C.B.'s standard formula -- serve up plenty of sex and violence, then moralize pompously about it -- is employed effectively in his last silent, an overlong melodrama about the scourge of atheism. He sets up his parameters quickly and efficiently: Christians good, atheists bad. But he rather loses track through arbitrariness of plotting. The whole idea of sending these three particular kids to reform school when they're not particularly responsible for the death of the young girl is hackneyed, and he can't quite make any of them sympathetic. Other I-don't-get-its include how easy it is to escape from said reform school, the electric fence that both kids are evidently too stupid to simply remove their hands from (it burns a cross into their palms -- that's DeMille for you), and why mustache-twirling-nasty Noah Beery should suddenly become a sweetie at the fadeout (and how such a happy ending could possibly spring from such tormented precedings). The atheism-vs.-Christianity theme largely gets lost, which may be a blessing, as we know how ham-fisted this director could be about such things. But it's fun in its unsubtle way, with photogenic leads, poetic photography, and amusingly 1920s-colloquial titles. Acting is pretty much beside the point in such DeMilles, where actors are chosen more for their looks than any histrionic ability. But Marie Prevost is notably good as a sympathetic reform-school floozy, and the leads, Lina Basquette and Tom Keene, were at least nice to look at.
Review of The Godless Girl
