way down east (1920)
viewing guide
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film notes
Way Down East (1920) is D. W. Griffith's classic, silent melodramatic film. He bought the film rights to the story, originally a stage play of the same name by an inexperienced writer named Lottie Blair Parker. First performed in the late 1800s, it soon became one of the most popular plays in the US. It barnstormed successfully across the US for ten years, but was considered outdated by the time of its cinematic production in 1920. Although it was Griffith's most expensive film to date (costing him $175,000, more than the entire cost of his 1915 classic The Birth of A Nation (1915), it was one of his most commercially successful films.