Damaged Lives

This is a typical early 1930s film warning about the dangers of unprotected sex and the diseases one can contract. The film was directed by Dwain Esper, who made several films in this drama. The film involves a young executive, with an important job and a long term girlfriend. His boss insists that he go out with him to a party and while out at the party he sleeps with a young wealthy woman, and contracts syphilis from her. The girl is so upset that she commits suicide. He is convinced to go to a doctor (played by Jason Robards, father of Jason Robards Jr) who displays poor people suffering from various infectious diseases. The young executive (who out of guilt has married his girlfriend, is upset when he finds out that his wife has syphilis too and that their baby might be infected. The wife, in a state of depression tries to kill herself, and her husband by opening the gas jets on the stove. There is a happy ending though.

The film is entertaining, and not quite as glum as it sounds. Played out in beautiful art deco sets, and with above par acting for this type of film, this public domain film, available in VHS and DVD is worth seeing if only for its risqué subject matter.

After imbibing multiple, alcoholic drinks at local "speakeasys" and saloons, Donald Bradley, an innocent 35 year old youngster, and a "fun girl" named Elise Cooper, find themselves giving vent to the sinful lusts of their flesh. Burning in their unnatural desire, Donald and this temptress do that of which only Satan would approve!

Some time later, Donald marries Joan, his true love.

Oh no!

Elise contacts Donald, telling him the heinous truth! The clap of thunder sounds, as Donald realizes the cost of his momentary lapse in morality! Indeed, he's been infected by more than mere carnality!

Upon telling poor Joan just what has happened, scandal, humiliation, suicide, and utter despair commence!

Next, a doctor takes Donald on a tour through the nightmare world of Venereal Disease! DAMAGED LIVES shows the stark reality of what happens when young people act naturally, instead of doing what they're told! Heed the warning! Life was never supposed to be fun!...

This was produced by Harry Cohn's brother Nat at Columbia Pictures but released under the Weldon Pictures banner to provide some distance for the parent company. Workaholic Don Bradley Jr. (Lyman Williams) agrees to go to a nightclub dinner party where he meets bottle-blonde Elise (Charlotte Merriam). The two have a wild night of drinking and end up in the sack. Don feels guilty since he's engaged to marry nice girl Joan (Diane Sinclair), and the two decide to elope. Imagine Don's embarrassment when Elise contacts him some time later to inform him that she's tested positive for syphilis. Don hides his secret shame, but has he already passed it on to dear sweet Joan? Also featuring Jason Robards Sr. And Marceline Day.

This has all of the hallmarks of later films of the type: nice people brought to near ruin after a night's careless debauchery; a positive outlook after mostly doom and gloom; and a protracted sequence showing real cases of advanced venereal disease patients in all of their grotesque horror. The copy I watched ran a scant 53 minutes, but IMDb lists it as having a 64 minute run time, and another source lists 74 minutes, so most likely it depends on how much of the really graphic footage was cut from each print. This was produced in conjunction with the Canadian Social Health Council, and marked the ignominious American directing debut of Edgar G. Ulmer. He manages to add a couple of interesting visual touches that raise this above the crowd, but just barely.

Damaged Lives (1933)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A year before directing the first team up between Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in The Black Cat, director Edgar G. Ulmer made this cheapie warning film. A man goes out and sleeps with a city girl, goes back home and marries his sweetheart but soon learns the city girl had syphilis. This isn't as silly as most of these warning films but the over-dramatic nature still doesn't work. The film drags on even though it lasts just over an hour. When it comes to these warning films I think the more camp the better and this one here is just too straight to keep it entertaining.

Ulmer's first U. S. film has been classified as an exploitation cheapie a la "Reefer Madness," but despite the sensational subject matter (VD), some brief grisly medical footage, and a supposed budget of about $15,000, it looks like the figurative million bucks. Part of that can be attributed to the director's ability to get the maximum amount of style and production value from minimal resources, as his later career proved over and over. But quite likely those resources weren't quite so minimal after all: In truth "Damaged Lives" was made by Columbia, no doubt making full use of first-rate crew, elaborate sets, et al. From its higher-profile productions. There is nothing cheap about it, and the performers are also a definite cut above what you'd find in an actual tent-show exploitation pic of the era. Although that's how it was released--the studio decided it was too embarrassed to release this drama about a taboo issue under its own name, so it created a fake distribution arm and basically let it play the same kinds of gigs as "Reefer," "Mom and Dad," and other shocking "adults only" titles.

So anyway, that explains why this is a very glossy film for a supposed Poverty Row enterprise. Ulmer is terrifically assured already as a filmmaker, and if the script is not exactly sophisticated, he nonetheless manages a significant feat in getting pretty good performances from actors despite the feeble lines they have to deliver. Short as it is, though, the movie starts to plod when it gets to the horrible-consequences-of-sin part, with the last few scenes' really dragging pacewise. As nicely done as it all is, there still isn't enough depth or weight to ballast the eventual gloom, and of course it's more than a mite simplistic that the lesson learned is basically "Fool around...and you'll end up a suicide!"

So, worth seeing as a very precocious early feature for a notable director, though very much constrained in the end by the rather dully earnest treatment of a "shocking" theme--this is a much better-crafted movie than most you might compare it to from the period, but at the same time that means it lacks some of those genuine cheapies' giddy unintentional comedy.