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.
18 Reviews
"Please, please don't hate me for..., for what's happened."
classicsoncall14 April 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Sex delinquent!?!? - Is that what they actually called loose women back in the day? "The Road To Ruin" is the sexploitation equivalent of those better known drug cult flicks from the 1930's like "Reefer Madness" and "Cocaine Fiends". It purports to portray what can happen to an average teenage girl who gets caught up with the wrong crowd, resulting in a spiraling descent through the use of alcohol, drugs, and gasp!... pre-marital sex! The finale would be virtually unthinkable today, but seventy years ago, who knows? I wouldn't doubt it if leery old abortion docs like the one in the picture had anything to do with it.
This may not have some of the more over the top, goofy and contrived circumstances that the anti-drug flicks of the era might have come up with, but it plays out pretty much the same. Something unique to this one was that rather racy dice game played in the tradition of your best strip poker, followed by a steamy midnight swim. The picture offers a lot more in the way of suggestion and titillation than anything else, but it sure does get it's message across. By the time it's all over, you genuinely feel sorry for the film's main character Ann Dixon (Helen Foster), but it's tempered by the totally unrealistic way the whole story ends. To catch it for yourself, look for the four disc/twenty movie DVD package titled 'Cult Classics' from Mill Creek Entertainment at a bargain price. Fans of the genre will make a substantial addition to their film library with little known gems like this along with the titles mentioned earlier, all in one convenient place for the discriminating viewer.
This may not have some of the more over the top, goofy and contrived circumstances that the anti-drug flicks of the era might have come up with, but it plays out pretty much the same. Something unique to this one was that rather racy dice game played in the tradition of your best strip poker, followed by a steamy midnight swim. The picture offers a lot more in the way of suggestion and titillation than anything else, but it sure does get it's message across. By the time it's all over, you genuinely feel sorry for the film's main character Ann Dixon (Helen Foster), but it's tempered by the totally unrealistic way the whole story ends. To catch it for yourself, look for the four disc/twenty movie DVD package titled 'Cult Classics' from Mill Creek Entertainment at a bargain price. Fans of the genre will make a substantial addition to their film library with little known gems like this along with the titles mentioned earlier, all in one convenient place for the discriminating viewer.
The end of innocence
sol-kay4 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Remake of the 1928 silent film of the same name "The Road to Ruin" is all too typical of what happens when a good girl gets in with the wrong crowd and ends up paying for her mistake big time. That's what happened to sweet innocent and pretty 16 year old Ann Dixon, Helen Forster, who went from reading with her very experienced friend, in these matters Eve Monroe, Neil O'Day, dime store romantic novels to smoking drinking and putting out that in no time destroyed her life.
It's after a night of kissing under the moonlight with her hot to trot and wanting to get into her pants or dress boyfriend Tommy, Glen Boles, Ann loses her virginity as well as her ability to say no to any other sweet talking Romeo who wants to have his way with her. This leads Ann to get involved with the greasy, who looked like he had an entire tube of Vaseline rubbed into his hair, nightclub owner Ralph Bennett,Paul Page, who swapped her off her feet and away from her boyfriend Tommy. This leads Ann to get even deeper into the world of wild sex and drinking parties that lead to the final party to end all parties at Ralph's rich friend's Brad,Richard Hemingway, mansion. The drinking smoking and undressing,in order to jump into Bran's swimming pool, ends with a police raid where everyone at the party including Ann end up getting busted for indecent exposer.
***SPOILERS*** It's when Ann is examined by the police doctor she's discovered to be pregnant with the father, that Ann kept from the police, being Ralph Bennett. Begging Ralph to marry her in order to give their child a proper name he refuses since he's, the two timing fink, already married! A fact that he kept from Ann while having an affair with her! Forced to get an abortion by Ralph Ann develops a high fever, because of the unsanitary conditions of the operation,and falls to a coma. It's then on her death bed with her mom & dad at her side that Ann realizes what a mess she made for herself and rightly put the blame for everything that happened to her squarely on her head and in an instance peacefully passes away. Passes away from the horror of a life that she made for herself by not listening to those who really loved her but those who like herself or what Ann became and will very probably end up the same way that she did:Dead Before Their Time!
