
Deserted by her husband, showgirl Nell Gordon ventures West to a small desert town where she works in Chuck Lang's dance hall. When Reverend Josiah Calvin comes to town to spread the gospel, Nell and Lang, feeling their livelihood threatened, scheme to put the reverend out of business.


A flickering nitrate prayer from 1915, The Spirit of Good is less a sermon than a sandstorm in which uplift and exploitation swirl until indistinguishable. Director Denison Clift, aided by scenario scribes Clifford Howard and Burke Jenkins, understands that morality tales live or die on the edge of the ridiculous; he ...

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Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

Paul Cazeneuve

Bruno Ziener
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" A flickering nitrate prayer from 1915, The Spirit of Good is less a sermon than a sandstorm in which uplift and exploitation swirl until indistinguishable. Director Denison Clift, aided by scenario scribes Clifford Howard and Burke Jenkins, understands that morality tales live or die on the edge of the ridiculous; he therefore stages redemption as if it were a barroom brawl, all elbows and halos. The film opens on a dissolve that feels like a gasp: footlights dim, a city’s roar recedes, and th..."
Denison Clift, Clifford Howard, Burke Jenkins
United States


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