Verdict Not Guilty (Short 1933)

Verdict Not Guilty (Short 1933). 9m

“The film begins in some weird celestial court. A young unmarried woman dies in childbirth and the court weighs the evidence to determine her fate. On one hand, she played cards, didnu0026#39;t attend church regularly and she slept with a man she wasnu0026#39;t married to…on the other, there is the promise of eternal life through Jesus.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen seen today, u0026quot;Verdict Not Guiltyu0026quot; must seem very quaint and strange. After all, itu0026#39;s a religious allegory involving a dead woman and a weird trial to determine if sheu0026#39;s to enter heaven or not. It also appears to have been made for next to nothing and is a silent film…long after silents disappeared in America. I know nothing about the movie apart from what I saw on the Criterion Channel, but assume it wasnu0026#39;t meant for theaters but perhaps black churches, due to its style and all-black cast. Weird and worth watching! And, impossible to rate due to its strange style.”