Godless Girl, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Cecile B. DeMilleRelease Date(s)
1928 (January 13, 2026)Studio(s)
Pathé Exchange (Kino Classics)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
Cecil B. DeMile directed films for five decades in both the silent and sound era. They ranged from historical dramas, Biblical epics, melodramas, and comedies. Among his successful sound pictures are the remake of his own Ten Commandments, Samson and Delilah, and the Academy-Award-winning The Greatest Show on Earth. Known today largely for cinematic spectacle, DeMille tackled a social issue in his final silent picture, The Godless Girl.
In her high school, Judy Craig (Lina Basquette) leads the Godless Society whose members distribute flyers to the student body that proclaim man created God and urge them to “kill the Bible.” The principal gets wind of the flyers and threatens to punish the members but Judy is determined to keep the club alive. Exceptionally religious Bob (Tom Keene, billed as George Duryea), a handsome classmate with whom Judy has been exchanging notes and smiling glances, gets permission for the students to handle the situation themselves.
As Judy is leading a peaceful meeting, Bob invades it with a mob ordering Judy and her fellow atheists to disband. They stand their ground, a huge melee follows and goofy “Bozo” Johnson (Eddie Quillan) gets shoved into a girl trapped on the staircase. The bannister gives way and she falls several stories. As police arrive and the other kids flee, Bob, Judy and Bozo remain with the dying girl. They’re arrested for manslaughter and sentenced to a juvenile reform facility.
While incarcerated, they endure inhumane treatment, physical abuse, and even torture. The head guard, known as the Brute (Noah Beery), is the face of evil as he takes particular delight in humiliating the three young people for his own pleasure. The reformatory is a veritable prison. The boys and girls are tightly regimented and forced to do hard labor. Bob and Bozo have their heads shaved and, when the head guard is accidentally splashed with water, Bob is shot with a violent, prolonged jet of water from a fire hose, then put in solitary confinement and fed only bread and water. The girls are forced to pray and Judy is intentionally given a shock when she speaks to Bob through an electrified fence.
Lina Basquette infuses her character with determination and a sense of self-righteousness that’s often overbearing. Yet she has an innocent charm and we feel sorry for her once she’s been sent to the reform institution. Manipulative, clever, and proud, her Judy is a strong female role.
Keene/Duryea, when we first encounter Bob, is straitlaced, dull, and the opposite of Judy in belief and demeanor. Looking more like a college frat boy (he even wears a sweater with a “U’ on it) than a high school teenager, he turns out to have a heroic side, coming to Judy’s aid whenever he can in that juvenile hell.
As the hapless Bozo, Quillan moves like a silent comedian, his loose and rubbery physicality making him a perfect foil for the rigid Bob. De Mille shows Bozo’s humanity in a number a scenes so he emerges as a person with feelings, not merely a clown. Quillan has an engaging screen presence and does some effortless scene stealing.
Though The Godless Girl focuses on high school students, everyone in the major cast looks far too old to be in high school. This is jarring. Director De Mille was apparently more interested in making a statement about the conditions in juvenile institutions than in casting age-appropriate actors. De Mille collected evidence to confirm whether juvenile institutions were as terrible as they were reputed to be. Former inmates provided affidavits and letters attesting to beatings, whippings, shackles, straitjackets, bloodhounds, electric fences, and solitary confinement. Some of the images in the film are harrowing. To balance the sordid aspects of the story, Bozo provides some comic relief, if you consider being forcefully tossed into a pen of hogs funny.
Scenario writers Jeanie Macpherson and Beulah Marie Dix based their story on atheist pamphlets having been distributed at Hollywood High School. The film is more about conditions in juvenile institutions than atheism. Once Judy and Bob are suffering indignities and vicious cruelty at the unnamed facility, they have a common cause—to resist. Despite horrid treatment, tormentors, and despair, they persevere and eventually plan a clever escape. Their spiritual differences give way to a struggle to survive.
The Godless Girl has some impressive sequences. The fight among the students takes place largely on a three-level set with scores of extras battling it out. DeMille pans fluidly to take advantage of the set and highlight the growing mayhem. The fighting is staged but looks real in its sloppiness and randomness, with raw eggs pelted, furniture tossed, and punches thrown. In another sequence, a fire erupts at the institution at a climactic point, with actors moving in and around raging flames. Spectacular even by today’s standards, it testifies to DeMille’s ability to create tension and drama simultaneously.
