Lillian Gish: Dying for Her Audience
by Robert J. Avrech
Lillian Gish
The great twin tragedies of the fate of silent films in the modern era is indifference and ignorance. And for those who have seen clips from silent films, they invariably view muddy, degraded prints projected at the wrong speed, hence the jerky motions that give the impression that all silent films are bad slapstick.
Of course, we all owe a great debt to Robert Osborne and TCM for programming so many fine silent films. At last, film lovers have the opportunity to screen a varied selection of silent films and appreciate the great craft that was abruptly short-circuited with the advent of talkies. The best silent films were a universal language in which image, motion and emotion were paramount.
Silent movies were shot and duplicated on fragile nitrate stock. In the few original prints I’ve been fortunate enough to screen the images are just stunning. The screen glows with a liquid, silvery radiance that’s impossible to duplicate on modern film or tape. The finest silent film players were geniuses who conveyed a world of emotion through the most subtle means.
The great director King Vidor, (1894-1982) whose career spanned eight decades—from early silent movies right into the sound era—directed Lillian Gish in a 1926 silent version of La Boheme.
At this point in her career, Gish was so powerful that she had contractual approval over script and director. The intensity of her work ethic, the dedication to her craft simply awed Vidor as he noted so many years later in his excellent 1952 memoir, A Tree is a Tree.
The title is very funny, an insider Hollywood joke. It’s a quote from a penny pinching studio executive who famously said: “A rock is a rock, a tree is a tree. Shoot it in Griffith Park!” Hence, in early films, Los Angele’s Griffith Park was used as a location for cowboy movies, Civil War movies, New York’s Central Park, the Scottish Highlands, Versailles—you name it, Griffith Park served as a default location.
Director King Vidor
Here, Vidor describes how Gish rigorously prepared for and played her dramatic death scene in La Boheme:
When she arrived on the set that fateful day, we saw her sunken eyes, her hollow cheeks, and we noticed that her lips had curled outward and were parched with dryness. What on earth had she done to herself? I ventured to ask about her lips and she said in syllables hardly audible that she had succeeded in removing all the saliva from her mouth by not drinking any liquids for three days, and by keeping cotton pads between her teeth and gums even in her sleep.
A pall began to settle over the entire company. People moved about the stage on tiptoe and spoke only in whispers. Finally came the scene where Rudolph carried the exhausted Mimi to her little bed and her Bohemian friends gathered around while Mimi breathed her last. I let the camera continue on her lifeless form and the tragic faces around her and decided to call “cut” only when I saw that Miss Gish was forced to inhale after holding her breath to simulate death. But the familiar movement of the chest didn’t come. She neither inhaled nor exhaled. I began to fear she had played her part too well, and I could see that the other members of the cast and crew had the same fears as I. Too frightened to speak the one word that would halt the movement of the camera, I wondered how to bridge this fantastic moment back to the coldness of reality. The thought flashed through my mind, “What will the headlines say?” After what seemed many, many minutes, I waved my hand before the camera as a signal to stop. Still there was no movement from Lillian.
John Gilbert bent close, and softly whispered her name. Her eyes slowly opened. She permitted herself her first deep breath since the scene had started; for the past days she had trained herself, somehow or other, to get along without visible breathing. It was necessary to wet her lips before she could speak. By this time there was no one on the set whose eyes were dry. The movies have never known a more dedicated artist than Lillian Gish.
Lillian Gish, on her deathbed in La Boheme.
Miss Gish did not work with King Vidor again until 1946 when she played Mrs. McCanles in David O. Selznick’s Duel in the Sun. There’s a lovely and touching moment in the film when Jennifer Jones says to Gish: “I’ll be a good girl—I want to be like you.”
Whenever I’m in production, working with actors, deep in my heart I too hope that they want, consciously or not, to be like Lillian Gish.
Copyright © Robert J. Avrech
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53 Comments
Years ago, in collage (OK, pre-history, there are no written records or survivors) I saw The original NOSFERATU in a theatre and was mesmerized by the images on the screen. I have never seen the like of it since and I have a few silent films in my collection. Unfortunatly, most are released by small video distribution companies and they aren't remastered or cleaned up or slowed down, so too many people I have shown them to dismiss them as amaturish, boring and little in comparison to today's "master technology".(AT WORLD'S END – feh!) I am looking forward with relish(and not a little mustard) to LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT when it is released on video.
