The Road to Ruin

The usual definition for this is a film that takes a sensationalistic issue and uses it to gain notoriety and attention, by being scandalous or presenting something not normally seen in conventional films.

This is more a sincere morality tale. The co-director, Dorothy Davenport (credited as Mrs. Wallace Reid) was the widow of an actor who died of drug addiction, and then set out expose the dangers of vice.

That distinction is pretty crucial in understanding why it was made and what its context is.

That said, had this not been made right before the Hays office came in and cracked down, it could not have been made. It covers all sorts of issues that soon after would not have been allowed, irrespective of how much they were condemned.

1st watched 2/17/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Mrs. Wallace Reid & Melville Shyer): Interesting yet slow moving movie displaying many taboo subjects for back then including pre-marital sex, smoking and drinking in high school, nude swimming, an abortion, and older men with younger under-aged women and all being done under the radar of the well-meaning parents in the story. The movie is fairly well done as far as not over sensationalizing the situations and portrays it as a young victim kind of walks into trouble unexpectedly with an obvious innocence. This I'm sure is more how things like this happen instead of how it's usually portrayed. The downward path happens fairly slowly for the main character but it quickly comes to it's end on a very negative note after a badly done abortion. This is the best of these exploitation movies from the 30's that I've seen because it's not thrown in your face but instead builds slowly. Despite this, the slow pace doesn't help the movie be a very powerful story and is it's only real drawback.

Although she was past being a teenager when the original silent version of "The Road to Ruin" (1928) was made, beautiful Helen Foster (as Ann Dixon) is still an innocent young thing. After hanging out with bad girl Nell O'Day (as Eve Monroe), Ms. Foster begins to smoke, drink, and have sex - nothing too unusual, when you consider the characters routinely being played by the likes of Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, and Mae West. But, things are worse for Foster; she hasn't an abortionist worth his salt...

Filmmaker Dorothy Davenport, aka the widow of Wallace Reid, might have considered casting the beloved couple's real life son Wally Jr. in the film. It might have been exploitive, but that, obviously, was too late a consideration. Despite the material, Glen Boles (as Tommy), Bobby Quirk (as Ed), and their gals are a swell bunch to follow… before degradation takes its toll.

**** The Road to Ruin (3/21/34) Dorothy Davenport ~ Helen Foster, Glen Boles, Nell O'Day

Road to Ruin, The (1934)

** (out of 4)

A good girl that never even been kissed falls in with the wrong crowd and soon she's staying out past eight, smoking drinking and eventually..........building suspense .....having sex. Soon she starts seeing a local thug who gets her pregnant and then forces her to have an abortion. Will she straighten up in time? **suspense builds even more** Here's another forgotten exploitation film that isn't too bad but even its short 62-minute running time seems a tad bit long. The over-dramatic ending gets a few laughs but for the most part the film plays rather straight, which means we don't get any major laughs like other films from its genre.

Pre-Code exploitation flick about a teenage girl (27 year-old Helen Foster) whose life unravels when she gets involved with the wrong crowd. Booze, drugs, sex, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion are some of the highlights. Provocative for its time no doubt, today it's little more than a curiosity piece worth some giggles. Probably the most titilating scene is a dice game with women stripping to their undies. Maybe of interest to those who want to see what passed for youth culture in the early '30s. Or at least the Hollywood version of it. Remake of an earlier silent that also starred Foster.