Product Details

• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Republic Pictures
• VHS Release Date: February 17, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301784030
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,901 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, well-deserved tribute to a queen of film, October 14, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Film Institute: Lillian Gish (Life Achievement Awards) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Wonderful!! This 1984 television special of the American Film Institute honoring Lillian Gish is one of the few times they got in right!! The lovely Miss Gish, as enchanting and as eloquent as ever (and on the eve of 90!!) charms in her acceptance speech and the film clips themselves are terrific. A highlight is the appearance of Miss Gish's contemporary, Colleen Moore, and her funny and sweet recollections of Lillian Gish as the real mankiller of Hollywood!! Jennifer Jones, gorgeous as ever, as appears and Richard Widmark, Mary Martin, Robert Mitchum, Jeanne Moreau (very charming - where IS her documentary on Lillian), Lily Tomlin, Cicely Tyson,and others pay tribute to this great star. Douglas Fairbanks Jr is a terrific host and Cary Grant and Fred Astaire can be seen in the audience in one of their final appearances. A Wonderful tape for anyone who loves the golden days of film. Thanks Amazon for making it available!! END

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lillian Gish, First Lady of the Silver Screen!, July 3, 2009

By 

Brock Stevens (Coal City, WV USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: American Film Institute: Lillian Gish (Life Achievement Awards) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ms. Gish most definitely deserved the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1984. Lillian was with D.W. Griffith at the dawn of films, her first screen appearance was in 1912. Ms. Gish started acting as a young child, along with her sister Dorothy, and Mother. Lillian and Dorothy made their screen debut in D.W. Griffith's "An Unseen Enemy" (1912). Lillian went on to make many of the best films ever made with Mr. Griffith, such as "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), "Intolerance" (1916), and "The Wind" (1928). When talking pictures came in Mr. Griffith soon departed Hollywood over creative differences, but Ms. Gish always credited with being the greatest man films ever had (Mr. Griffith is considered to be "The Father of Film"). In 1969, Lillian published her autobiography, which was modestly titled "The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me", It's a very good book I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you've seen other AFI salute's and were bored to tears, you most certainly won't be with this one. On WWW.IMDB.COM, if you search Lillian's AFI Salute you'll see Mr. Fred Astaire listed as host, he was not, he was just in a few background shots and never spoke. Mr. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was the actual host throughout. In this Salute other than Douglas Fairbans Jr., you'll hear from Robert Mitchum who starred with Lillian in "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), John Houseman who produced two of Lillian's films, Mary Martin (Peter Pan) one of Ms. Gish's closest friends, and many, many more. You will not be disappointed.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars FROM SILENT TO SOUND, March 21, 2003

By 

HOWARD MORLEY (London, England United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Film Institute: Lillian Gish (Life Achievement Awards) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I must admit to an ulterior motive for buying this video.As I had collected all the 24 films of Jennifer Jones (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 Lillian concerning the two films they did together.These were:"Duel In The Sun (1946) when Lillian plays LauraBelle McCanless, the senator's wife and "Portrait Of Jennie (1948) when she played a 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 body gestures needed for "silents" and learn to adopt the more naturalistic approach which was required from 1927 onwards.

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, hosted by Douglas Fairbanks Jnr with a galaxy of stars listed by the previous reviewer.I have looked in vain for a later and similar tribute to Gregory Peck from 1989 where JJ gave another eulogy.

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