Falls instead.
- Because the shot of the ice floes going over the waterfall was filmed out of season, the floes in it are actually made of wood.
