Orphans of the Storm

Orphans of the Storm is a 1921 American silent melodrama film directed by D. W. Griffith and 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 compared to his earlier works, such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920). 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 polemic 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