Way Down East Reviews

A remake of the classic D.W. Griffith-Lillian Gish-Richard Barthelmess silent of 1920, WAY DOWN EAST here shows that its material is rather dated. Hudson, taking over the lead role from Janet Gaynor (reportedly involved in a car accident, but some say there was a personal conflict), stars as the poor waif who wanders around penniless after being duped into a false marriage to the wealthy Trevor and having a child by him. The baby soon dies, Hudson is taken in by a farm family headed by the puritanical Simpson, and she falls in love with his son, Fonda. Word of Hudson's spotted past eventually gets out, and she is banished from the farm. While trying to cross a frozen river, the ice breaks apart and she begins floating toward a waterfall. Fonda, leaping from ice floe to ice floe, saves Hudson and agrees to marry her. The final climactic scene, one of the most famous in silent cinema, still can raise one's heartbeat, but Hudson is nothing in comparison to Gish. As hokey as the film is, Fonda delivers the persona that has made him one of the screen's great actors--the film's saving grace.