La fille sans dieu

Godless Girl, The (1929)

*** (out of 4)

This here turned out to be DeMille final silent as well as his first sound film. Apparently the movie was shot completely silent but after filming and sound films had become popular, they went back and added a dialogue sequence but the version I watched, from Photoplay, doesn't have that sequence in it. The film is about two teens: Judy (Lina Basquette) a hard boiled Atheist and Bob (Tom Keene) a boy who believes in nothing but the Bible. Judy has a crush on him but he doesn't know it, which leads him and a gang of Christian to break into her meeting. A riot breaks out and an Atheist girl is killed so Judy, Bob and another kid end up at a reform school where they are abused by the evil guard (Noah Beery). Soon both Judy and Bob are rethinking what they believed when they entered the reformatory. This is a rather strange and bizarre film that's main goal is to preach intolerance but along the way we get all sorts of strange stuff from campy anti-God speeches to brutal violence against kids and then transforming into a tender love story. The movie starts to wear out its welcome in the final act but this remains a strange little film that is so well-told that even though who don't like silents would probably enjoy it. The first part of the film, involving the Christian and Atheist gangs, is rather campy because of how much the two sides are going after one another. Even though it comes off campy it leads to one of the most dramatic and rather beautiful scenes I've seen from any silent and that's where the girl, an Atheist, is afraid to die because she doesn't know what's next. She mentions she's afraid to be alone and a policeman tells her something, that I won't ruin, which comes off so tender that you somewhat feel bad for laughing at some stuff that happened before it. When the prison drama sets in we get some pretty strong violence, which is pure DeMille pulp. Beery is downright evil in his role and is a lot of fun to watch. Basquette, who apparently received a letter from an unknown Hitler after making this film, is very good in her role and really carries this thing from start to finish. Keene, probably best known today for his role in Plan 9 From Outer Space is very good as well. While this film isn't a complete success it remains a very entertaining one that manages to get its point across mainly because it beats the viewer over the head with a Bible. I don't like that much preaching in movies but whoever said DeMille would hold back when wanting to get a message across?

I don't usually like silent movies, finding them boring. But this one is actually very good and even quite dramatic. I wanted to comment on something said by another viewer about the score by Carl Davis. They said that the composer had stolen Paul Simon's "An American Tune". Actually, Paul Simon borrowed the theme from Bach's Chorale "Erkenne mich, mein Hueter" from the St. Matthew Passion. This is the actual theme that Mr. Davis used in his score, and he did give credit, listing this and other sources of his themes in the credits at the end of the film.

Also, while my wife and I watched the movie on TCM, we did not see any scenes with spoken dialog as another reviewer mentioned, even though TCM showed a version based on Cecil De Mille's personal nitrate print from George Eastman House. Maybe this version tried to recreate the film as originally envisioned as a full silent film with music.

Anyone who has seen a handful of Cecil B. DeMille pictures will be able to see that they are often contradictory on many levels, and can take some bizarre turns. In the Godless Girl – his last silent feature – an exaggerated and ill-informed attack upon atheism turns into what is for its era a rather grittily authentic portrayal of a penal institution.

Interestingly, the opening scenes show how fundamentalists such as DeMille and his screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson seem only able to picture atheists as having a ritualism and desire to convert similar to that of a religious group. It's also indicative of DeMille's fundamentalism that there are rarely actual arguments for belief in his pictures – just a sprinkling of quotations from scripture, a dash of Old Testament pyrotechnics and a reverent depiction of religious figures. Here that last tactic is reversed, with the unbelievers appearing as ridiculous caricatures, their tenets belittled rather than tackled. However the Godless Girl is rare among DeMille pictures in that it does contain a passing reference to an actual philosophical argument for the existence of God, one known as the argument from beauty. But this is rather overshadowed by DeMille's preferred method – to dazzle us with miracles. So we have cross-shaped burns appearing on Lina Basquette's hands, or Tom Keene's prayer being answered in the form of a falling electrical cable in the climactic fire sequence.

