Lillian Diana Gish www.lilliangish1893.com

Griffith Renews Old Promises – By Kenneth Macgowan (Motion Picture Classic – 1919) Motion Picture Classic – August 1919 Vol. VIII No.6 Griffith Renews Old Promises By Kenneth Macgowan The blight of “The Birth of a Nation”—the evil effect of that great photoplay on its director and on the whole t motion picture art—has only been made evident to the more critical among the fans by the artistic and financial success of Griffith’s masterpiece of brutality, “Broken Blossoms.” print of a scene from D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (1919) with Lillian Gish as Lucy Burrows and Richard Barthelmess as the Chinaman Cheng Huan Because of Griffith’s immense success with “The Birth of a Nation,” no director of motion pictures has yet received exact and full credit for his work—Griffith least of all. The character and magnitude of that photodrama led critics astray on the genuinely best qualities of its producer, and the immensity of its success drew Griffith himself for many years into ...

“The Greatest Question” – By Frederick James Smith (Motion Picture Classic – February 1920) Motion Picture Classic – February 1920 The Celluloid Critic By Frederick James Smith “The Greatest Question” (The Newest Photoplays in Review) By all odds the most significant photoplay of our screen month was David Wark Griffith’s “The Great Question,” (First National) Not because it is a good screen drama. It isn’t. But it has tremendous idea buried beneath its melodrama. Robert Harron and Lillian Gish while shooting The Greatest Question A wave of interest in spiritualism has been sweeping the world since the days of the great war. Does after life exist? Can dear one across the Great Beyond exert an influence over earthly destinies? What is the answer to the eternal problem of death ? Griffith had all these questions in mind when he started to screen “The Greatest Question.” Then something happened. The exhibitor—that monster reared by producers themselves—stood menacing...