Lillian Gish shines in this in this film
It is a real “A” picture joked MGM salesmen getting booking for this movie. With intensely dramatic performances by Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson, under Victor Sjöström’s sensitive direction, the movie was a box-office hit! It made a profit of $296,000 in 1926!
Nathaniel Hawthorne story’s “A” for adultery could also be “Art” in the film. Lillian Gish began working on this project immediately after she finished her first MGM movie “La Boehme. Having overcome opposition from MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, it was great investment of time and effort. Gish asked Louis B. Mayer to produce the film, but MGM Studios initially feared that it would be banned by the church for its “morally” unacceptable contents. Henry Walthall (Gish’s co-star from D.W. Griffith days), Karl and Marcelle Corday led the support. The script was by Frances Marion.
When a young Puritan woman in Boston during colonial days becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she is pressured to reveal the name of her lover who happens to be a pastor at the local church. The trick of the story is that she is already married to a physician who has been missing seven years and presumed dead. She refuses to reveal the name of the father of her child for which the society shuns her and forces her to wear a dress marked “A” for adultery for the rest of her life. Lillian Gish offers a stunning performance in this silent classic which was acclaimed by the film critics.
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