Robert, thanks for that! You never fail to inform me or move me with your additions here. I am eager to watch Miss Gish again, so I can see her as you have described.
I will never forget Miss Gish's performance in Broken Blossoms. She had the most expressive face. Her autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me is fascinating reading. Wait till you get to the part about how she actually laid on a real frozen ice floe for Way Down East with her hand and hair trailing in the icy waters. That's dedication!
She was a beauty, wasn't she? She had a face John Waterhouse would have loved to paint.
Paul:
I'm pretty sure that Tod Browning's "London After Midnight," 1927, starring the great Lon Chaney and the lovely Marceline Day, is a lost film. One of the most sought after lost films of the silent era.
"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!" – Norma Desmond
Lillian Gish definitely proved that to be true…about 30 years before that line was written.
Thebutlerdidit:
You're very welcome. Lillian Gish was a great actress and her career was unusually long and fruitful. Besides "La Boheme," make sure to screen: "Way Down East," 1920, "Broken Blossoms," 1919, and "Night of the Hunter," 1955.
I heard they found it… I also heard somebody found a 16-millimeter copy of the original uncut version of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS.
Jake Was Here:
I'm pretty sure that the discovery of "London After Midnight" is an internet rumor. I saw several dust-ups about this a few months back and no print has been unveiled by anybody.
Believe me, I would love to be wrong.
Rather Read:
I read Miss Gish's book quite a few years ago. I should dust it off and have another go. It was fascinating, but as always, she withheld much of her private life. Miss Gish had problems with that arm due to the ice floe scene. Scary dedication.
Daddy-O:
Lovely face that grew lovelier with age.
blackhawk12151:
Very true. Gish and so many others from the silent era were not just lovely, but memorable.
Has anyone done a decent restoration of "Intolerance" yet? I saw a video "restoration" of it a few years back, and I could barely see anything, I really want to see those Babylonian sets as they were on the original print.
It seems to me that an actor's job in the silent era was different from the talkies. Since the actor had no sound he had to convey via body movement the emotions. The more comical ones exaggerated their movements (Charlie Chaplin?) while the better ones subtly used their movements. At least that is my opinion from the little that I know of the medium.
Your description of Griffith Park reminded me of a Marion Davis silent movie with an absolutely horrible set. I forget the movie but it was supposed to be in Holland and by the set you knew it was a portrayal of Holland in Los Angeles.
It seems, too, that while acting in the silent era was a dying art, so too is filming in a B&W medium.
At least that is my humble opinion.
Thanks Robert for bringing these long ago stars back into the spotlight.
Here's what I'm taking away from this article. Lillian Gish is frickin' beautiful!
Mr A,
Was it Lillian Gish and Bette Davis in " Gunwhales of August " ?
And Wallace Beery and Lillian G. in " Often in the Storm " ?
Just askin' …………. ; )
Bill:
Silent film acting was deeply nuanced and for some directors and actors, never really silent. For instance, Rex Ingram was directing a film—I forget the title—that takes place in France with presumably French speaking characters. The actors were all American and Ingram insisted that they speak their lines in French.
It's true that there was exaggeration in body movements, but there was also great subtlety. Take a look at Chaplin's "City Lights." His acting is sublime and deeply subtle.
The Marion Davies film you are referring to is "The Red Mill," 1927. Interesting fact: it was directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who had been banned from movies because of rape and manslaughter charges of which he was innocent. W.L. Hearst's papers lead the horrific charge against Arbuckle. But Davies, a lovely and generous women, insisted that Arbuckle be hired for the film by W.L. Hearst, her lover and owner of Cosmopolitan Films, the company Hearst set up exclusively to produce Davies films.
Arbuckle used the ironic pseudonym, Will B. Goodrich.
blogagog:
You're sooooo shallow:-)
blogagog:
You're sooooo shallow:-)
Corporal P:
I'll have to Google and get back to you:-)
LawhawkSF:
Good question. I'd love to see that stunning boom shot from a pristine print. I'll have to check around.
LawhawkSF:
Good question. I'd love to see that stunning boom shot from a pristine print. I'll have to check around.
