Sold for Marriage

"Sold for Marriage" is a breezy little feature starring Lillian Gish. Gish plays a Russian, who's uncle and aunt try to sell her hand in marriage to the wealthiest bachelor, despite Gish being in love with a poor boy. Although the subject matter might sound sensational or melodramatic, the treatment is light and the pacing is fluid. Much of it comes off more as comedy rather than drama. Most of the credit for that must go to Gish. Allan Sears, as her uncle, also gives an amusing performance to what otherwise could have been a melodramatic heavy. The rest of the cast is dull background—seemingly incapable of any comic expressions, or clueless to the tone set by Gish and Sears.

If not for Gish, this would surely be a completely forgettable picture. This is the first film from the 1910s that I've seen of hers where D.W. Griffith didn't direct, and it's a nice change of pace. Here, she sports dark hair and peasant clothing—ridding herself of the prim, ideal virgin or mistreated heroine doomed to some melodramatic climax (often, an attempted rape) before being rescued at the last minute. She is quite comically deadpan in her facial expressions, but also her entire posture and body language seems different from her roles in melodramas. She slouches, scurries and is generally perkier. For the demonstration of Gish's versatility with this performance alone, from one of the best actresses of the silent era or ever, it was worth seeing "Sold for Marriage".