In contrast to this DeMillean theism is the thoroughly researched realism of the reformatory. Depictions of suffering and sadism do crop up quite a bit in DeMille's pictures, but they were rarely this convincing and this close to home. Particularly effective is the simplicity and relentlessness of the sequence in which Keene is tortured with a fire hose by the brutish Noah Beery. Beery is of course another caricature, but the starkness of the setting and the naturalism of the extras prevent this from becoming anything like a Sunday-school portrayal of Hebrew slaves toiling under the whip.

DeMille and MacPherson would probably not have regarded these changes in tone as inconsistent, and there is in fact one consistency in the Godless Girl that we can all appreciate – a formalist one. It's rarely noted that DeMille was a master of space and framing, and he always used his command of cinematic form to serve the story. It's natural that any competent director would depict the reformatory as Spartan and enclosed – and DeMille does that with visible ceilings, tight framing, swathes of barren grey and high angles in the yard so as not to show the sky or the outside world. However, DeMille also employs similar devices in the earlier scenes at the college. Why? Because the point of the story is that both the atheist girl and the Christian boy are close-minded and prejudiced, and DeMille's formalism is echoing this. They escape into the outside world at the same time as their convictions are beginning to soften, and DeMille takes full advantage of the outdoor setting with delicate framing, dappled lighting patterns and soft focus. It also gives him the perfect backdrop for his aforementioned argument from beauty.

The acting of the two leads is not at all bad, and for the most part tends more towards naturalism than melodrama (performances in DeMille pictures tended to go one way or the other – contradictions again!) The one moment of painful exaggeration from Lina Basquette is, unsurprisingly, in her early scene at the atheist meeting. The only sour note among the cast is comical character actor Eddie Quillan as "The Goat". In a rare display of deference to an actor DeMille apparently allowed him to improvise many of his scenes, but his style of comedy is at odds with the tone of the picture and spoils some of the deeper moments. This is not to say that Quillan had no talent, or that a picture such as this has no need of comic relief. It's simply that he is effectively a clown, and would fit better in a more light-hearted picture. Marie Prevost's sardonic sidekick actually provides much more effective comic relief.

On a final note, thanks to Filmfour we now have a very fine restored print of the Godless Girl. The score is by the unparalleled Carl Davis, and like all his work is listenable without being intrusive, and has a canny use of signature themes and classical interpolations. This new edition, occasionally shown late at night on the Filmfour channel in the UK, is well worth catching.

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.

Cecil B. DeMille was notorious for spectacle films, and his religious ones were always successful. This movie combines both of these, but it also employs another of DeMille's talents, social commentary.

Judy (Lina Basquette) is an atheist, and passes out flyers about her Godless club to recruit new members. Bob (Tom Keene) is a Christian who hates what Judy is doing to the school. As class president, he brings a group of believers to an atheist rally to crash the party. It becomes a violent fight between the two sides which ends in the death of a girl. The leaders of the groups, Judy and Bob, are held responsible, and are sent to reform school.

This isn't the reform school from a children's film. The guards (Noah Beery) are as harsh as jail guards and they have no tolerance for mistakes. Judy finds a friend in Mame (Marie Prevost), a believer who takes on a leadership position with Judy. Her religion detracts in no way from her spunky personality, though, and she proves to be a bright spot in such a terrible place. The two girls can't seem to avoid trouble, and neither can Bob, so the three form sort of a team. But the gongs keep ringing, signaling orders to be carried out. It is inevitable that something major happens.

Of course it does, and there are revelations. The religious aspects of the film are subtle but nonetheless powerful. Any faith can watch and enjoy this movie. It is thanks to the actors for making each lesson so strong and truthful. Basquette and Keene are great together. Prevost is outstanding in her role. She commands attention because she is equally fun and moral, adding a depth not often found in sidekick roles.

The film it an absolutely amazing example of the abilities of silent film makers. The editing is fantastic, and so many innovative camera angles are used, it's amazing that talkies took so long to re-adopt them. The finished product is polished and perfect; every second is captivating.

Many thanks go to Kevin Brownlow and Photoplay Productions for the restoration of this film. Carl Davis provides an enchanting score that compliments the action wonderfully. This is a top-notch film that was worked on by top-notch film lovers.