Mädchenlos (1920)

Mädchenlos: Directed by D.W. Griffith. With Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Mrs. David Landau, Lowell Sherman. A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.

“u0026quot;Way Down Eastu0026quot; will probably be a hard pill for many filmgoers to swallow, as itu0026#39;s a silent and very long, but I would recommend you give it a try, as itu0026#39;s also pretty entertaining.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLillian Gish gets put through her melodramatic paces by the granddaddy of modern cinema, D.W. Griffith. Griffith was a master at building his movies up to intolerably exciting finales, and this film is no exception. A classic set piece puts Gish trying to escape across a frozen river, jumping from one drifting block of ice to the next. And consider that this was in the day before special effects, and itu0026#39;s even quite possible that Gish did all of the stunts herself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA slice of early cinema that goes down easily if you give it the chance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGrade: A-“