Lillian Gish

Recently I watched again "The Night of the Hunter" - that weird, unusual and magnificent movie classic - I perfectly understand why mainstream audience did not understand and embraced it back in 1955, because it was so stylised and idiosyncratic that people probably didn't know what to make out of it (even I was at first startled, wondering is this parody or what) after all, this was a movie with Robert Mitchum so you expect something else. However, this little freak of movie ended up being far more memorable than anything else I watched at the same time and eventually later I realised that from all the bunch of film noir I was enjoying back than, its "The Night of the Hunter" that I remember most vividly, because it was so artistically perfect and visually unforgettable that its really crime it wasn't more successful because it ended up being the only movie directed by Charles Laughton. Amongst other characters in the movie, in the second part there was a role of fierce grandmother who kind of represents true religion (as opposite to false pretending of murderous preacher Mitchum) and she was played by wonderful Lillian Gish who was delightful. Now, of course I know Gish very well from her silent classics made by great D. W. Griffith ("The Birth of a Nation", "Intolerance", "Broken Blossoms", "Way Down East" and "Orphans of the Storm") in fact I have them all on DVD, so it was really a thrill to see 62 years old actress being part of this unforgettable movie. This time she played grandmother but here are some photos from her youth, when she was American sweetheart and female movie star Nr.1