God's Step Children (1938) User Reviews

The version I saw of God's Step Children was interesting if uneven

[tavm · 5/10 · 16 July 2008]

IMDb mentions the runtime of God's Step Children as 105 min. but the version I saw was only 65 min. The edited scenes might have been the ones of the black school kids taunting mulatto Naomi (Jacqueline Lewis) at school that caused her brattiness later on. If I had seen those sequences, I might have felt sorry for her instead of agreeing with everyone how she got what she deserved (spanking from the teacher and later her mother). That mother (Alice B. Russell, director Oscar Micheaux's wife) is actually Mrs. Saunders who adopted Naomi when her real mother (Dorothy Van Engle) dropped her off one day never to return. Mrs. Saunders has a son, Jimmie (Charles Thompson), who also thinks Naomi is bratty but suddenly turns hesitant when his mother threatens to punish her. After her teacher, Mrs. Cushinberry (Ethyl Moses), almost gets fired because of a nasty lie Naomi told (which is not revealed in the version I saw), Naomi gets sent to a convent as we go forward 10 years later with an adult Jimmie (Carman Newsome) going out with Mrs. Cusinberry's daughter Eva (once again, Ethyl Moses). After Naomi (now Gloria Press) returns home, she goes with Jimmie and Eva to the city where Eva and her Aunt Carrie (Laura Bowman) notices how interested Naomi is in Jimmie. I should mention at this point that everyone knows that Jimmie and Naomi are not really related including the latter two but it's still an open secret. Anyway, Mrs. Saunders and Jimmie are set on having Naomi marry a banker friend of Jimmie's (Sam Patterson) but Naomi thinks he's really ugly (he's certainly much too old for her!) and doesn't want to go through with it. She finally relents after she reveals her feelings to her step brother and her realization of how awful she was to him and his mother. Then one year later, Naomi leaves her husband and gives Mrs. Saunders her baby as she runs away again while Jimmie has another newborn with now-wife Eva, a girl this time. In the final scenes, Naomi is looking at Jimmie's window from outside as a young boy-presumably her son-tells of a woman he sees. Jimmie and his mom find no one though the mother stays outside as we see water that Naomi might have fallen into (no suicide is actually shown in the version I saw)...As with some of the films I saw of Oscar Micheaux, the dialogue has a lethargic quality that takes a while to get used to. Interesting subject matter that isn't always compellingly performed or filmed. And the director stops the movie at times with some specialty acts-many of them from his previous movie Swing!-that, while entertaining, slows the story down. Still, I'd recommend God's Step Children for anyone interested in seeing how sensitive subject matter like mixed races and possible incest was handled during this time. And like I said, many of the performers from Swing!-Sammy Gardiner, Leon Gross, The Tyler Twins, and dancer Consuelo Harris (whose IMDb mini biography by Alicia T. says she indeed was in that movie though her own listing only mentions this one. Maybe she's "Miss Harris" in the Swing! cast list there) are entertaining. P.S. I previously saw Ms. Moses as a dancer in a couple of Cab Calloway shorts (Hi-De-Ho and Jitterbug Party) and once again, Alec Lovejoy, who I previously saw in St. Louis Blues, Black and Tan, and-yes-Swing!-brings another charming brief performance as Ontrue Cowper, Jimmy's old friend who fails to get him to agree to a gambling casino business. Oh, and the person who plays the school superintendent, Charles R. Moore, is another actor from my birth town of Chicago, Ill.

Excellent written story, but badly played out...

[dwpollar · 5/10 · 9 August 2002]

1st watched 8/9/2002 - - 5 out of 10(Dir-Oscar Micheaux): Excellent written story, but badly played out and cheaply produced. It is so hard for me to write this review because I admire so much about the way this story played out and the depth of the reality that was built into this movie about an adopted light-skinned child who is constantly trying to be something she's not and getting into trouble despite her excellent mother and obvious charmed life despite what her circumstances could have been. The reality is that many adopted children never understand that their loved and that was the point of this story. The bad part is that the obvious little funding that was given to this production was apparent in the acting and the production. This is too bad because with a better core of actors and actresses this could have been great. Nice little scenes of well-done dance routines are also kind of thrown in for commercials for the performers who were probably ignored by the majority of people in the white-ruled 1930's. Micheaux could have made a lot of money as a screenwriter, if he was white, with this vehicle, if Hollywood would have given it a chance despite it's frankness. I hope he got by okay anyway, and I will look for other title's that he may have had his hand in because of the obvious talent that showed through in this one.

Color-line drama, crude but powerful for its audience

[gimhoff · 30 January 2004]

SPOILERS!!! Writer-director-producer Oscar Micheaux's technical skills were equal to those of another triple-threat filmmaker, Edward D. Wood, Jr. But his films were popular with black audiences because, like his novels, they addressed racial issues -- often color divisions within the black community -- directly. In God's Step Children, the characters are inconsistent and their motivations are vague, but the presentation of the racial issues by itself was enough to resonate powerfully with its intended audience.

The plot is that a light-skinned girl raised by a kindly black foster mother is taunted and rejected by her black schoolmates and her foster brother, and as a result she becomes a bratty child. Because of her misbehavior, she is sent to be raised in a convent for several years. When she finally returns home after twelve years in the convent, she falls in love with her foster brother, who has become an upright man who has rejected an offer to enter profitable city rackets to become an honest farmer. But her foster brother and mother force her into marriage with a dim-witted, ugly man whom she doesn't love. After a year, she leaves her husband, leaves her newborn baby with her foster mother, and decides to pass as white. She returns home after a few years to catch just a glimpse of her son, and then to jump from a bridge and drown herself in a river.

