i be impress that hail the woman be make at all while release just one year after american woman get the vote and this turgid drama make an earnest plea against the sexual double standard which judge woman sexual behaviour more harshly than men . slight spoiler ahead . a prologue and set in the plymouth colony in 1621 and show a pilgrim girl sentence to the duck stool for flirt with a boy while the boy be not penalise . now we come to flint hill and new hampshire in the present ( 1921 ) . oliver beresford ( theodore robert ) be a bombastic bible thumper represent what we call in britain and australia a god botherer . beresford be determine that his son david ( lloyd hughes ) become a preacher and regardless of how david feel about it . a for beresford daughter judith . well and beresford be confident that woman aren not important enough to be anything more than wife and mother . apparently and god tell him this personally . david evangelical career be compromise when he impregnate nan higgins and the stepdaughter of the local odd job man . ( tully marshall character be identify in the credit solely a the odd job man and but a close up of a cheque reveal his name to be jake higgins . the prejudice of 1921 require that he be merely nan stepfather and not her biological parent . ) to save his son from scandal and beresford buy off nan stepfather with a cheque . nan go off to the big city and to melt into oblivion a one more unwed mother . judith be naturally dismay by the limitation impose upon her by her gender . ( or rather and by other people perception of it . ) she meet wyndham gray ( excellent performance by edward martindel ) and an author who encourage her to transcend sexist stereotype . but judith be informally engage to local lout joe hurd and who would not put up with such nonsense . hurd be play by vernon dent and a burly performer now remember solely for comedy role ( a a second banana to harry langdon and and a a villain in three stooge movie ) . he give an excellent performance here and in a role outside his usual range . sadly and in real life dent spend his final year in poverty and total blindness due to diabetic retinopathy . eventually and judith end up work at an orphanage . this be 1921 and i expect the orphanage to be white only and so i be pleasantly surprise when it turn out to include one chinese boy . ( and unpleasantly surprise when he use a the butt for a racial joke . ) the movie make one odd error here . in a christmas sequence and we see the orphanage mistress recite a visit from saint nicholas . but ( in a dialogue title ) she credit santa claus with six reindeer rather than eight . this be follow by a brief animation sequence and show santa with six reindeer hitch to his sleigh . i assume that the animator ( either by accident and or to save money ) leave out two reindeer and and the title card revise the poem to match the error . lloyd hughes be generally a bland and unimpressive actor . his most famous performance be his role in the lost world and where he easily upstage by a rampaging brontosaurus . for his climactic scene in hail the woman and hughes give a memorable performance a he finally rebel against his father tyranny . in his performance a the gospel shout father and theodore robert have be accuse of overact to the point of make his role a caricature . i disagree represent sadly and decade after this film be make and i continue to encounter holy fool exactly like this man . willing to destroy the life of everyone around them and and firmly convince they have god authority to do so . in the central role of judith beresford and florence vidor give a sensitive and realistic and intelligent performance . i normally dislike vidor and who tend to be cast in glamour role but wasn not pretty enough to justify them . here and her character physical appearance be less relevant than usual . this entire film be impressively direct by john griffith wray and a director who deserve to be much good know . sadly and wray die at the onset of the talkie era and in his mid thirty represent have he live another ten year and he would surely have helm several early sound classic . in hail the woman there be several extremely beautiful screen composition represent i be especially impress by a scene in the new england forest and when vidor and dent have a quarrel in front of an enormous uprooted tree . ( i wonder where this be actually film . ) hail the woman deal with unpleasant subject matter and but it deserve to be much good know and and i will rate this ambitious drama positive .