Without Benefit of Clergy

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]

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)

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

See also

• Boris Karloff filmography