Nick91
Member: Rank 2
God's Step Children (1938) 1/5
To keep with the theme of my previously reviewed film here (Lost Boundaries), I decided to watch this film as I noticed it was on Youtube. It was directed by the noted African-American Oscar Micheaux and had an all-black cast. Since blacks generally didn't have access to large budgets, backed up by large studios, the production value is not quite up to standard unfortunately. The editing is very choppy, but that could possibly be because of a shortened version rather than the full movie.
The acting has got to be one of the worst I've ever seen. It's stilted and very few deliver their lines in a natural manner. The story? Well, it proclaimed to be a cross between Imitation of Life (a movie I thought was very good) and These Three (never seen it), but I just find the whole plot so lackluster. The non-spoiler summary is that a light-skinned baby, Naomi, is abandoned by her biological mother, and her adoptive mother raises her along with her own son.
The film can be watched here.
To keep with the theme of my previously reviewed film here (Lost Boundaries), I decided to watch this film as I noticed it was on Youtube. It was directed by the noted African-American Oscar Micheaux and had an all-black cast. Since blacks generally didn't have access to large budgets, backed up by large studios, the production value is not quite up to standard unfortunately. The editing is very choppy, but that could possibly be because of a shortened version rather than the full movie.
The acting has got to be one of the worst I've ever seen. It's stilted and very few deliver their lines in a natural manner. The story? Well, it proclaimed to be a cross between Imitation of Life (a movie I thought was very good) and These Three (never seen it), but I just find the whole plot so lackluster. The non-spoiler summary is that a light-skinned baby, Naomi, is abandoned by her biological mother, and her adoptive mother raises her along with her own son.
Naomi gets into trouble in school for disobeying (and spitting on) her teacher, and for spreading false rumours about her. She is sent to a convent for ten years, and returns home when she becomes a young adult. Her step-brother, Jimmie, is also grown up, and in a bizarre incest-like (but not really, biologically speaking) twist, she becomes attracted to him, though he already has a girlfriend (the teacher's daughter). Instead, he insists on her getting married to his friend, whom Naomi finds physically ugly. But she relents and marries him, until about a year later when she sneaks up on her brother's family, sees how happy they are, and drowns herself in a lake. And that's it.
The film can be watched here.
