Feet of Clay (1924 film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Feet of Clay

| image = FeetofClay-longposter-1924.jpg

| caption = 1924 theatrical poster

| director = Cecil B. DeMille

| producer = Adolph Zukor
Jesse L. Lasky
Cecil B. DeMille

| writer = Beulah Marie Dix (scenario)
Bertram Millhauser (scenario)

| based_on = {{based on|Feet of Clay|Margaretta Tuttle}}
{{based on|Across the Border|Beulah Marie Dix}}

| starring = Vera Reynolds
Rod La Rocque

| cinematography = J. Peverell Marley
Archie Stout

| editing = Anne Bauchens

| studio = Famous Players–Lasky

| distributor = Paramount Pictures

| released = {{film date|1924|9|28}}

| runtime =

| country = United States

| language = Silent (English intertitles)

| budget = $513,636.27

| gross = $904,383.90

}}

Feet of Clay is a 1924 American silent drama film directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Vera Reynolds and Rod La Rocque, and with set design by Norman Bel Geddes. The film is based on the 1923 novel by Margaretta Tuttle,{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8977-FEET-OFCLAY |title=Feet of Clay |work=afi.com |access-date=April 6, 2024}} and Beulah Marie Dix's one-act 1915 play Across the Border.{{cite book|last=Birchard|first=Robert S. |title=Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood|year=2004|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0-813-12324-0|page=194}}{{cite web |url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/F/FeetOfClay1924.html |title=Progressive Silent Film List: Feet of Clay |access-date=June 21, 2008|work=silentera.com}}

Location shooting for the film was done off of Catalina Island in California.

Plot

Kerry Harlan (La Rocque) is unable to work because he was injured in a battle with a shark, so his youthful wife Amy (Reynolds) becomes a fashion model. While she is away from home, Bertha, the wife of his surgeon, tries to force her attention on Kerry and is accidentally killed in an attempt to evade her husband. After the scandal Amy is courted by Tony Channing, but she returns to her husband and finds him near death from gas fumes. Because they both attempted to make suicide, their spirits are rejected by "the other side" and, learning the truth from Bertha's spirit, they fight their way back to life.

Cast

Vera Reynolds as Amy Loring
Rod La Rocque as Kerry Harlan
Julia Faye as Bertha Lansell
Ricardo Cortez as Tony Channing
Robert Edeson as Dr. Fergus Lansell
Theodore Kosloff as Bendick
Victor Varconi as Bookkeeper
William Boyd as Young Society Man (uncredited)
J.C. Fowler (uncredited)
Lucien Littlefield (uncredited)

Preservation

With no prints of Feet of Clay located in any film archives, it is considered a lost film.{{cite web |url=https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.5176/ |title=American Silent Feature Film Database: Feet of Clay |access-date=April 6, 2024 |publisher=Library of Congress}}