P.S Dorothy Davenport the director of the movie can be seen in a cameo role as Mrs.Merrill the head of the local police department's crimes prevention division involving sex delinquents. It was Mrs. Merrill who tried to set Ann on the straight and narrow path but sadly failed in her attempt to do it.
It's after a night of kissing under the moonlight with her hot to trot and wanting to get into her pants or dress boyfriend Tommy, Glen Boles, Ann loses her virginity as well as her ability to say no to any other sweet talking Romeo who wants to have his way with her. This leads Ann to get involved with the greasy, who looked like he had an entire tube of Vaseline rubbed into his hair, nightclub owner Ralph Bennett,Paul Page, who swapped her off her feet and away from her boyfriend Tommy. This leads Ann to get even deeper into the world of wild sex and drinking parties that lead to the final party to end all parties at Ralph's rich friend's Brad,Richard Hemingway, mansion. The drinking smoking and undressing,in order to jump into Bran's swimming pool, ends with a police raid where everyone at the party including Ann end up getting busted for indecent exposer.
***SPOILERS*** It's when Ann is examined by the police doctor she's discovered to be pregnant with the father, that Ann kept from the police, being Ralph Bennett. Begging Ralph to marry her in order to give their child a proper name he refuses since he's, the two timing fink, already married! A fact that he kept from Ann while having an affair with her! Forced to get an abortion by Ralph Ann develops a high fever, because of the unsanitary conditions of the operation,and falls to a coma. It's then on her death bed with her mom & dad at her side that Ann realizes what a mess she made for herself and rightly put the blame for everything that happened to her squarely on her head and in an instance peacefully passes away. Passes away from the horror of a life that she made for herself by not listening to those who really loved her but those who like herself or what Ann became and will very probably end up the same way that she did:Dead Before Their Time!
P.S Dorothy Davenport the director of the movie can be seen in a cameo role as Mrs.Merrill the head of the local police department's crimes prevention division involving sex delinquents. It was Mrs. Merrill who tried to set Ann on the straight and narrow path but sadly failed in her attempt to do it.
Not an exploitation film
sfergus48320 December 2008
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.
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.
Sick and sleazy--and pretty typical of the genre
planktonrules24 September 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of many so-called "educational films" of the 1930s that were really sad excuses for sleazy low-budget producers to make films that could slip nudity and banned material past the censor boards. Starting in late 1933 and early 1934, the Hays Production Code was dramatically strengthened to eliminate nudity, extreme violence and decidedly adult far from movies. Believe it or not, before this time, all kinds of taboos were relatively common in films coming from reputable Hollywood studios. However, after the Code was strengthened, perverts and the curious went looking for seedy material and found it in educational films that were really just excuses to show boobs and talk about sex and drugs. As educational material, some states DID allow these films to be seen, though I seriously doubt that parents went to them to learn how to better raise their children!
In this film, a nice but extremely stupid young lady moves to a new town and gets caught up with the wrong crowd. Every time she is offered temptation, she always refuses but then tries EVERYTHING she is offered--making me wonder why they didn't call this film THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T SAY "NO"! As a result, it's obvious she's a total idiot and she graduates from trying smoking to drinking to kissing to doing "the nasty" to ultimately getting an abortion and dying!!! All this is told in a very heavy-handed and moralistic manner that MIGHT have worked had they also not shoved a few gratuitous scenes of ladies with no clothes on or in their underwear! All in all, this is a very bad film but it is a bit more watchable than the standard sleazy exploitation film. Worth a look and worth a laugh!!
UPDATE: I just saw the silent version (available from Alpha Video as an extra with the film "Street of Forgotten Women") and it's actually funnier and better made than this remake. My advice is to see them both.
In this film, a nice but extremely stupid young lady moves to a new town and gets caught up with the wrong crowd. Every time she is offered temptation, she always refuses but then tries EVERYTHING she is offered--making me wonder why they didn't call this film THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T SAY "NO"! As a result, it's obvious she's a total idiot and she graduates from trying smoking to drinking to kissing to doing "the nasty" to ultimately getting an abortion and dying!!! All this is told in a very heavy-handed and moralistic manner that MIGHT have worked had they also not shoved a few gratuitous scenes of ladies with no clothes on or in their underwear! All in all, this is a very bad film but it is a bit more watchable than the standard sleazy exploitation film. Worth a look and worth a laugh!!
