The Godless Girl

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Movie Info

Completed as a silent film, Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl was quickly converted into a part-talkie by the simple expedient of tacking on a 10-minute coda, wherein the characters discuss the weather. The film begins as a condemnation of the atheistic movement then prevalent on high-school and college campuses. Heroine Judith Craig (Lina Basquette) and hero Bob Hathaway (George Duryea, later known as western star Tom Keene) hold secret anti-religious meetings with their friends. During one such meeting, the police stage a raid, whereupon a stairway collapses and a young girl is killed. Arrested for complicity in the girl's death, Judith and Bob are sent to reform school, where they suffer mightily at the hands of their sadistic jailers. Likewise brutalized is hard-boiled Mame (Marie Prevost), who in one of the film's most notorious scenes is strung up by her wrists and beaten (DeMille claimed that he was only mirroring "real life," but he was always saying things like that). Somehow, their horrible experiences serve to renew Judith and Bob's faith in God. In a harrowing climax, Bob rescues Judith from a fire, a scene so realistically staged that, for the rest of her life, the actress retained vivid memories of how close she came to being genuinely incinerated. Featured in the cast are Noah Beery Sr. as "The Brute" and Eddie Quillan as "The Goat." The Godless Girl represented Cecil B. DeMille's final production for Pathe; shortly afterward, he moved to MGM, thence to Paramount.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Drama
Directed By:

Cecil B. DeMille
Written By:

Jeanie Macpherson, Beulah Marie Dix
In Theaters:

Mar 31, 1929 wide
Runtime:

90 minutes
Studio:

Pathé Films

Cast

Lina Basquette
as Judy

Marie Prevost
as Mame

George Duryea
as Bob

Noah Beery Sr.
as The Brute

Eddie Quillan
as Samuel 'Bozo' Johnson

Wade Boteler

Clarence Burton
as Prison Guard

Betty Boyd

Hedwiga Reicher
as Prison Matron

Julia Brown

Kate Price
as Prison Matron

Julia Faye
as Inmate

Colin Chase

Dick Alexander
as Prison Guard

Cameron Coffey

Mary Jane Irving
as The Victim

Jacqueline Dryese
as Inmate

George Ellis

Jim Farley

Larry Fisher

Evelyn Francisco

May Giraci

Grace Gordon

Milton Holmes

William Humphrey

George Irving

Peaches Jackson

Dolores Johnson

Jane Keckley

Richard Lapan

Don Marion

Mary Mayberry

Buddy Messinger

Pat Moore

Jack Murphy

Hortense Petra

Jimmy Aldine

Gertrude Quality
as Matron

Viola Louie
as Inmate

Emily Barrye
as Inmate

Tom Keene
as The Boy

Richard Alexander
as Guard

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Critic Reviews for The Godless Girl

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Audience Reviews for The Godless Girl

Jun 26, 2009

it's like reefer madness for atheists :P ok, to be fair it's very well made and entertaining, if terribly predictable

Stella D Super Reviewer
Jul 27, 2008

Cecil B. DeMille's last silent feature and a great one it is too. The film starts with a high-school battle between the two gangs, the Athiests, led by Judy and the Believers led by the handsome Bob. When the believers gate crash the Godless Society's meeting a full scale riot braeks out and during all the commotion a girl falls to her death. Then we find ourselves in a brutal reform school. The two gang leaders and their neutral friend Bozo are sent there after the tragic accident. Both the girls and the boys are open to torture and punishment. Half way through the story Judy forgots her Atheist ways with the help of her new friend. Judy and Bob, who once were enemies fall in love and manage to escape, though they are not quite successful. This is essential religious propaganda, but even though the girl was converted so easily it is still like nothing else I've seen. Defiantly recommended.

Emily B Super Reviewer