The Godless Girl was shot by director of photography J. Peverell Marley on 35mm black & white film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The Blu-ray from Kino Classics is sourced from a 4K digital restoration by Photoplay Productions of DeMille’s personal nitrate print preserved by the George Eastman House. Intertitles show what the characters are saying. Clarity and contrast are impressive, considering the film is 98 years old. The film contains one night scene tinted blue, which isn’t listed on the Blu-ray case. There are no visual imperfections to impair enjoyment. The film was shown with an intermission during its road show engagements. Though a title card reads “Part 2,” the Blu-ray shows the film straight through, without interruption.
There are two soundtrack options: 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. The musical score by Carl Davis is performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra under Davis’ direction. The music enhances the scenes, helping to create tension and drama. Scenes with Bozo feature lighter melodies. At times the music is somewhat overbearing. The score is at its finest during the two big scenes—the fight between the atheists and the believers, and the climactic conflagration.
Bonus material on the Blu-ray release from Kino Classics is limited to the following:
- Audio Commentary by Anthony Slide
Audio Commentary – Film historian Anthony Slide uses his encyclopedic knowledge of the silent era in this informative commentary. Cecil B. DeMille is a legendary director of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The Godless Girl is his take on reform schools in America. His knowledge of atheism is shakier. Slide says that there were organizations dedicated to atheism in the 1920s, names several prominent atheists of the period and talks about their influence. DeMille saw his career as a way to advance Judeo-Christian ideals. He believed that young people were indifferent to God. Among his silent Biblical films are The Ten Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927). For the latter film, 250 orthodox Jewish immigrants were hired as extras. DeMille had a God complex. Slide describes Lina Basquette’s screen test, after which DeMille told her, “From now on, you are my property.” He demanded she behave like a star. For the fight scene in The Godless Girl, 150 young people were “let loose” on the set. The “chaos” in this scene is excitingly staged and well-edited. Teachers were on hand to make sure the teenagers were given academic instruction. Some of the slang in the inter titles seems quaint. DeMille appears to support vigilantism. The fire scene was staged in a 40-acre area behind DeMille’s studio and filmed by eight cameras. The fire was controlled by knowledgeable crew and the actors had their skin smeared with an asbestos substance. DeMille kept calling for more flames and the heat got so intense that Basquette emerged with singed eyebrows and eyelashes and blisters on her forearms. Slide points out specific scenes that don’t ring true. He offers interesting information on various cast members, including Julia Faye, who portrays an inmate in The Godless Girl and played small roles in many DeMille films. She was also one of the director’s mistresses. Noah Beery as the head guard is the “personification of evil.” The brother of the more-famous Wallace Beery, Noah worked for DeMille as early as 1918. Reviews from the period commented on the film’s evangelical tone, its outstanding technical aspects, DeMille’s touches, and its “vapid religious admonitions.” The Godless Girl premiered in Los Angeles with a live orchestra accompanying the picture. Two sound sequences were added for the New York premiere. DeMille had gone on to another project, so the sound scenes were directed by Fritz Feld. Because most theaters weren’t yet wired for sound, the film was mostly shown in its silent form. The Godless Girl was popular in Russia, where the film’s final reel was never shown. Lina Basquette never did anything in film as significant as The Godless Girl. The Godless Girl cost $732,315, but grossed only $489,085.
The Godless Girl, despite casting obviously older actors as high school kids, is a gripping story that reveals the brutal treatment of young people sent to reform schools. Though the excesses to which Judy, Bob and Bozo are subjected appear overly melodramatic, they reflect and in some way soft-pedal practices employed by such institutions when the film was made. Making the central characters opposites in terms of their spirituality offers numerous opportunities for conflict, which DeMille exploits with his sense of cinematic flair. The pace is brisk, with plenty of action and several romantic interludes to balance scenes of intentional mistreatment. The Godless Girl shows the silent picture art form at its peak. Keene, Basquette and Quillan artfully employ their skills to make their characters believable. DeMille’s heavy-handed moralizing often gets in the way, but apart from that, the film is a fascinating example of a director using the power of the screen to shed light on a serious social issue.
- Dennis Seuling