The key to most of this film lies in lost footage.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 5 February 2024]

That doesn't excuse the amateurish acting, wretched dialog and poor production values. The opening titles are missing, replaced by the trailer which then leads to what remains of the credits. You'd have to be a saint or have access to the missing reels to fully understand what made Naomi (Jacqueline Lewis as a teenager, later Gloria Press as an adult) so one dimensionally rotten. She is downright nasty in school, cries to foster mother Alice B. Russell how wrongly mistreated she is, then spreads a lie (part of the missing footage) about teacher Ethel Moses which pretty much has her banished.

The adult Naomi is little better, having obvious mental health issues over being light skinned black, and denying any part of her race. Being light skinned wasn't an issue for Eva (also Moses), daughter of the teacher, and in love with Naomi's foster brother (Carman Newsome), a good educated man. Newsome has some lines that are rather controversial about his own race, and the film through other characters doesn't try to diminish those thoughts. It seems passive aggressive to have mixed messages that aren't positive ones in either case.

I can only describe this film as a hot mess, perhaps written in conservative terms against too much progression and liberalist viewpoints. Outside of those philosophies, it's an outlandish soap opera where the leading female character had so much potential as a sweet looking pretty girl but couldn't escape her own self hatred, thus on the sad path to self destruction. It certainly does not hold up, but should probably be viewed as a misfire that tried something Oscar Micheaux felt worthy and ended up a major disappointment.

A seldom stated point of view

[seascapes27 · 10/10 · 23 November 2007]

Although this film has relatively low production values by today's standard, Micheaux did the best he could with what he had to work with - few filmmakers today would are express the historic views of the mulatto elite or the middle/upper class people of color - Oprah Winfrey presents The Wedding is about the closest in recent memory -but the lead character didn't try to "pass" as they say.

The idea of the biracial/multiethnic individual not feeling that he/she fits in anywhere and the adoptee who never believes he/she is loved is also a ripe one for discussion and touched upon here, since there are two problems at play here - feeling rootless and feeling resentful of being thrust into a socially inferior position.

Many believe these views are outdated, but some people still hold them, and it's good to examine them. Another user commented on Naomi's desire to be something that she's not, yet the American dream is to be able to rise above your circumstances and be what you want to be. There should always be freedom of choice and freedom of association, it's just too bad that this film doesn't give the lead character a happy ending, but that was to be expected I suppose.

Controversy Continues

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

God's Step Children (1938)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Yet another highly controversial film from pioneer director Oscar Micheaux, which tries to be critical of black people who hate being black. A black mother gives birth to a mixed baby but she can't stand the backlash so she gives the child to another black woman. At nine years old, this child starts lying and trying to get her black teachers into trouble because she hates being black. She's sent to a convent but when the girl returns at the age of 21, she again tries to destroy everyone around here. This is an incoherent mess of a film that doesn't make a bit a sense and it's never real clear what message the director is trying to send. I couldn't make heads or tails out of any scene and in the end I was left with a major headache. The other films from the director that I've seen were often critical of black people, which was a brave thing to do considering these films only played black theaters but whatever Micheaux's point was here is certainly lost. Needless to say, the acting is pretty horrid throughout, which is hard to be too critical of since the majority of blacks were allowed in any sort of acting school at the time.

The Best of Oscar Micheaux films!

[msladysoul · 22 July 2004]

Of all the Oscar Micheaux films I've seen this is one that keeps your attention and has a real story to follow. God's Stepchildren is about a girl named Naomi who is abandoned as a baby by a beautiful black lady(Dorothy Van Engle) whose her mother, the mother leaves the baby with Mrs. Saunders a woman she hears is a good woman and who she knows will take good care of her child, the woman leaves no name and never returns. Obviously the woman had Naomi with a white man, and she's ashame and can't raise the child. Mrs. Saunders takes on raising the child and treats as her own but Naomi is trouble, she taunts and bullies and rejects the black kids and adults and always skip school to go to the white school and tries to be accepted. She goes to far when she spreads nasty rumors about her teacher who punished her for spitting on her, she's then sent to a all girl catholic school and stays until she's grown. She comes back home acting innocent but stirs up trouble by falling in love with her foster brother, Mrs. Saunders and her foster brother notices that and marries her off against her will to a ugly black man, she has a son but up and leaves her child with Mrs. Saunders because she can't get what she wants- her brother, she sees no reason to stay Black, so she passes for white but have no luck, she commits suicide. The moral of the story is when you try to be something your not or have no morals or values you'll end up to no good in life, be proud of what you are, work hard for what you want and you will be a success. Naomi was a spoiled girl who wanted something for nothing and instead of appreciating what she has and who she is, she was always wanting something she could never get because what she wanted was impossible and out of reach. This movie struck a nerve in the black community, they were kind of offended like most were because Micheaux films were strong. The actors and actresses in Oscar Micheaux film don't get the credit their due- Ethel Moses- the black jean harlow- was Micheaux most used actress, beautiful and a fine actress, Carman Newsome- the black clark gable- micheaux most used actor, Alice B. Russell- Micheaux wife and fine actress always played the mother figures, Jacqueline Smith who played the child Naomi, deserves an academy award for her performance, Gloria Press- adult Naomi was good also, beautiful Dorothy Van Engle is the mother of Naomi who had a small part but significant. Check this movie out. You'll enjoy the acting and entertainment, unlike Hollywood in these independent black cast films Blacks were able to show their talent and do some real acting without being stereotyped.