Orphans of the Storm is a 1921 American silent drama film by D. W. Griffith set in late-18th-century France, before and during the French Revolution. The last Griffith film to feature both Lillian and Dorothy Gish, it was a commercial failure, following box-office hits such as The Birth of a Nation and Broken Blossoms. Like his earlier films, Griffith used historical events to comment on contemporary events, in this case the French Revolution to warn about the rise of Bolshevism. The film is about class conflict and a plea for inter-class understanding and against destructive hatred. At one point, in front of the Committee of Public Safety, a main character pleads, "Yes I am an aristocrat, but a friend of the people." The film is based on the 1874 French play Les Deux Orphelines by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon. Main cast Lillian Gish as Henriette Girard Dorothy Gish as Louise Joseph Schildkraut as Chevalier de Vaudrey Frank Losee as Count de Linières Catherine Emmet as Countess de Linières Morgan Wallace as Marquis de Praille Lucille La Verne as Mother Frochard Frank Puglia as Pierre Frochard Sheldon Lewis as Jacques Frochard Creighton Hale as Picard Leslie King as Jacques-Forget-Not Monte Blue as Danton Sidney Herbert as Robespierre Lee Kohlmar as Louis XVI Marcia Harris as Henriette's Landlady Adolph Lestina as Doctor Kate Bruce as Sister Genevieve Flora Finch as Starving Peasant Louis Wolheim as Executioner Kenny Delmar as The Chevalier, as a boy Fay Marbe as Dancer
Orphans of the Storm is a 1921 American silent drama film by D. W. Griffith set in late-18th-century France, before and during the French Revolution. The last Griffith film to feature both Lillian and Dorothy Gish, it was a commercial failure, following box-office hits such as The Birth of a Nation and Broken Blossoms. Like his earlier films, Griffith used historical events to comment on contemporary events, in this case the French Revolution to warn about the rise of Bolshevism. The film is about class conflict and a plea for inter-class understanding and against destructive hatred. At one point, in front of the Committee of Public Safety, a main character pleads, "Yes I am an aristocrat, but a friend of the people." The film is based on the 1874 French play Les Deux Orphelines by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon. Main cast Lillian Gish as Henriette Girard Dorothy Gish as Louise Joseph Schildkraut as Chevalier de Vaudrey Frank Losee as Count de Linières Catherine Emmet as Countess de Linières Morgan Wallace as Marquis de Praille Lucille La Verne as Mother Frochard Frank Puglia as Pierre Frochard Sheldon Lewis as Jacques Frochard Creighton Hale as Picard Leslie King as Jacques-Forget-Not Monte Blue as Danton Sidney Herbert as Robespierre Lee Kohlmar as Louis XVI Marcia Harris as Henriette's Landlady Adolph Lestina as Doctor Kate Bruce as Sister Genevieve Flora Finch as Starving Peasant Louis Wolheim as Executioner Kenny Delmar as The Chevalier, as a boy Fay Marbe as Dancer