The American Film Institute Salute to Lillian Gish (1984) (TV)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Writers:

Joseph McBride (writer)
George Stevens Jr. (writer)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A tribute to actress Lillian Gish, a pioneer in American cinema whose long and distinguished career began in the early silent era. |

Plot Keywords:

Actress | TV Special | Awards Show | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Lillian Gish	...	Herself - Guest of Honor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fred Astaire	...	Himself - Host
Sally Field	...	Herself
Cary Grant	...	Himself
John Houseman	...	Himself
John Huston	...	Himself
Jennifer Jones	...	Herself
Mary Martin	...	Herself
Robert Mitchum	...	Himself
Colleen Moore	...	Herself
Jeanne Moreau	...	Herself
Eva Marie Saint	...	Herself
Mary Steenburgen	...	Herself
Richard Thomas	...	Himself
Lily Tomlin	...	Herself
Cicely Tyson	...	Herself
Richard Widmark	...	Himself

Also Known As:

The AFI Salute to Lillian Gish (USA) (alternative spelling)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

American Film Institute (AFI)

Movie Connections:

Followed by The American Film Institute Salute to Billy Wilder (1986) (TV)

FROM SILENT TO SOUND

I must admit to an ulterior motive for buying this video.As I had collected all the 24 films of Jennifer Jones (JJ), 25 if you include the two versions of "The Wild Heart"/"Gone To Earth", or 26 if you include her 2001 A&E biography tape); I wanted to see JJ at later date than 1974, when she did her last film, "The Towering Inferno".

The present video is dated 1984 and JJ gives a eulogy to her old friend Lillian Gish concerning the two films they did together.These were: "Duel In The Sun" (1946) when Lillian plays LauraBelle McCanless, the senator's wife who is kindly disposed to Pearl Chavez and "Portrait Of Jennie (1948) when she played a convincing mother superior at the convent where Jennie Appleton studied .Lillian had to make the grade, (not achieved by many silent actors), of allaying the necessary melodramatic facial and bodily gestures needed for "silents" and learn to adopt the more naturalistic approach particulary the necessary vocal skills which were required from 1927 when "talkies" first came into cinemas.However her death scene in "Duel" has been criticised as being laughably melodramatic by other reviewers.

Lillian appeared in D.W. Griffiths seminal "Birth Of A Nation" (1915) and there are copious clips from various silent productions in which Lillian appeared, well hosted by Douglas Fairbanks Jnr with a galaxy of stars.Colleen Moore plays a major role in the euologies and tributes were spoken by Bob Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Jeanne Moreau and in the audience I noticed Fred Astaire and Cary Grant.I have looked in vain for a later and similar tribute to Gregory Peck from 1989 where JJ gave a similar eulogy, and I think there should be other similar tribute videos available.

In her long career, Lillian played many different parts and like JJ did not seem type cast.If you would like to see a pot-pourri of Lillian Gish's different roles as a prelude to perhaps buying one of her films on video, this is a good introduction.