Orphans of the Storm

Orphans of the Storm is a 1921 American silent drama film by D. W. Griffith, based on the 1874 French play Les Deux Orphelines by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon, and set in late-18th-century France, before and during the French Revolution. When the plague kills their parents, Henriette (Lillian Gish) and her blind adopted sister, Louise (Dorothy Gish), go to Paris in hopes of finding a doctor to restore Louise's sight. As soon as they arrive, Henriette is kidnapped by an amoral aristocrat (Morgan Wallace), but escapes with the help of Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut). Louise, meanwhile, is taken in by thieves who force her to beg. As the French Revolution rages all around them, the two sisters struggle to reunite. Like his earlier films, Griffith used historical events to comment on contemporary events, in this case the French Revolution to warn about the rise of Bolshevism.