Damaged Lives

Young Donny (Lyman Williams) is a rising executive who makes the mistake of cheating on his fiancee (Diane Sinclair) with an attractive blonde (Charlotte Miriam). Some time later Donny gets a call from the blonde with some very personal, very bad news (she has VD, and probably so does he). She kills herself. Donny has a hard time coming to terms with the horrible facts, especially since his wife is pregnant and probably also infected. A doctor (Jason Robards, Sr.) tries to get Don to accept his condition by taking him on a "shock-filled" tour of a disease ward. He passes out. His wife hallucinates when she hears the news. With time, perhaps they can rebuild their lives...Filmed in 1933, this cautionary tale was not released in America until 1937, at which time it was a big hit. As one of he first pictures by fledgling director Edgar G. Ulmer (DETOUR, THE BLACK CAT) it's far from the hysterical camp that aficionados of roadshow fare like REEFER MADNESS might hope for. Aside from a few florid touches, It's a nicely photographed, sensitively handled look at this "unspeakable" malady (syphilis) and its effects on a series of people who contract it. Ulmer loosely adapted the story from the 1913 stage play DAMAGED GOODS by Eugene Brieux.