The Greatest Question

The Greatest Question
Robert Harron and Lillian Gish
Directed by	D. W. Griffith
Written by	Stanner E.V. Taylor
Produced by	D. W. Griffith
Starring	Lillian Gish Robert Harron Ralph Graves
Cinematography	G. W. Bitzer
Edited by	James Smith
Music by	Albert Pesce
Distributed by	First National Pictures
Release date	December 28, 1919 (1919-12-28)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Greatest Question

The Greatest Question is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.^[1]^[2] Based upon a novel by William Hale, the film has a plot involving spiritualism.

Plot

As described in a film magazine,^[3] Nellie Jarvis (Gish), daughter of a wandering couple, when very young witnesses the murder of a woman by a man and his wife. Years later, "Little Miss Yes'm," as Nellie is known, returns to the scene of the crime as an orphan. Mr. Hilton (Fawcett) and his wife (Besserer), though poverty stricken, take her into their family. Finding the Hiltons are in financial straits, she goes to a nearby farmhouse and gets employment from Martin Cain (Nichols) and his wife (Crowell). Here she is prosecuted, beaten and tormented. The farmer seeks to assault her and she recognizes in him the man who murdered the woman years before. In the meantime, Mrs. Hilton has appealed to her dead son and God to relieve the family from poverty. The spirit of the dead son returns and on the following day oil is found on the land. Jimmie Hilton (Harron), Little Miss Yes'm's sweetheart, rushes to the Cain's to get her. He reaches her in time to save her from torture by the depraved Cains. The Hiltons become wealthy and there is a happy ending.

Cast

Lillian Gish as Nellie Jarvis
Robert Harron as Jimmie Hilton
Ralph Graves as John Hilton Jr.
Eugenie Besserer as Mrs. Hilton
George Fawcett as Mr. Hilton
Tom Wilson as Uncle Zeke (*in blackface)
George Nichols as Martin Cain
Josephine Crowell as Mrs. Cain

References

^ "Progressive Silent Film List: The Greatest Question". Silent Era. Retrieved April 30, 2009.
^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Greatest Question
^ "Reviews: The Greatest Question". Exhibitors Herald. 10 (11). New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company: 57. March 13, 1920.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Greatest Question.

The Greatest Question at IMDb
The Greatest Question at AllMovie
The Greatest Question is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

