Happy Birthday: Lillian Gish!

Lillian Gish, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in one of my favorite movies, Duel in the Sun(1946).

Another Lillian Gish favorite film and my Halloween movie pick, The Night of the Hunter(1955). Thriller directed by Charles Laughton. Cast: Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters.

The film begins in 1930s West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Ben Harper is chased down for a robbery in which two men were killed. Before he is arrested he gives the stolen money to his young son, John.

Reverend Harry Powell, a serial killer pretending to be a preacher with the words "LOVE" and "HATE" tattooed on the knuckles, shares a prison cell with Harper. He tries to get Harper to tell him where the money is before his execution, but.. the only clue he can get out of him, is a Bible verse Harper says in his sleep: "And a little child shall lead them."

Believing that Harper told his children the secret, Powell comes up with a plan to marry Harper's widow. John soon becomes suspicious of Powell and does not share any information with him . One night, Willa overhears her husband questioning the children and she realizes the truth. The children manage to escape downriver, with Preacher following close behind. They finally reach a place where a kindly(Lillian Gish)woman takes them in. Will they be able to save themselves before it is too late?

*spoiler alert* in my opinion this is the ultimate stalker movie. Robert Mitchum, performance was one of his best. I will never forget his tall dark shadow looming over the children. Not to mention the beautiful/horrific under water scene of their mother sitting in the car at the bottom of the lake. This movie had me sitting at the edge of my seat..*

Lillian Gish, was considered for a couple of roles in, Gone with the Wind. Ranging from Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett's mother, to the role of the prostitute, Belle Watling.

Gish made many television appearances from the 1950s into 1980s. Her most well known television performance was, The Trip to Bountiful(1953). Gish became one of the leading advocates on the lost art of the silent film, giving speeches and touring to screenings of classic works. In 1975, she hosted The Silent Years, a PBS film program of silent films.

Gish received a Special Academy Award in 1971 "For superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures." In 1984 she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming only the second female recipient (Bette Davis was first in 1977), and the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era.

Her last film performance was in, The Whales of August (1987) at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis and Ann Sothern, in which she and Davis starred as elderly sisters in Maine. The film was shot on location on Maine's Cliff Island. The film was directed by Lindsay Anderson, his final feature film, and the screenplay was adapted by David Berry from his own play.

The story is about two elderly widowed sisters near the end of their lives, spending a summer in beach house in Maine. While visiting there they think back to all the summers they had there in the past. They talk about the passage of time, and all the misunderstandings that kept them from having a close relationship.

Libby, played by Davis, is bitter and cold . Sarah, played by Gish, is a softer and more tolerant, wanting very much to have a relationship with her sister. The resentment that Libby has towards her, stifles Sarah's every move at becoming friends.

Vincent Price a fisherman, plays the romantic interest for Gish. Sothern a lifelong friend provides the fun and laughter. In flashbacks actresses Margaret Ladd, Mary Steenburgen and Tisha Sterling (Sothern's real-life daughter) play, the Davis, Gish, and Sothern characters as young women.

Her final performance was a cameo on the 1988 studio recording of Jerome Kern's Show Boat, starring Frederica von Stade and Jerry Hadley, in which she affectingly spoke the few lines of The Old Lady on the Levee in the final scene. The last words of her near century-spanning career: "Good night, dear."

Please click on Lillian Gish's name in the tag line, located at the bottom of the article, to view more information and pictures about this wonderful actress..

DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)

Duel in the Sun (1946) Romance/ Western. Directed by King Vidor. Produced and written by David O. Selznick. Who wote the Hollywood classics "Gone With the Wind", "Since You Went Away" and "Rebecca". Wonderful Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore.



Before Scott Chavez is hanged for murdering his Indian wife and her lover, he makes arrangements for Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle. He makes his his daughter Pearl promise that she will grow up to be a lady. Laura Belle welcomes Pearl into her home on Spanish Bit, the Texas cattle ranch where she lives with her husband,"Senator" McCanles, and their two grown sons, Jesse and Lewt. McCanles, confined to a wheelchair, is not happy that Pearl has come to live with them and calls her "a half-breed". Both Jesse and Lewt are attracted to her. Later that night, Lewt forces his way into her bedroom and kisses her. Pearl loves the kindhearted Jesse, but physically attracted to the wild womanizing Lewt and cannot resist him. When a railroad company wins the legal right to build tracks through McCanles ranch, McCanles and his ranch hands try to defend their land. Jesse, a lawyer, takes the side of the railroad, his father bans him from the ranch.

When Lewt returns early from El Paso, he finds none of the men home and seduces Pearl. Jesse finds them together and tells her that he will never forget what he has seen. Pearl now wants Lewt to marry her, but when he makes it clear that he has no intention of marring her, she quickly becomes engaged to Sam Pierce. Lewt goes into a jealous rage and kills Sam. Will this broken family over come their prejudice and forbidden love of Pearl and Lewt?

My favorite scene of the film is: When McCanles tells Laura Belle that he has always blamed her for his injury. When he thought she was going away to be with Chavez. He now knows it was his own jealousy that caused the accident. He admits that he has always loved her.

Another favorite, is this lighthearted scene between Lewt and Pearl .

Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch, Countess of Carnarvon (15 November 1903 –24 December 1975) was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom. She performed in several screen productions including: Limelight (1936), The Garden of Allah (1936), The Good Earth (1937) and Duel in the Sun (1946). Her choreography was seen in, Song of Scheherazade (1947). Dissatisfied with supporting film roles, she continued working as a dancer and choreographer and acted on Broadway. Losch guested with the New York Ballet in a work by Antony Tudor and in London she had danced to Léonide Massine's choreography. Her best known conception was "The Hand Dance" (a collaboration with her Viennese colleague, Hedy Pfundmayr) which featured in a short dance film by Norman Bel Geddes.