The Greatest Question

In the valley of Silver Waters, a peddler family has parked their wagon. "Little Nellie" ventures out into the woods, and unexpectedly witnesses a horrific crime - Martin Cain and his wife (George Nichols and Josephine Crowell) are raging against a poor immigrant woman they have obviously employed; and, they inadvertently kill the woman. The violent act becomes a repressed memory for little Nellie. Ten years later, Lillian Gish (as the grown up Nellie Jarvis) is, once again, traveling through Silver Waters, with her ailing, widowed mother. After her mother dies ("A life flowing out to mysterious uncharted seas."), Ms. Gish meets Robert Harron (as Jimmie Hilton), who lives nearby, with his poverty-stricken family. Mr. Harron's family helps Gish bury her mother; and, with nowhere to go, she accepts their invitation to stay…

Harron is attracted to Gish; and, they become inseparable. Harron's father George Fawcett (as Robert Hilton) is unable to work, due to disability. Precognizant mother Eugenie Besserer (as Mrs. Hilton) sees her favorite son Ralph Graves (as John Hilton) off to war, believing she will never see him again. To help out her financially strapped surrogate family, Gish seeks employment with Mr. and Mrs. Cain; the memory of their evil deed is still repressed. Harron kisses Gish goodbye; then, she moves in with the wicked Cains…

"The Greatest Question" is most notable as Robert Harron's last film; he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on September 5, 1920. When Harron died ("A life flowing out to mysterious uncharted seas."), this film was still being widely exhibited. And, it's a representative role - the "boy next door" he played so well for director D.W. Griffith. Harron is charming and natural, in the role of Jimmie Hilton. His reflective look at Gish's departure, from behind his fence, is just what Gish was longing for in "True Heart Susie" (1919).

Robert Harron was one of the finest actor of his time; his record of performances, and acting style, portended a great career in the coming decades. In hindsight, he looks like one of the few silent performers certain to make a natural transition to sound film performances. At the time of his death, Harron had signed with Metro, where he worked on an unavailable film. There seems to be some controversy about whether or not Harron committed suicide; if so, it could not have been due to an ongoing rivalry with actor Richard Barthelmess, over roles offered by director D.W. Griffith. By the time Harron died, both actors had left Griffith's company; and, they remained friendly enough to attend the New York première of "Way Down East" (1920). Ironically, "The Greatest Question" is about death; and, Harron had a relatively unknown friend in New York, at that time, to attend the same "Way Down East" premiere - the soon famous, and also short-lived, Rudolph Valentino.

********* The Greatest Question (12/28/19) D.W. Griffith ~ Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Ralph Graves, Eugenie Besserer

"The Greatest Question" seems quite damning evidence for D. W. Griffith's detractors and their charges of overrated directing skills and his handling of minority characters. Lillian Gish is lovely in this but this is one of her less empathic Griffith heroines. Best known as Robert Harron's final film, his role isn't much and it's one of his least memorable performances. Ralph Graves is wasted in a bit part as his brother. Edward Wagenknecht tears into Josephine Crowell for overacting in THE FILMS OF D W GRIFFITH but I found her a believable if psychotic villainess, on the other hand Mama of the boys, Eugenie Besserer really chews the scenery on occasion and her slatternly husband (George Fawcett) is rather creepy but of course not as much as a the perv Crowell's married to (George Nichols) who lusts after underage Lil and earlier killed another young girl (witnessed by Gish's character as a child). Griffith's handling of concurrent scenes at different locations is just horrendous, worse than the most hackneyed silent serial and the scene with Besserer and Graves at the graveyard is just weird and poorly staged (most unusual is the mix of Christian fundamentalism and spiritualism though apparently not that uncommon in the late 19th and very early 20th century). The pastoral setting is lovely though, too bad it wasn't used for a genuine romance instead of this absurd little melodrama.

