# Damaged Lives > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Damaged_Lives > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Damaged_Lives.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaged_Lives > Source revision: 1339448683 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1933 film Damaged Lives Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer Written by Edgar G. Ulmer (screenplay) Donald Davis (dialog) Based on play Les Avariés by Eugène Brieux (uncredited) Produced by J. J. Allen (producer) Maxwell Cohn (producer) Nat Cohn (producer) Starring See below Cinematography Allen G. Siegler Edited by Otto Meyer Production company Weldon Pictures Corporation Distributed by Weldon Pictures (Columbia Pictures) Release dates 22 May 1933 (1933-05-22) (Toronto, Ontario) 19 August 1933 (1933-08-19) (London, England) 15 September 1933 (1933-09-15) (Boston, Massachusetts) Running time 61 minutes Countries Canada United States Language English Budget $18,000[1] ***Damaged Lives*** is a 1933 Canadian/American [pre-Code](/source/Pre-Code_Hollywood) [exploitation film](/source/Exploitation_film) directed by [Edgar G. Ulmer](/source/Edgar_G._Ulmer).[2] The screenplay is based on the French play *[Les Avariés](/source/Les_Avari%C3%A9s)* (1901) by [Eugène Brieux](/source/Eug%C3%A8ne_Brieux).[3] The film was shot at [General Service Studios](/source/General_Service_Studios), Hollywood, California for the Canadian Social Health Council and premiered in Toronto, Ontario.[4] *Damaged Lives* was initially released in Canada and a few cities in the United States but screenings were blocked by censors in most American towns. In 1937, the film was re-released as *The Shocking Truth* with a 29-minute supplementary lecture on VD added onto the end of the film to satisfy censors. Most current video releases do not include this extra material.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] ## Plot The film hinges on a casual sexual encounter. A boss insists that a young executive, with an important job and a long-term girlfriend, go out for the evening with an important client. They go to a swank party, where he meets the businessman's escort. Their personalities connect, and after the businessman leaves with another woman, they leave together and have a casual sexual encounter. The next day, the executive proposes to his girlfriend, they marry, and she becomes pregnant. The escort subsequently learns that she has syphilis from the businessman and summons the executive. She informs him of the situation, then kills herself. Later, a medical exam on the wife reveals that her unborn child has syphilis, indicating that one or both of the parents are syphilitic. The executive reveals that he passed it on from the escort. Their friends, while supportive, now want to avoid physical contact with the pair. The distraught wife then tries to kill herself and her husband, thinking that they could never live a normal life. The husband tries to console his wife...explaining how treatments are available and that they can be cured. When another friend calls the wife to say she also has syphilis and her worries are so trivial, the wife finally realizes she will be all right. ## Cast - Diane Sinclair as Joan Bradley - Lyman Williams as Donald Bradley Jr. - [Harry Myers](/source/Harry_Myers) as Nat Franklin - [Marceline Day](/source/Marceline_Day) as Laura Hall - [Jason Robards Sr.](/source/Jason_Robards_Sr.) as Dr. Bill Hall - [Charlotte Merriam](/source/Charlotte_Merriam) as Elise Cooper - [Murray Kinnell](/source/Murray_Kinnell) as Dr. Vincent Leonard - [George Irving](/source/George_Irving_(American_actor)) as Donald Bradley Sr. - [Cecilia Parker](/source/Cecilia_Parker) as Rosie - [Almeda Fowler](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Almeda_Fowler&action=edit&redlink=1) as Mrs. Bradley The Roxy Theater in [Knoxville, Tennessee](/source/Knoxville%2C_Tennessee), showing the film in 1941 on a "adults only" basis. ## Production Filmed in 1933, this cautionary tale was distributed under the name Weldon Pictures, because Columbia did not want to be associated with the topic of the film.[3] The end title of the [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive) print says the film was an [Educational Film Exchanges, Inc.](/source/Educational_Film_Exchanges%2C_Inc.) release.[5] Although some scenes in the film were cut by [state film censor boards](/source/Film_censorship_in_the_United_States) in [Maryland](/source/Maryland_State_Board_of_Censors) and [Ohio](/source/Ohio), it was still very popular in the United States.[1] For example, in [Baltimore](/source/Baltimore) 65,000 people saw the film, representing approximately 10% of the population.[1] *Damaged Lives* was distributed in Britain through the [British Social Hygiene Council](/source/British_Social_Hygiene_Council) (BSHC), which claimed a total viewership of around four million people between August 1933 and May 1934. The BSHC also claimed to have distributed more than 126,000 pamphlets to audience members with information on syphilis treatment.[6] ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Schaefer_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Schaefer_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Schaefer_1-2) [Schaefer, Eric](/source/Eric_Schaefer) (1999). [*"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959*](https://books.google.com/books?id=CSBZqe0zPaMC). Duke University Press. pp. 180, 419. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8223-2374-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8223-2374-5). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** [*Damaged Lives*](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/3054) at the *[AFI Catalog of Feature Films](/source/AFI_Catalog_of_Feature_Films)*. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Bogdanovich_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Bogdanovich_3-1) Bogdanovich, Peter (1997) [*Who the Devil made it : conversations with Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh*](https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/758067070) in libraries ([WorldCat](/source/WorldCat) catalog) (New York: Knopf) [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-3454-0457-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-3454-0457-2) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Rist, Peter (2001). *Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada* (Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press), p. 77. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-313-29931-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-313-29931-5). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Damaged Lives"](https://archive.org/details/Damaged_Lives). Internet Archive. Retrieved 15 August 2016. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Boon_6-0)** Boon, Tim (2018). "Truffle Hunters and Parachutists". In Bonah, Christian; Cantor, David; Anja Laukötter, Anja (eds.). *Health Education Films in the Twentieth Century*. University of Rochester Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-58046-916-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-58046-916-6). ## External links - [*Damaged Lives*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028755/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier)) - [*Damaged Lives*](https://archive.org/details/Damaged_Lives) is available for free viewing and download at the [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive) v t e Film adaptations of Eugène Brieux's Les Avariés Damaged Goods (1914) Damaged Goods (1919) Damaged Lives (1933) Damaged Goods (1937) v t e Films directed by Edgar G. Ulmer People on Sunday (1930) Damaged Lives (1933) The Black Cat (1934) Thunder Over Texas (1934) Green Fields (1937) Moon Over Harlem (1939) Tomorrow We Live (1942) Girls in Chains (1943) Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943) Jive Junction (1943) Bluebeard (1944) Strange Illusion (1945) Detour (1945) Club Havana (1945) The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946) The Strange Woman (1946) Her Sister's Secret (1946) Carnegie Hall (1947) Ruthless (1948) The Pirates of Capri (1949) The Man from Planet X (1951) St. Benny the Dip (1951) Babes in Bagdad (1952) Loves of Three Queens (1954) Murder Is My Beat (1955) The Naked Dawn (1955) The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957) Hannibal (1959) The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) Journey Beneath the Desert (1961) The Cavern (1964) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Damaged Lives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaged_Lives) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaged_Lives?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.