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Lillian Gish: Scarlet Letter
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Lillian Gish's personal archive of letters, business documents, photographs and scrapbooks has found a home at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Gish, the legendary stage and film star, died at the age of 99 at her home in Manhattan in 1993, leaving a rich repository of material on her life and career.
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With her delicate, luminous beauty, Gish was perfect for Griffith's Victorian-styled melodramas; wide-eyed and restrained, her face a marvel of innocence and nuance, she was nothing less than ideal for Griffith's landmark use of close-up photography. Together, they worked from opposite sides of the camera to push the new medium from lowbrow entertainment into the realm of serious art; in 1920, under Griffith's tutelage, Gish even directed her own film, Remodeling Her Husband, a vehicle for her sister. She left Griffith in 1923, landing at MGM to star in such literary projects as 1926's La Boheme and The Scarlet Letter; in 1930, she made her first sound film, One Romantic Night. Longing to return to Broadway -- and considered a fading star around Hollywood -- she made only one film over the course of the next 13 years, 1933's His Double Life. Instead, she became a fixture of the stage in productions including 1930's Uncle Vanya, 1936's The Old Maid and 1937's The Star Wagon; she ... played Ophelia opposite John Gielgud's titular Hamlet, and in 1932 published the book Life and Lillian Gish.
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It was Swedish director Victor Sjöström... who helped Gish attain the pinnacle of her art as an actress. In The Scarlet Letter, a diminishment of Hawthorne’s novel that has merits of its own, Gish’s mock-shy, infuriating Griffith teasing has been supplanted by a full-blooded, fascinatingly two-faced sexuality. Her Hester Prynne has more than a touch of the coquette about her; to highlight this, Sjöström focuses on one of Gish’s best props, her long, luxurious, waist-length hair. When she looks for her pet bird and her hair tumbles down, it’s a visual clue to her lust for life, something that will not be tolerated in her Puritan village. Gish’s Hester is locked up in the stocks as punishment for her lighthearted behavior on the Sabbath, and the Reverend Dimmesdale (Lars Hanson) gives her water and touches her arms. She looks up at him with sad eyes, and it’s obvious that he’s completely aroused by her.
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Gish's deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was unprecedented for a female star of the time. She had the power to choose projects, directors, and co-stars. Two of Gish's films were literary adaptations. She played Mimi in a 1926 version of La Boheme, with director King Vidor. Gish was so dedicated to the role that she fasted for three days in order to play Mimi's death scene. Also in 1926, Gish played Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.
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Hosted by the American Film Institute, this video is a tribute to career of Lillian Gish. Included are excerpts from: The Birth of a Nation, Duel in the Sun, The Scarlet Letter and other films. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
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One of the more peculiar letters is from Joseph Medill Patterson, publisher of The Daily News, who in 1930 thought, erroneously, that Gish intended to play Desdemona opposite the black actor Paul Robeson. Patterson pleaded with Gish to drop the idea, which, he wrote, ''would have a disastrous effect on your popularity in many parts of the country.''
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Scarlet Letter