UPDATE: I just saw the silent version (available from Alpha Video as an extra with the film "Street of Forgotten Women") and it's actually funnier and better made than this remake. My advice is to see them both.
Early juvenile delinquency scare film...
AlsExGal20 December 2022
... from First Division Pictures, and written, produced and co-directed (with Melville Shyer) by Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport). High school student Ann (Helen Foster) falls in with a bad crowd that's into drinking, smoking, and dancing poorly. Her new goofball boyfriend Tommy (Glen Boles) likes booze as much as he likes pawing Ann, so she gets bored and starts seeing shady character Ralph (Paul Page), who leads her into even darker depravity, like skinny-dipping in the backyard pool, strip dice games, and more poor dancing. Also featuring Nell O'Day as Ann's best gal pal (they read naughty books together).
Routine fare for this genre, this was a remake of a 1928 silent of the same name. There's a lengthy nightclub scene in the middle of the film featuring 3 bad singing performances (accompanied by the aforementioned bad dancing) that made me wish that this one was silent, too. Of course, the ultimate culprit for Ann's degeneracy is her parents inattention, since they're too busy heading out to the "Cotton Club". This morality lesson/time capsule is good for some unintentional laughs. It rates higher than what I have given it if you judge it on the so bad it is good scale.
Routine fare for this genre, this was a remake of a 1928 silent of the same name. There's a lengthy nightclub scene in the middle of the film featuring 3 bad singing performances (accompanied by the aforementioned bad dancing) that made me wish that this one was silent, too. Of course, the ultimate culprit for Ann's degeneracy is her parents inattention, since they're too busy heading out to the "Cotton Club". This morality lesson/time capsule is good for some unintentional laughs. It rates higher than what I have given it if you judge it on the so bad it is good scale.
Too Bad It's Not the Silent Version
richardchatten11 April 2017
This is a sound remake by Mrs Wallace Reid (who appears uncredited near the end in her accustomed role seated at a desk wearing a tie and a concerned expression as the voice of caring, socially responsible authority) of an earlier, apparently much racier, silent film she had made also starring Helen Foster. The 1928 version, according to Variety's reviewer 'Chic' "was crude and hotly sexed", but had now been "denatured and with the action greatly restrained...toned down to the point of mildness. The director apparently worked with one eye on the censors and the other on the box office, with astigmatism resulting."
Considering that the film is called 'The Road to Ruin', the film certainly spends an inordinate amount of its running time on the road - devoting an awful lot of footage, for example, to a wild pre-Code party which ends with the participants joining in a type of strip poker before all ending up in a swimming pool - before at long last arriving rather abruptly at its final tragic destination. There's also the little matter of Miss Foster's age. She still brings a sweet innocence to her role, but in the earlier version she was already 21 years old; and was by now 27, yet still playing a schoolgirl.
As is usual in such films, one wonders why the slimeball who plies Ann with booze and drugs and then pressures her into an abortion didn't just pick on a more robust girl with looser morals in the first place - of whom there seems no shortage in the film - rather than corrupting this delicate young flower. Nell O'Day as Ann's worldly blonde schoolfriend Eve Monroe, for example (resembling a prettier version of the young Bette Davis), despite obviously already having been round the block a few times as a 'sex delinquent' comes out of the film relatively unscathed; thus raising the possibility that if Ann had gone to her for advice about birth control the final tragedy might have been averted. (Eve obviously gets her glamorous, worldly-wise blonde good looks from Mommy, by the way, as played by an unbilled Mae Busch).
Considering that the film is called 'The Road to Ruin', the film certainly spends an inordinate amount of its running time on the road - devoting an awful lot of footage, for example, to a wild pre-Code party which ends with the participants joining in a type of strip poker before all ending up in a swimming pool - before at long last arriving rather abruptly at its final tragic destination. There's also the little matter of Miss Foster's age. She still brings a sweet innocence to her role, but in the earlier version she was already 21 years old; and was by now 27, yet still playing a schoolgirl.
