One of the things I love about Turner Classic Movies is that I can always reliably get my black and white movie fix. Luxury for me is a Sunday with the wife and kids at church or out shopping, and me at home with the New York Times, a good bottle of wine and a great film noir or other 1930s style movie with great overacting and all the guys in tuxedos no matter what time of day. Bliss.

Unfortunately, those times only come around midnite these days and I’m too tired to enjoy it. But the other day, TCM showed Cecil B. DeMille’s 1929 film, The Godless Girl, and I was riveted.

If you don’t know this film (and I did not) the story centers around a California high school and the battle for dominance between Christian students and a secret society of young atheists, and the terrible consequences that result from their strident proselytizing.

But it all ends in a very different way, with the initial point getting buried and the whole movie switching to a screed against juvenile detention. What’s fascinating is the amazing way it’s shot - brilliant action, expert lighting, and the story line that so relates so remarkably to current conflicts between the Christian right and the liberal orthodoxy. It’s yet another in a long line of works documenting the reality that the more things change the more things stay the same.

Here’s a longer film description with pictures.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 3:05 pm and is filed under History, Media, Movies, culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.