v t e Films directed by D. W. Griffith
1908	The Adventures of Dollie The Fight for Freedom The Tavern Keeper's Daughter The Black Viper The Red Man and the Child Deceived Slumming Party The Bandit's Waterloo A Calamitous Elopement The Greaser's Gauntlet The Man and the Woman The Fatal Hour For Love of Gold Balked at the Altar For a Wife's Honor Betrayed by a Handprint Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court The Girl and the Outlaw Behind the Scenes The Red Girl The Heart of O'Yama Where the Breakers Roar A Smoked Husband The Stolen Jewels The Devil The Zulu's Heart Father Gets in the Game Ingomar, the Barbarian The Vaquero's Vow The Planter's Wife Romance of a Jewess The Call of the Wild Concealing a Burglar After Many Years The Pirate's Gold The Taming of the Shrew The Guerrilla The Song of the Shirt The Ingrate A Woman's Way The Clubman and the Tramp Money Mad The Valet's Wife The Feud and the Turkey The Reckoning The Test of Friendship An Awful Moment The Christmas Burglars Mr. Jones at the Ball The Helping Hand
1909	One Touch of Nature The Maniac Cook Mrs. Jones Entertains The Honor of Thieves Love Finds a Way The Sacrifice A Rural Elopement Those Boys! The Criminal Hypnotist The Fascinating Mrs. Francis Mr. Jones Has a Card Party Those Awful Hats The Welcome Burglar The Cord of Life The Girls and Daddy The Brahma Diamond Edgar Allen Poe A Wreath in Time Tragic Love The Curtain Pole His Ward's Love The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals The Hindoo Dagger The Politician's Love Story The Golden Louis At the Altar The Prussian Spy His Wife's Mother A Fool's Revenge The Wooden Leg The Roue's Heart The Salvation Army Lass The Lure of the Gown I Did It The Voice of the Violin The Deception And a Little Child Shall Lead Them A Burglar's Mistake The Medicine Bottle Jones and His New Neighbors A Drunkard's Reformation Trying to Get Arrested The Road to the Heart A Rude Hostess Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade A Sound Sleeper Lady Helen's Escapade Lucky Jim Jones and the Lady Book Agent Resurrection Two Memories Eloping with Auntie The Cricket on the Hearth The Violin Maker of Cremona A New Trick The Lonely Villa The Son's Return Her First Biscuits The Country Doctor The Cardinal's Conspiracy Tender Hearts The Friend of the Family The Renunciation The Mended Lute The Sealed Room The Little Darling The Hessian Renegades Comata, the Sioux Getting Even In Old Kentucky Leather Stocking Pippa Passes or The Song of Conscience Fools of Fate His Lost Love The Gibson Goddess Nursing a Viper The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period Through the Breakers The Red Man's View A Corner in Wheat A Trap for Santa Claus In Little Italy To Save Her Soul The Day After Choosing a Husband Bill Sharkey's Last Game
1910	The Rocky Road The Woman from Mellon's The Englishman and the Girl In Old California Faithful The Two Brothers As It Is In Life A Romance of the Western Hills The Unchanging Sea Ramona In the Season of Buds A Child of the Ghetto In the Border States What the Daisy Said A Flash of Light An Arcadian Maid The House with Closed Shutters Wilful Peggy The Modern Prodigal A Mohawk's Way The Oath and the Man Rose O'Salem-Town The Fugitive Winning Back His Love
1911	The Two Paths The Italian Barber His Trust His Trust Fulfilled Fate's Turning Heart Beats of Long Ago What Shall We Do with Our Old? Fisher Folks His Daughter The Lily of the Tenements A Decree of Destiny Was He a Coward? The Lonedale Operator The Spanish Gypsy The Broken Cross How She Triumphed The New Dress The Crooked Road The White Rose of the Wilds The Smile of a Child Enoch Arden: Part I Enoch Arden: Part II The Primal Call Fighting Blood The Indian Brothers A Country Cupid The Last Drop of Water Out from the Shadow The Blind Princess and the Poet Swords and Hearts The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of Her Awakening The Making of a Man The Adventures of Billy The Long Road Love in the Hills The Battle Through Darkened Vales The Miser's Heart A Woman Scorned The Voice of the Child
1912	The Eternal Mother The Old Bookkeeper For His Son The Transformation of Mike A Sister's Love Under Burning Skies The Sunbeam A String of Pearls The Girl and Her Trust The Root of Evil The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch The Punishment The Female of the Species Just Like a Woman One Is Business, the Other Crime The Lesser Evil A Beast at Bay An Outcast Among Outcasts Home Folks A Temporary Truce The Spirit Awakened Man's Lust for Gold Man's Genesis The Sands of Dee The Narrow Road The Inner Circle A Change of Spirit An Unseen Enemy Blind Love The Massacre Two Daughters of Eve Friends So Near, yet So Far A Feud in the Kentucky Hills The Chief's Blanket In the Aisles of the Wild The One She Loved The Painted Lady The Musketeers of Pig Alley Heredity Gold and Glitter My Baby The Informer Brutality The New York Hat My Hero The Burglar's Dilemma A Cry for Help The God Within
1913	Three Friends The Telephone Girl and the Lady An Adventure in the Autumn Woods The Tender Hearted Boy A Misappropriated Turkey Brothers Oil and Water A Chance Deception Love in an Apartment Hotel Broken Ways A Girl's Stratagem The Unwelcome Guest Near to Earth Fate A Welcome Intruder The Sheriff's Baby The Hero of Little Italy The Little Tease A Misunderstood Boy The Left-Handed Man The Lady and the Mouse If We Only Knew The Wanderer The Stolen Loaf The House of Darkness The Yaqui Cur Just Gold The Ranchero's Revenge A Timely Interception Death's Marathon The Mothering Heart The Sorrowful Shore The Enemy's Baby The Mistake Two Men of the Desert Madonna of the Storm The Battle at Elderbush Gulch The Conscience of Hassan Bey
1914–1931	Judith of Bethulia (1914) Battle of the Sexes (1914, lost) Brute Force (1914) Home, Sweet Home (1914) The Escape (1914, lost) The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (1914) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916) Hearts of the World (1918) The Great Love (1918, lost) Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal (1918, lost) The Greatest Thing in Life (1918, lost) A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919) Broken Blossoms (1919) True Heart Susie (1919) Scarlet Days (1919) The Greatest Question (1919) The Idol Dancer (1920) Remodeling Her Husband (1920) The Love Flower (1920) Way Down East (1920) Dream Street (1921) Orphans of the Storm (1921) One Exciting Night (1922) The White Rose (1923) America (1924) Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) Sally of the Sawdust (1925) That Royle Girl (1925, lost) The Sorrows of Satan (1926) Drums of Love (1928) The Battle of the Sexes (1928) Lady of the Pavements (1929) Abraham Lincoln (1930) The Struggle (1931)