Movies: Lillian Gish

Lillian Vale is the naïve and unworldly daughter of minister Josiah Vale. Swept off her feet by handsome Robert Powers, Lillian marries him, unaware that he is constitutionally incapable of fidelity. Led astray by vampish Hattie Lee, Powers follows h...

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was ...

This shows the regeneration of a gang leader, who remains true to his first sweetheart after his change of fortune....

Priam Farrel is a celebrated artist but a social recluse. When his valet dies of a sudden illness, a mix-up leads to the body being identified as Farrel's. The timid artist then assumes the identity of his former servant, but finds himself faced with...

Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town....

A poor Russian girl's beauty leads her unscrupulous uncle to bring her to the United States. There he is going to sell her into a marriage with a rich old man she has never met. But her lover, an returning immigrant visiting Russia from the U.S., sai...

Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience....

The bored clubman sought the excitement of the street. The husband, believing himself neglected for his child, left his home. There in the back saloon seeking shelter from the storm, the two met the demi-monde. The clubman displayed his enticing work...

There were more women directors before 1920 than at any other time in history. The first director to put a narrative story on celluloid was, Alice Guy Blaché in 1896. Few people know that Lillian Gish became a director in her own right in 1920. Ida L...

A farmer has saved all his life to pay for his daughter's wedding, but when his brother is fired from his job on the oil rig, the wedding must be postponed and the money put to the more pressing need. The farmer, now himself destitute, is forced to p...

An abusive father and husband attends a play one night and sees that the "villain" in the piece does to his family exactly what he is doing to his own family....

A woman has to live with a daughter in law who hates her and a son who does not dare take her side. While the unhappy family lives in a Houston apartment, Carrie Watts dreams of returning to Bountiful, where she was raised....

To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town....

It was Christmas Eve in the south, but the spirit of peace and love did not pervade the northern girl's heart. The gallantry of the young southern swains, however, was more than manifest, when a drunken band of Unionists entered the house, among them...

A widower and his two daughters live in the wilds of the north woods. They form the acquaintance of two trappers, Bob Cole and Jim Watson, who hunt in the neighborhood. As fate will have it, both trappers love the same girl, the elder sister, but she...

In this latter day Cain and Abel story, a jealous brother strikes down his sibling just as a young burglar is about to enter the house. The jealous brother summons police, who then charge the intruder with murder....

Everything he did seemed to be misconstrued, except by the little lady he loved. The town roisters made fun of her and his love. That made trouble and the chief vigilante believed him the cause of it all. So he was "in wrong" all around. The girl's f...

Seamen Enoch Arden returns home after a long absence marooned on a desert island. At home he finds his wife married to another, and though he loves her, he cannot bear to disrupt her current happiness....

Royal Macklin, a cadet at WEst Point, is discharged for a misdemeanor, and the father of Beatrice, Macklin's sweetheart, order her to break the engagement. Macklin goes to Honduras, in the midst of a revolution, and joins the Patriot army of General ...

A rollicking compendium of the greatest hits of silent-cinema chase sequences...