Broken Blossoms

or The Yellow Man and the Girl

Hosted by Simon

Date 11/02/20

Score 71%

Expectations were low for Simon's 1910's film. There were numerous suggestions that we should bring our own pillows and cushions in order to make our expected snooze more comfortable.

However, the evening started well with plenty of 1919 facts - none of which I cam remember thanks in part to a cocktail called a sidecar. Allegedly, the cocktail was first served at the Paris Ritz about 1919. Ingredients 5 parts Congac, 2 parts Cointreau and 2 parts lemon juice. For nibbles there was bread and jam - was that a common pairing in 1919?

Broken Blossoms - A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences! The black and white silent film was written, directed and produced by DW Griffiths who is widely recognised as the person who started the feature length film industry. He also created United Artists along with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks and together they produced many of the early films. Broken Blossoms starred Lillian Gish who was often described as being "The First Lady of American Cinema". The film was a commercial success having being made on a budget of $88k and taken over $600k at the box office.

Despite expectations the story line and filming managed to keep us all (apart from the chairman) engaged. Fortunately the film was only a modest 90 minutes long - many of the films of the time were much longer! There were many references to chinky and yellow man which would all be regarded as politically incorrect now, what is more the "yellow man" is being portrayed by a white man with heavily made up eyes.

Some well balanced scoring to cancel out JT's expected low score has produced a surprising high score for the season so far. Looking forward now to Robin's 1920's event in March.

Film 70%

Evening 73%

Aggregated score of 71%