The great Lillian Gish is the main reason to see this dated Griffith film. She is wonderful, displaying a wide range of emotions. The other players don't come off as well. Harron, Besserer, and Graves are fine, but the rest of the cast overplays. The story has serious problems when viewed with today's perspective. Most glaring is the black man, portrayed in an extreme racist way. 'The Birth of a Nation' was not Griffith's only film that portrays blacks in this negative way. Also, the couple that murder the immigrant girl in the beginning of the film and abuse Nellie are such despicable characters that they come off as caricatures. The scene with Gish fleeing to the attic and then the couple piling suitcases on top of a table to reach her is pure melodrama. The good family strikes oil and becomes wealthy and the bad family sees the light, but too late--the are led away to be punished. The photography and the scenes with Gish and Harron are beautiful and make this worthwhile.

Greatest Question, The (1919)

**** (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith film that throws in every genre he ever worked in and although the thing turns way too sappy there's still enough here to make this one of the best and most overlooked silents I've seen. After her parents die, an orphan (Lillian Gish) is offered room and love by some poor farmers and their two sons. One of the sons goes off to fight in WW1 but the other (Robert Harron) soon starts a relationship with the orphan. When the other brother is killed, the family is close to losing the farm so the orphan goes to stay with another couple and work for them. This evil couple holds a secret from the orphan's past but in present times they also abuse her any way they can. This was one of four films Griffith made for First National and even he admits that he rushed through all of them because he didn't want to make any for this studio. Even with that said this is certainly one of the best films of his career with all the elements of previous classics. The film has high suspense, terrific drama, romance and pretty much everything else. The ending with the orphan about to lose her life to the abusive farmers contains the suspense. There's terrific comedy in one scene where the girl and the son walk past a graveyard. There's a wonderful romantic scene where the brother first tries to kiss the girl. Not to mention some very dark elements including the farmer trying to rape the girl. As you can tell, everything's here and it's perfectly captured with terrific direction and editing from Griffith. Then, of course, there's Gish who turns in a beautiful performance. The rest of the cast does too but this is Gish's show all the way. She's got one of the most beautiful and emotional faces, which is certainly important here with all the stages she has to play.

In the mid-1910s, D.W. Griffith was a HUGE name in Hollywood and was considered one of the top talents in the industry. By the time he made this film, however, his cache had started to fade a bit. And, by 1930, he was all but unemployable. What happened with this outstanding film pioneer? Well, I think there were two serious problems. First, he didn't change with the times. His saccharine and very old fashioned types of stories worked just fine in 1915 but by the 1920s, they seemed dated. Second, the films were often very, very moralistic--with messages that lacked subtlety. In the case of this film, it's especially apparent with the intertitle cards. Instead of conveying the action or explaining what was occurring, too often they were filled with long-winded prose and preachy sentimentality. And, in typical Griffith fashion, the black man in the film is not only a negative stereotype but is played by a white guy using burnt cork to darken his features! It seems that Griffith just disliked blacks but needed SOMEONE to make them look awful, so he used some white guy! Top that off with some seriously dumb plot problems and you might understand why I scored this film so low.

Nellie is a little girl and witnesses a pair of maniacs murdering a lady. She tells her parents and they totally ignore her. This happens in the film but in real life, only certifiably insane parents would ignore her. A decade passes. Now Nellie's parents have died and she wanders back to the same country where the murder occurred years ago. Why would she move there of all places and how could she forget about the killing? What's worse, eventually she goes to work for the murderers and has no recollection that they were the killers!!! If any of this makes sense to you (and it shouldn't), then there's the plot involving the son killed in WWI and the stupid way that this is handled (with mom, thousands of miles away, INSTANTLY knowing he's dead and receiving visions of his!). Please...give me a break! This is all stupid and sentimental claptrap....and I never bought any of it. Had this been made in 1905 or so, I could have accepted it. But for more discerning and sophisticated audiences of 1919, it must have been a hard-sell. For me today, it was an impossible sell though I must admit that the cinematography was quite lovely.