Thanks a mil. I'm REALLY looking forward to it. i was thinking UCLA or USC film schools, but I didn't have any luck. Maybe I just looked in the wrong place.
Robert, thank you for the excellent article. I'm just now getting into silent films so I appreciate learning more about them from the BH articles that come up on them. Until quite recently the sum of my experience with silent movies was "Nosferatu" and "Metropolis" along with "Silent Movie" the last of which doesn't precisely count, but hey I can never resist a Mel Brooks movie.
The more I watch of them the more I appreciate how much really good work went into making them. And they're far more than a "modern movie just without sound" as I've heard many people describe them. I've even tested it, I know the lines to several movies by heart, but if I mute them, even knowing the dialog to be able to "keep up" it doesn't match the raw power that many of these silent film stars put into their work. I first saw "Nosferatu" when I was about 10 or so, and for many, many years Max Schreck was The Vampire in my mind whenever someone said the word.
Also to echo what many have said before, Lilian Gish was indeed stunning. I'd never known about her "death" and all that went into it until now, but my respect for her has doubled since she'd go through that much effort to get it right.
I've been renting silent movies to watch with my children (8,6,and 3). Of course, we've mostly watched comedies, and my son is particularly fond of Buster Keaton so we've seen lots of his movies. Truly amazing performances, and my children just love them all. My friends think it is so odd that we are watching silent movies together as a family, but we think they are fun and all of us can enjoy a movie together instead of having movies that the 3 year old loves but no one else can stand or the 8 year old loves but the 6 year old thinks is too scary. Someday, I'll have to branch out past the comedies and try some other genres. Any suggestions? Something the kids can watch, too, please.
Lilian Gish is an amazing actress. If I was to recommend one of her movies it would have to be the 1919 silent film Broken Blossoms. It is D. W. Griffiths greatest film and one of my favorite films of all time. It is a pretty intense film so it may not suitable for young children, but any fan of Gish or silent films in general should give it a try.
Lillian Gish was in "The Whales of August" with Bette Davis. It was her last movie.
Robert, I believe you are correct. Even crueler was the hoaxster who claimed to have discovered a copy of Four Devils, in Grandma's attic hope chest or behind the riding mower in the garage or some such. Thus do some people amuse themselves. The gentleman who wrote a novel around the premise of someone finding the missing footage from Magnificent Ambersons chose a more constructive way to fantasize.
Yet it isn't out of the question, these rediscoveries. Dreyer died believing his original cut of The Passion of Joan of Arc was lost, and then a complete print was discovered in a mental institution. (I have always wanted to know if someone was showing this movie to the mental patients and if so, did it help them?)
I believe Kevin Brownlow should get a lot of credit for the silent revival as well. In addition to his scholarly work he has been sounding the siren for preservation since the late 1960s.
Finally, I can't believe you got to see actual nitrate prints. Right now I am glowing a pure, liquid green.
Golani, I'm glad to hear from my IDF chaver again. And gee, isn't it nice that my articles about silent films are opening up that wonderful world for you. Try and screen "Show People" 1928, directed by, yup, King Vidor. It's one of the best films evuh—about Hollywood. TCM screens it every few months. Shalom U'vracha.
Laura, I have to tell you, when I read your comment made me weak in the knees. Our late son, Ariel, adored Buster Keaton. He and I spent many happy hours together watching Keaton movies. Ariel was particularly fond of "Our Hospitality." I recommend the silent films of Harold Lloyd. His scripts are the tightest of any of the silent comedians—airtight—and his optimistic, determined personae embodies the all American male. TCM broadcasts lots of Lloyd, G-d bless Robert Osborne.
dib,
Agreed. "Broken Blossoms" is a towering film. A genuine classic.
"The screen glows with a liquid, silvery radiance that’s impossible to duplicate on modern film or tape"..would love to see this sometime. I bet if someone worked on it hard enough, they could come up with a way to duplicate or almost duplicate the original look. Might be a good project for some Silicon Valley guy with an interest in movies and in imaging technology.
Laura:
When my niece was 8 years old I took her to a showing of City Lights with a live performance of the score by the St Louis Symphony. Since she had never seen a silent before I wasn't sure how she would react. But the genius of Chaplin and hearing his great score performed live won her over. Now after watching The Gold Rush and The Kid along with some Lloyd (she loves The Freshman) and Keaton she tells her other sixth grade friends how great they are.
