This was the last silent movie from legendary director/producer Cecil B. DeMille and a very strange choice of subject matter indeed. It was Warner Brothers in the 1930s who bragged that their stories were "ripped from the headlines", but the same claim could have been made for this film were the subject matter not quite so outlandish. At a high school, one girl is the popular student who acts as a propagandist for atheism, but the dishy object of her desire is a believer. When the school cracks down on the pamphlets she has been distributing, the lad, as president of the student council, volunteers to deal with the non-believers in his own way; however when he and his gang break up a meeting of hers and her followers, violence ensues, and a fellow-student dies. As a result both of them are packed off to reformatory, along with another chap who is also blamed for what was actually an accident.
This is where DeMille can indulge his taste for the salacious, as one watches the various degradations that all three, but the girl in particular, must endure. However considering the fact that I watched this film on a sparkling new print just restored from DeMille's own copy, the old 'women in prison' standby of nudity in the shower had been removed, although it was certainly there at one stage. Anyhow, after presenting the viewer with all manner of hardships endured by our trio, halfway through DeMille self-righteously inserts a title card which says that not all reformatories are as horrible as the one depicted. Thank you for that, Mr. DeMille.
It goes on in this vein through the two leads' escape and recapture and the heroine's narrow escape when she is chained in solitary during a fire, and of course allows for her spiritual conversion; her experiences (and lurve) have made her see the light. None of the leads had notable subsequent careers, although they kept appearing in films, but apart from looking a wee bit too old for the roles, they suffered convincingly. The best-known name in the cast was Noah Beery, half-brother of Wallace and father of the actor who played James Garner's screen father in "The Rockford Files", playing the sadistic prison guard. The best of the lot, I thought was Marie Prevost playing a tough cookie who befriends our heroine inside; I understand she died tragically young, so if nothing else, this film is a fine homage to her unfulfilled potential. However, when all is said and done, this exploitive potboiler hardly numbers amongst DeMille's best, although I was impressed with the loving care that went into its restoration,
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