Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1926)

The Enigma of the Screen What does the future hold for Lillian Gish? By James % Quirk NUMEROUS actresses of sirenic charm and Inscrutable pasts have been paraded from time to time as "enigmas," but the real enigma of the motion picture conBtellation is Lillian Gish. And the most baffling question of the hour is. What of her future? Miss Clish is a screen pioneer, Commencing her < areer with Mary Pickford, Mabel Normand and the Talmadges, yet she has never become definitely established in a place of public favor. We can estimate the popularity of Gloria Swanson, of Mary Pickford, of Norma Talmadge and Pola Negri almost to the decimal point. But Miss Gish 's remains a problem. She has given great performances in great pictures, and yet curiously we regard each new endeavor as a test of her. She appears a wraith hovering on the borderland between oblivion and reality, a mystical creation whose power hypnotizes us momentarily and then leaves us wondering if it is not an illusion. HOW much of this fragile crystal figure has been created about Miss Gish by the Griffith tradition, so skillfully and deliberately worked? I recently attended a dinner where a light wine was served. No one remarked its flavor until the hostess observed that it was forty years old and came from the cellars of a Russian palace. Immediately there were ecstatic exclamations as to its bouquet, its rare flavor and the mystic gold of its color. Stars in motion pictures seldom succeed alone. Behind them you invariably find certain guiding geniuses who infuse them with the power of their own genius. Is Miss Gish a genius or is she but the worthv student of the magic Griffith? An electrician watching her at work one day suddenly exclaimed "That girl ain't an actress — she's a mechanic." He could give no explanation for his observation aside from a mumbled, "She knows her stuff." Examining Miss Gish's characterizations you find that she achieves greatness of effect through a single phase of emotion — name Miss Gish in "Romola" was not as big as her reputation. But "La Boheme" may prove her a great actress in her own right Is she a Genius or Mechanic? I\ . In stei i.i. \ 1 1 < I she I c iselj tlie method "i it. " It is exj I b) the arm from i l»e ell ow t<> l he fingi she s.i> -, s< tentifu ally, "ami de pends entirel) on i hj ihm the gradual quickening "i movement up io the point desired." In other words, it is a phj lashing into frenzy. Everj tress of tlie Griffith school hi ployed it, Miss dish more skillfully than the rest. And it has been for each of them the most effective gesture, but it could not have been without Griffith's skill in contriving a situation for it. Mr. Griffith has said that the greatest screen climax is not attained through the actors but through the forces of nature. Miss Gish is always the helpless, tossed victim of a stormy fate, an overwhelming brutal destiny. Her performances are not remembered for polished, symphonic continuity but for piercing moments of crescendo where emotion was expressed in physical terms of hysteria verging on madness. IT has been said that great parts make great actors. Great situations have made Miss Gish. She depends more on material than any actress of the screen. Gloria Swanson can toss colored tritles in the air, play with them as with balloons and entertain solely by the charm of her gestures as a literary stylist charms with his play of words. Charlie Chaplin extracts the most interesting moments from trivialities. Pola Negri is not remembered for any single moment but, on the contrary, for the infinite variety of her moods. Lillian Gish has been termed the Duse of the screen, and yet she is utterly unlike Duse in method. The Italian genius was so quiet in her naturalness as to appear repressed, so highly sensitized that she responded poignantly to every mood and situation, as delicately and mysteriously attuned as a radio instrument. Miss Gish thus far has been [ CONTINUED ON PAGE I2CJ ] A scene from "Broken Blossoms". Note how Miss Gish uses her hands in this picture to work up a scene depicting hysteria