The Godless Girl (1928)

A teenage girl (Lina Basquette) leads an atheist group at her high school. A pious schoolmate (Tom Keene) who heads a Christian group invades the atheist group along with his pals. The ensuing furor ends in tragedy when a young girl (Mary Jane Irving) falls to her death and the two are sent to a brutal reform school on manslaughter charges. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille (THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) in his final silent film. This slice of inspirational hokum is more entertaining than it has any right to be. Of course, this being the sanctimonious DeMille, you know Basquette will find religion and God before the end of the movie. The film was a box office flop and sound and some dialogue was added to the movie and rereleased but still tanked. The restored transfer I saw had an excellent score by Carl Davis (THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN). With Marie Prevost, Eddie Quillan and Noah Beery.