Rated: NR

Lillian Gish, at her most lovely and moving, is the innocent and trusting young country girl tricked into a fake marriage by wealthy, womanising wastrel Lowell Sherman, who leaves her pregnant. The baby dies and the destitute girl finds employment with fanatically religious farmer Burr Mcintosh, whose son Richard Barthelmess falls in love with Gish.

DW Griffith's film is a miracle of visual composition, brilliantly acted, with Gish giving one of the most eloquent performances of the silent screen.

Justly celebrated for the climactic sequence where Gish, drifting unconscious on a raft of ice in a storm, is rescued by Barthelmess, the film offers many less obvious moments that are just as memorable.