As is usual in such films, one wonders why the slimeball who plies Ann with booze and drugs and then pressures her into an abortion didn't just pick on a more robust girl with looser morals in the first place - of whom there seems no shortage in the film - rather than corrupting this delicate young flower. Nell O'Day as Ann's worldly blonde schoolfriend Eve Monroe, for example (resembling a prettier version of the young Bette Davis), despite obviously already having been round the block a few times as a 'sex delinquent' comes out of the film relatively unscathed; thus raising the possibility that if Ann had gone to her for advice about birth control the final tragedy might have been averted. (Eve obviously gets her glamorous, worldly-wise blonde good looks from Mommy, by the way, as played by an unbilled Mae Busch).
"Please don't hate me - for what's happened"!!!
kidboots3 October 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Obviously, no star typified "Road to Ruin" more than Helen Foster. She starred in the original back in 1928 and then in the 1934 remake. She definitely wasn't as dewy eyed as she had been 8 years before but she obviously had the look that producers of these low budget sexploitation movies liked because some of her other titles included "The Primrose Path", "Temptation's Workshop" and she also had the dubious distinction of being Rex, the Wonder Horse's leading lady in "Hoofbeats of Vengeance" and "The Harvest of Hate". How different she probably thought it was all going to be - in 1929 she was voted a WAMPAS baby star and featured in Warner Bros. most prestigious film of the year, "Gold Diggers of Broadway", but as so often happens, the star that everyone noticed was not one of the pretty leading ladies but funny girl Winnie Lightner.
"Road to Ruin" was directed by Dorothy Davenport, a crusading director/producer/writer, who bought attention to many subjects that audiences in the 20s would have wished to avert their eyes - "The Red Kimona" (prostitution), "Human Wreckage" (drug addiction) and "Linda" (another with Helen Foster).
Ann (Helen Foster) is a sweet college girl who is friends with the not so sweet Eve (Nell O'Day). Helen Foster seems to walk through this movie in a daze, nothing seems to touch her (or could it be she is just a bad actress). All the vices - smoking, drinking, sex - alright that does leave her crying on the grass and Tommy on the verge of a breakdown!!! Nevertheless the next scene sees her falling prey to sleazy Ralph Bennett (Paul Page). With the college boys out of the picture, Ann and Eve (with great enthusiasm) take part in strip poker (only the girls strip) and a "back to nature" midnight swim which ends up with our girls taking a trip to Juvenile Hall. Ann is given the all clear from the doctor's "examination" but poor Eve has to stay there for "treatment"!!! When Eve is released she is repentant, Ann on the other hand is pregnant to Ralph, who forces her to undergo an unsanitary abortion. The ending is quite a surprise and the moral must be that the Eves of this world will always fall on their feet but dumb girls finish last!!!
"Road to Ruin" was directed by Dorothy Davenport, a crusading director/producer/writer, who bought attention to many subjects that audiences in the 20s would have wished to avert their eyes - "The Red Kimona" (prostitution), "Human Wreckage" (drug addiction) and "Linda" (another with Helen Foster).
Ann (Helen Foster) is a sweet college girl who is friends with the not so sweet Eve (Nell O'Day). Helen Foster seems to walk through this movie in a daze, nothing seems to touch her (or could it be she is just a bad actress). All the vices - smoking, drinking, sex - alright that does leave her crying on the grass and Tommy on the verge of a breakdown!!! Nevertheless the next scene sees her falling prey to sleazy Ralph Bennett (Paul Page). With the college boys out of the picture, Ann and Eve (with great enthusiasm) take part in strip poker (only the girls strip) and a "back to nature" midnight swim which ends up with our girls taking a trip to Juvenile Hall. Ann is given the all clear from the doctor's "examination" but poor Eve has to stay there for "treatment"!!! When Eve is released she is repentant, Ann on the other hand is pregnant to Ralph, who forces her to undergo an unsanitary abortion. The ending is quite a surprise and the moral must be that the Eves of this world will always fall on their feet but dumb girls finish last!!!
