Without Benefit of Clergy

1921 film

Without Benefit of Clergy

Film still with Thomas Holding and Virginia Brown Faire

Directed by| James Young
Written by| Randolph C. Lewis
Based on| Without Benefit of Clergy
by Rudyard Kipling
Produced by| Robert Brunton
Starring| Nigel De Brulier
Virginia Brown Faire
Boris Karloff
Thomas Holding
Cinematography| Jack Okey

Production
company

Robert Brunton Productions

Distributed by| Pathé Exchange

Release date

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

Running time

| 6 reels (1 hour)
Country| United States
Language| Silent (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

[edit]

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

[edit]

* 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

## See also

[edit]

* Boris Karloff filmography

## References

[edit]

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

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Without Benefit of Clergy.

* Without Benefit of Clergy at IMDb