knife to the chest. Cast Lillian Gish as Lucy Burrows Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Huan Donald Crisp as Battling Burrows Arthur Howard as Burrows' manager Edward Peil Sr. as Evil Eye George Beranger as The Spying One Norman Selby (aka Kid McCoy) as A prizefighter Production and style Unlike Griffith's more extravagant earlier works like The Birth of a Nation or Intolerance, Broken Blossoms is a small-scale film that uses controlled studio environments to create a more intimate effect. Griffith was known for his willingness to collaborate with his actors and on many occasions join them in research outings. The visual style of Broken Blossoms emphasizes the seedy Limehouse streets with their dark shadows, drug addicts and drunkards, contrasting them with the beauty of Cheng and Lucy's innocent attachment as expressed by Cheng's decorative apartment. Conversely, the Burrows' bare cell reeks of oppression and hostility. Film critic and historian Richard Schickel goes so far as to credit this gritty realism with inspiring "the likes of Pabst, Stiller, von Sternberg, and others, [and then] re-emerging in the United States in the sound era, in the genre identified as Film Noir". Griffith was unsure of his final product and took several months to complete the editing, saying: "I can't look at the damn thing; it depresses me so." Box office The film was originally made for Famous Players Lasky. The company sold it to the newly founded United Artists for $250,000. The film turned out to be a hit at the box office and earned a profit of $700,000. Reception Broken Blossoms premiered in May 1919, at George M. Cohan's Theatre in New York City as part of the D. W. Griffith Repertory Season. According to Lillian Gish's autobiography, theaters were decorated with flowers, moon lanterns and beautiful Chinese brocaded draperies for the premiere. Critics and audiences were pleased with Griffith's follow-up film to his 1916 epic Intolerance. Contrasting with Intolerance'''s grand story, set and length, Griffith charmed audiences by the delicacy with which Broken Blossoms handled such a complex subject. The scenes of child abuse nauseated backers when Griffith gave them a preview of the film; according to Lillian Gish in interviews, a Variety reporter invited to sit in on a second take left the room to vomit. Today, Broken Blossoms is widely regarded as one of Griffith's finest works. In 2012, the film received five critics' votes and one director's