
Fred Niblo, MGM, 1927, from Channing Pollock's 1925 play. Lillian Gish is Pauli Arndt, who marries Carl Behrend as Austria enters the war. Carl is drafted; her pacifist father loses his chair; the household starves. Gish's fifth and last MGM picture, finished after The Wind but released first. Photoplay had announced Victor Seastrom and Lars Hanson; neither is in the film. Oliver Marsh photographed it; Margaret Booth cut it.
The last MGM picture, finished after The Wind and released first. A Vienna household starving through the war, a pacifist father losing his chair, a husband drafted. Gish carries the erosion in a kitchen. Watch her at the table when the food runs out. Small motions, again, and enough.