THE GODLESS GIRL (1929) ** He wasn't right all the time, obviously, but Cecil B. de Mille recognized the immense potential of film as a consciousness-raising device. He panders to the prejudices of his audience, but that's how you get 'em to change: Hey, I'm one of you, and here's a little sugar for your coffee. Atheists and Bible-thumpers unite! Yes, actually, that's the message more or less, one of tolerance, but I think you can look a little bit deeper than that. At its heart the film urges the young (of any generation) to see beyond the prejudices and ignorance of their elders. Radical maybe, but no less necessary and productive. It's Cecil's final silent film-and I'm sure he knew it would be-so it's interesting to watch the nearly ubiquitous "Silence" sign move around the screen, in good times and bad, throughout mental sickness and towards health. However much its heart is in the right place, or near it, as a film it's not really all that much. The faces are all dramatic, and the allegedly true-life (presumably embellished) plot misses few tragedies or triumphs, but none of I it is particularly convincing or even successfully manipulative. It's funny how we've grown exhausted with plots about innocents being imprisoned, as an audience; but no less inclined to keep imprisoning them, as a culture. Repetition just isn't everything. With all the darkness, and efforts towards light, and prisons and escapes of many sorts, it reminds me more than a little bit of the Jim Jarmusch film Down By Law , though Jarmusch handles both the technical and philosophical details with much greater success, and DeMille strikes out on joy whereas Jarmusch busts that move. Banned in Finland , incidentally, like most everything else in those days.
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