The basic plot of Way Down East has Lillian Gish playing Anna, a poor country girl who goes to visit her rich cousins for financial help, winds up getting seduced by a jerk-faced liar-pants named Lennox Sanderson, who fake-marries her, knocks her up, and then leaves her. Directed by D.W. Griffith. Way Down East is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by Henry King and starring Rochelle Hudson, Henry Fonda, Slim Summerville, Margaret Hamilton, Andy Devine and Spring Byington.It was released by 20th Century Fox and produced by Fox Film Corporation.. With Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Mrs. David Landau, Lowell Sherman. Way Down East Lillian Gish Richard Barthelmess Lowell Sherman (1920) An unwed mother (Lillian Gish) is abandoned, then banished in a blizzard and set adrift on ice floes. Way Down East is a 1920 American silent romantic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. Every movie should have Lillian Gish and an ice floe, fah real. Way Down East - DVD-R (1920) for $10.00 from OLDIES.com Drama A simple story for plain people. Way Down East is a deceptive show -- it establishes a foundation of light drama in a bucolic setting, with comic characters like an old maid and a rube called Hi Holler (Edgar Nelson). It then launches into a serious, heart-rending story of innocence spoiled and honor outraged. They are dirt poor, so she goes to the city to ask her wealthy relatives, the Tremonts, for help. - Order by Phone 1-800-336-4627 By Mae Tinee “Way Down East,” as elaborated by David Wark Griffith from the stage play by Lottie Blair Parker, as personally supervised by Mr. Griffith, and as presented under the special direction of Mr. Griffith at Woods theater, which does not happen to belong to Mr. Griffith, is a vurr’ good movie. Way Down East's profile including the latest music, albums, songs, music videos and more updates. Way Down East. In 1919 and 1920, in the midst of an epochal boom of urbanization, D. W. Griffith filmed “Way Down East,” a pastoral melodrama set in a nostalgic small-town and rural America, which I … Way Down East is a 1920 Tearjerker Melodrama film, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. 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. It was adapted from a popular 1890s stage play by Lottie Parker. Griffith had calculated that audiences would enjoy his terrifying action sequence in the same way that they thrilled to … Anna Moore (Gish) is a simple country girl who lives with her mother. And Way Down East’s aura of authenticity paid dividends: in the shape of $4,500,000 at the box office, and an unbeatable universal appeal.