Two teenagers, one an atheist and the other a Christian, fall in love at a brutal reform school.Two teenagers, one an atheist and the other a Christian, fall in love at a brutal reform school.Two teenagers, one an atheist and the other a Christian, fall in love at a brutal reform school.
Tom Keene
- Bob Hathaway - The Boy
- (as George Duryea)
Richard Alexander
- Prison Guard
- (as Dick Alexander)
Hedwiga Reicher
- Prison Matron
- (as Hedwig Reicher)
Jimmy Aldine
- Undetermined Secondary Role
- (uncredited)
John Batten
- Undetermined role
- (uncredited)
Vivian Bay
- Undetermined Secondary Role
- (uncredited)
Elaine Bennett
- Undetermined Secondary Role
- (uncredited)
Valentine Black
- Undetermined role
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn 1929, Lina Basquette received a fan letter from Austria in connection with the film. The sender said she was his favorite American actress. It meant nothing to Basquette at the time, but the sender of the letter was Adolf Hitler.
- Quotes
Opening Title Card: [first card] It is not generally known that there are Atheist Societies using the schools of the country as their battle-ground - attacking, through the Youth of the Nation, the beliefs that are sacred to most of the people.
Opening Title Card: [second card] And no fanatics are so bitter as youthful fanatics.
- Alternate versionsPredictably, the film ends with Judy turning from atheism and believing in God. Director Cecil B. DeMille was surprised to find that the film was very popular in Soviet Russia, until he learned that it was being shown without the final reel showing the transformation.
- ConnectionsEdited into Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Featured review
Sans epic milieu Cecil B still showman.
B DeMille can still find enough sensational material in modern day America as an excuse to bring on chaos and destruction in The Godless Girl. It's atheists versus Christians in a struggle for the soul of roaring twenties youth not debated through civil discourse but violence and calamity with CB measuring it out in clockwork segments.
High schooler Judy Craig is out "to kill the bible" by organizing and giving lectures on atheism. When the principal gets wind of a meeting he completely abandons his responsibility and allows the student body president and his righteous classmates to deal with the problem. Displaying high school spirit like jack booted Fascists they bust up the meeting which results in a death and packs both instigators off to prison for manslaughter. Conveiently both the men's and women's reformatories are neighbors and the two end up bonding against a sadistic warden.
Basically a silent The Godless Girl offers an audacious and defiant female well ahead of her time in Judy Craig with Lena Basquette conveying a confident and independent exterior most of the film. Bob Keene has the look of an Arrow man but is dull in comparison to Lena's Judy. Marie Prevost and Eddie Quillan provide some comic bits while Noah Beery is his usual sadistic self as the corrections officer.
For his part DeMille provides an abundance of hair raising scenes including an hallucinogenic fall over a banister with the crowd looking on. C.B. is clearly on the Creator's side but he does give us a feisty heroine in the non-believer Judy while unintentionally exposing the rabid intolerance of the God squad. DeMille also seems to be at a loss on what to do between the torrid scenes but by then the provocative poster or coming attraction has already secured your money.
High schooler Judy Craig is out "to kill the bible" by organizing and giving lectures on atheism. When the principal gets wind of a meeting he completely abandons his responsibility and allows the student body president and his righteous classmates to deal with the problem. Displaying high school spirit like jack booted Fascists they bust up the meeting which results in a death and packs both instigators off to prison for manslaughter. Conveiently both the men's and women's reformatories are neighbors and the two end up bonding against a sadistic warden.
Basically a silent The Godless Girl offers an audacious and defiant female well ahead of her time in Judy Craig with Lena Basquette conveying a confident and independent exterior most of the film. Bob Keene has the look of an Arrow man but is dull in comparison to Lena's Judy. Marie Prevost and Eddie Quillan provide some comic bits while Noah Beery is his usual sadistic self as the corrections officer.
For his part DeMille provides an abundance of hair raising scenes including an hallucinogenic fall over a banister with the crowd looking on. C.B. is clearly on the Creator's side but he does give us a feisty heroine in the non-believer Judy while unintentionally exposing the rabid intolerance of the God squad. DeMille also seems to be at a loss on what to do between the torrid scenes but by then the provocative poster or coming attraction has already secured your money.
helpful•41
- st-shot
- Aug 20, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $750,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 53 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content