"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.
