A young Chinese man (Richard Barthelmess) arrives in England to spread the message of Buddha. But his good intentions eventually vanish when faced with the remorseless and cruel atmosphere of the Limehouse ghetto. When he meets a young girl (Lillian Gish), still a child really, abused by her brute of a father (Donald Crisp), they respond to each other's kindness. But it's not long before the callous world rears its ugly head. After the elaborate complicated great epic
INTOLERANCE, the director D.W. Griffith down scaled to this heartbreaking intimate melodrama of two broken spirits who briefly find solace in each other. Gish is really amazing here, showing why she was the greatest actress of the silent era. Her fear of her thuggish father is palpable, it leaps out at you and one can never forget her frightened animal terror in the closet to escape her father's murderous rage. If Crisp overdoes the brute at times (he acts with his lower teeth), there's no negating the terror his gorilla like presence evokes. With Arthur Howard, George Beranger and Edward Peil Sr.
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