Without dialogue, the great silents touch us at such a base emotional level that you don't have to be a Harvard grad to enjoy them. It shouldn't be surprising that children can enjoy them. These movies were made for an audience of average Joes and Janes when even a high school diploma was not usual.
The silent greats did us all a favor by making their movies for everyone and not just those that think Kramer vs Kramer is a better movie than Breaking Away.
Paul:
I did some more checking on "London After Midnight," asking the good people over at the fine website "The Silent Treatment." http://www.tstnews.net/
Here is Brandee Brannigan's reply: "Concerning "London After Midnight" unfortunately it is still lost. What your commenter might be referring to as the "rediscovery" is a reconstruction of the film using nothing but photographic stills shot during the 1927 production that match the plot points of a surviving script. This reconstruction lasts around 30 minutes and was released in 2002. It can be found as bonus material on The Lon Chaney Collection, a DVD that TCM released around that same time and is well worth the purchase, IMO."
La Boheme is a great achievement. There is a dignity in the silent films that is missing from todays craptaculars.
Campaspe,
I am baffled by the mentality of someone who perpetuates "lost film rediscovered" hoaxes. It's a form of theft in that truth is betrayed. For those of us who love movies and earnestly hope for the rediscovery of lost films it's particularly ugly.
Carl Dreyer movies are a—excuse the pun—passion of mine. "Day of Wrath" and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" are masterpieces. Dreyer was also incredibly brave, authoring an essay in 1959, on the stain of Jew hatred, and identifying Saul/Paul as the man who laid the foundations for European Christian anti-Semitism. Dreyer was intensely concerned with false accusations—see above movies—and after the Holocaust was desperately trying to come to terms with Christian Europe. It's a fascinating document.
We all stand on the shoulders of Kevin Brownlow.
Marty Scorsese has also been in the forefront of film preservation. He's one of the few Hollywood directors who understands that movie history did not begin with "Jaws" or "Star Wars."
Nitrate prints: 20-years ago I was hired by a studio to write a script about Mabel Normand.
Never produced.
Head in hands.
Sigh.
Research put me in touch with an underground of silent film collectors—these were the days before DVD's and widely available VHS tapes of classical films. Thus, I was amazed and lucky enough to screen a few nitrate prints.
Hea-ven!
The collector was,um, eccentric.
P.S. Fab-u-lous series on George Sanders. Your posts sent me back to my copy of Sander's book, "Memoirs of a Professional Cad." What an elegant, strange autobiography.
Campaspe,
I am baffled by the mentality of someone who perpetuates "lost film rediscovered" hoaxes. It's a form of theft in that truth is betrayed. For those of us who love movies and earnestly hope for the rediscovery of lost films it's particularly ugly.
Carl Dreyer movies are a—excuse the pun—passion of mine. "Day of Wrath" and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" are masterpieces. Dreyer was also incredibly brave, authoring an essay in 1959, on the stain of Jew hatred, and identifying Saul/Paul as the man who laid the foundations for European Christian anti-Semitism. Dreyer was intensely concerned with false accusations—see above movies—and after the Holocaust was desperately trying to come to terms with Christian Europe. It's a fascinating document.
We all stand on the shoulders of Kevin Brownlow.
Marty Scorsese has also been in the forefront of film preservation. He's one of the few Hollywood directors who understands that movie history did not begin with "Jaws" or "Star Wars."
Nitrate prints: 20-years ago I was hired by a studio to write a script about Mabel Normand.
Never produced.
Head in hands.
Sigh.
Research put me in touch with an underground of silent film collectors—these were the days before DVD's and widely available VHS tapes of classical films. Thus, I was amazed and lucky enough to screen a few nitrate prints.
Hea-ven!
The collector was,um, eccentric.
P.S. Fab-u-lous series on George Sanders. Your posts sent me back to my copy of Sander's book, "Memoirs of a Professional Cad." What an elegant, strange autobiography.
David Foster:
Very good idea. The problem is in getting to screen a nitrate film. But there's an added kick to the old nitrate images. In some old movie palaces the movie screens were glass, specially treated, not a plain white screen. Thus the nitrate negative combined with the glass screen and the amazing lenses of the old projectors created a movie image that was otherworldly and would be impossible to duplicate.
