Without Benefit of Clergy

1921 film

June 26, 1921 (1921-06-26)^[1]

Running time

6 reels (1 hour)CountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Without Benefit of Clergy is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by James Young and featuring Virginia Brown Faire, Thomas Holding and Boris Karloff.^[2] It is based on the story by Rudyard Kipling.^[3] A print of the film still exists at the UCLA Film and Television Archives and at Archives Du Film Du CNC (Bois D'Arcy/Paris).^[4]^[5]

Plot

Holden, a young English engineer in India, falls in love with the native girl Ameera, so he buys her from her mother. Their marital union violates the strict social structure they live in. They live together very happily until their baby son dies. Later, Ameera dies during a cholera epidemic.^[6] The film's tagline was "The deathless drama of Ameera, the Hindu girl, and the British engineer, whose "love need no caste." (Print Ad in the Sunday Chronicle, ((Paterson, NJ)) 4 September 1921)

Cast

Virginia Brown Faire as Ameera
Thomas Holding as Holden, an American engineer in India
Evelyn Selbie as Ameera's mother
Boris Karloff as Ahmed Khan
Ruth Cummings as Alice Sanders (credited as Ruth Sinclair)
Nigel De Brulier as Pir Khan
Percy Marmont
Philippe De Lacy as Tota, at age 5 (uncredited)
Otto Lederer as Ahghan the moneylender (uncredited)
Herbert Prior as Hugh Sanders (uncredited)
E. G. Miller as Michael Revenish

References

^ "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List".
^ "Progressive Silent Film List: Without Benefit of Clergy". Silent Era. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
^ Harold Bloom, ed. Rudyard Kipling. Chelsea House, 2004.
^ Without Benefit of Clergy, silentera.com, retrieved December 13, 2013
^ "Without Benefit of Clergy". American Silent Feature Film Survival Database. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
^ "Plenty of Atmosphere in Undramatic Story", The Film Daily, p. 3, June 26, 1921, retrieved December 13, 2013