Broken Blossoms (1919)

In this silent film melodramatic classic from D.W. Griffith:

• the sensitive and frail teenage Cockney waif Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish)
• the scenes of her forced smile by pushing up the ends of her mouth with her fingers
• the unforgettable death scene as her brutal and bigoted father Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp) savagely broke down the door as she cowered in a closet twisting to avoid him and later received the fatal blows
• Lucy's death on her pillow while clutching her doll (her link to the Yellow Man) with a final finger-smile (her link to her father): (title-card) "Dying, she gives her last little smile to the world that has been so unkind"

Brutality of Battling Burrows