Mr. Averich,
When I read your pieces on silent film, parts make me feel like I am transported back in time and watching the film in a small, neighborhood theater from yesteryear.
Lillian Gish certainly was a presence on the screen. My strongest memory of her was in "Night of the Hunter." Having grown up near that locale, she made me believe that she was a West Virginian from the Ohio River Valley. With Miss Gish now added, you are giving me quite a list of old film to go back and watch.
Thanks for reminding me that film can be magical.
Miko,
Thanks so much for the generous comment. If i can get more movie lovers to sit down and watch the great silent films of the past, well, yours truly is a happy talkie-screenwriter.
I love, love, love Miss Gish in "Night of the Hunter." After seeing that film I forever viewed Lillian Gish as the indomitable American mother. Ironic, in that the great actress never had any children
Mr. Thalberg,
Yes, La Boheme is a wonderful film. There's a great photo of the, uh, other Mr. Thalberg on the set of the film with Miss Gish. You can find it in "Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg and the Rise of M-G-M" by Mark A. Vieira. Great book. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Dreams-Made-Real-...
Love your tributes to the pioneers of cinema. I've always loved the vulnerability Lillian projects in her movies. Especially love "The White Sister."
Stergeye:
Thanks so much. And as Orson Welles used to say at the end of his Mercury Theater radio broadcasts: “I am your humble servant.”
Sigfried by Fritz Lang might be good for the kids. I'd screen it yourself first. I also recommend Metropolis, but not with the kids. Anything from UFA was usually good, whether silent or talkie.
One day I hope to see a well-preserved nitrate film. It'd be a like a connection with history. Not many people today know what it's like.
This is a fascinating documentary about film preservation that I highly recommend. It gives you an idea of how fragile and valuable that early film is to the humanities:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=785170556...
I was intrigued by your story — because I read of it, years ago, in Garson Kanin's "Moviola" — his fictionalized account of Hollywood's Golden Age. There are specific chapters devoted to the "Scarlett O'Hara Wars", Fatty Arbuckle's trial, Chaplin's incarnation of the Little Tramp, and the Greta Garbo/John Gilbert romance.
In that chapter, Garbo first lays eyes on Gilbert as they were shooting the scene you mention. Very cool to read about it again; thanks for that!
Glass screens! I'd never heard of that – nor, until reading your description, of the special visual properties of nitrate film. The image must have been magical. Thanks Robert.
Check out Douglas Fairbanks. "Mark of Zorro" – "Thief of Bagdad" – "Black Pirate" are all fun. He also did some earlier non-costume comedies.
Lawhawk:
Okay, mission accomplished, this from my Silent Film expert at the website The Silent Treatment:
"If you are looking for a DVD of the best length and transfer quality of "Intolerance" the best one available is the Kino Release – you will find it listed under their "Griffith Masterworks" series."
Laura, try the old silent Westerns – especially those with William S. Hart. Really gives you the feel of the Old West – many movies then used 'real' cowboys (whose day was long past) for extras, and Hart was a stickler for realism. Might be a bit difficult for a 3-year-old though!
Thank you for writing this. Silent movies are really a separate art form from 'talkies' – you can see the remnants of stage and vaudeville acting in the early ones, but by the time the Gish sisters, Gloria Swanson and Janet Gaynor came in, the depth of emotion visible in their faces is stunning and deeply moving. I am lucky to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have theaters (the Castro and the Stanford) that present silent films as they were meant to be experienced – with piano accompaniment. What a difference that can make – even with a movie you've seen before!
That's OK. She's usually just playing around nearby while we watch a family movie anyway. Any movie that holds her full and undivided attention is deadly to the rest of us. I'll just let the Care Bear movies stand as my example. Shudder.
Thanks for the great suggestions! I'm making a list.
What a great story that is. I just saw The Scarlet Letter at the local rep cinema (only two weeks after TCM played it, but I held out for the big screen, heh), and was blown away again by how great she is. She can say more with her eyes or the tilt of her head or the shape of her mouth than most anyone I've ever seen. I really want to see La Boheme now.javascript:%20postComment(0);
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