A Swell Bunch
wes-connors26 April 2009
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
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
Silly but OK
preppy-321 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
**SPOILERS!!!** Sweet innocent Ann Dixon (Helen Foster) is friends with the more worldly Eve Monroe (Nell O'Day). Ann falls in love with Tommy (Glen Boles) and slowly starts to drink, smoke, have sex, play strip poker and get pregnant. This all leads to abortion and death. There's also a pretty mild bit of skinny dipping (one or two girls are topless--everybody else wears their underwear!).
This was probably sold as an "educational film" back in 1934. All the subjects it dealt with were strictly taboo back then...BUT it could be released to show people how "horrible" these things could be and everybody guilty of it is punished or dies. Strangely enough the guys get away with it but the girls are punished--double standards I guess. This is ridiculously tame today. Nothing is really shown or even talked about openly--the word "abortion" is never used but it's pretty clear that's what happens. It's pretty slow moving too. Some of the acting is good--Foster, O'Day and Boles are all good in their roles. So it's slow-moving and silly but an interesting view of what was an exploitation film of the 1930s.
This was probably sold as an "educational film" back in 1934. All the subjects it dealt with were strictly taboo back then...BUT it could be released to show people how "horrible" these things could be and everybody guilty of it is punished or dies. Strangely enough the guys get away with it but the girls are punished--double standards I guess. This is ridiculously tame today. Nothing is really shown or even talked about openly--the word "abortion" is never used but it's pretty clear that's what happens. It's pretty slow moving too. Some of the acting is good--Foster, O'Day and Boles are all good in their roles. So it's slow-moving and silly but an interesting view of what was an exploitation film of the 1930s.
Card-carrying sex delinquents!
wbswetnam24 July 2012
This is a mid-1930s exploitation movie designed to "warn" good Christian girls and boys about the dangers of drinking, dancing, and premarital sex. For the 1930s these were indeed scandalous topics which today seem mundane. Ann, our central character, is corrupted by her fun-loving friend Eve. Eve introduces Ann to the evils of romance novels, smoking, dancing with boys and sneaking snorts of Daddy's brandy. Ann and Eve progress to dating men who are old enough to be their fathers. Finally the girls are caught at a drunken pool party where they are arrested and taken to the police station. While there, they are examined by a doctor (presumably for STDs) and given small cards identifying them by name as "sex delinquents"! Things go from bad to worse for poor Ann...
Wow a card identifying the girls as "sex delinquents" merely for attending a drunken pool party! Ann in particular wasn't even drunk and was still fully clothed at the party - no matter, the cops bust her too as a sex delinquent. I wish I had a card identifying ME as a "sex delinquent"... what a conversation piece that would be!
Wow a card identifying the girls as "sex delinquents" merely for attending a drunken pool party! Ann in particular wasn't even drunk and was still fully clothed at the party - no matter, the cops bust her too as a sex delinquent. I wish I had a card identifying ME as a "sex delinquent"... what a conversation piece that would be!
Another good, old exploitation film! Worth watching!
redbosox1 September 2002
I thought this was truly a unique movie considering it was filmed in 1934, when subject matter of this type was definitely a no-no. The film is about an innocent girl, Ann Dixon, who hangs out with her friend, Eve Monroe. They get boyfriends and start drinking and smoking. Ann breaks it off with her boyfriend and hooks up with a low-life older guy. They get busted at a topless/half-naked pool party and Eve comes up positive for a venerial disease of some type. Ann is negative but the film doesn't specifically tell you that she has become pregnant. Her low-life boyfriend takes her to the doctor for an abortion. I can't tell you the rest without ruining the movie so watch it for yourself. You shouldn't be disappointed if you like the off-the-wall types of rarer movies like I do. Enjoy the movie and look for other types such as this one.
"Gee, Ann, you're sweet. You like your uncle Tommy just a little bit?"
utgard1412 August 2017
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.
Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll in the '30s! Beautiful!
gmzewski20 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Given the plot line of this one, I simply HAD to see it! It was the forerunner of REEFER MADNESS and COCAINE FIENDS by a couple of years, arguably the soft-core pornography of its day! Atrociously marvelous with its horrid, wooden acting, crudely amateurish cinematography/camera movements, it's so bad it's a real beauty to watch! Although none of the "hard-core" action is actually seen, only alluded to, it comes across as very powerful in its depiction. I knew it would be a complete farce by two short scenes: In the opening scene when the guy falls off the back of the car as the car is moving off-camera, (I'm sure that was an unscripted ad-lib), and when the crowd of teens is skivvie-dipping in the pool, all drunk and stoned, the old man leering at them lustfully out the window with his wife badgering him to call the police, and he keeps telling her "yes, yes, later!" Add to the cast Ted Lorch as the abortion doctor, and Duke York, (both later of Three Stooges fame) and you'll get the idea of just how crude and low-budget, albeit creative and daring it stands! Don't let your grandparents lie to you and tell you the only things they had had to watch in those days were Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland ("Let's Put On a Show!") or Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, or Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald singing "Indian Love Call"! Nope, there was plenty of this Pre-Hayes-code raunch back then, just as now, they just won't admit it! For the subject matter of its day, it's a classic, and a keeper! Long live sleaze! I can't wait to find the 1928 silent version of this one, bets are it's even racier then thisone!
Decent
Michael_Elliott29 February 2008
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.
** (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.
poignant
Cristi_Ciopron3 June 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Both this drama and 'The Murder
' are movies directed by Shyer, produced by W. Kent, and released in the spring of '34.
Shyer was the classiest of the directors who made movies produced by W. Kent; in that whirlpool of careers, the director has been given these humbler assignments, but he gave them dignity. One can identify his leisurely style, his predilection for showing people partying and for contrasting the parties of the young people with those of their irresponsible parents, the misguided joy of the young and the disgraceful hedonism of the aged. As in other vice movies, the adults are blamed for their carelessness. The parties he filmed have an overtone of sadness, perhaps foreboding trends in the '50s, '60s, and even an Italian master, yes, him to, in the dizziness of the parties he featured.
Here, the protagonist, Ann, has a much more emancipated friend, the vixen Eve, played by Nell O'Day. Paul Page plays the unscrupulous seducer, the lead's 2nd lover. Ann has something enigmatic, as symbolized by Helen Foster's silent movie style rendering, which was already anachronistic by then; the actress' style has a symbolic and inner liveliness, as required by the silent cinema, and comes across as effective in its own way, nowadays her emoting may seem anachronistic to some, but it testifies to an acting style shaped by the '20s, when the silent had other requirements, and one can often see in early '30s movies such casts, in which some of the players' emoting suits the silent's needs, while others' suits already the sound cinema. The satire has been entrusted mostly to the neighbors who are scandalized by the swimming party and to R. Tucker, Ann's neglectful father.
I enjoyed it very much.
Shyer was the classiest of the directors who made movies produced by W. Kent; in that whirlpool of careers, the director has been given these humbler assignments, but he gave them dignity. One can identify his leisurely style, his predilection for showing people partying and for contrasting the parties of the young people with those of their irresponsible parents, the misguided joy of the young and the disgraceful hedonism of the aged. As in other vice movies, the adults are blamed for their carelessness. The parties he filmed have an overtone of sadness, perhaps foreboding trends in the '50s, '60s, and even an Italian master, yes, him to, in the dizziness of the parties he featured.
Here, the protagonist, Ann, has a much more emancipated friend, the vixen Eve, played by Nell O'Day. Paul Page plays the unscrupulous seducer, the lead's 2nd lover. Ann has something enigmatic, as symbolized by Helen Foster's silent movie style rendering, which was already anachronistic by then; the actress' style has a symbolic and inner liveliness, as required by the silent cinema, and comes across as effective in its own way, nowadays her emoting may seem anachronistic to some, but it testifies to an acting style shaped by the '20s, when the silent had other requirements, and one can often see in early '30s movies such casts, in which some of the players' emoting suits the silent's needs, while others' suits already the sound cinema. The satire has been entrusted mostly to the neighbors who are scandalized by the swimming party and to R. Tucker, Ann's neglectful father.
I enjoyed it very much.
"When He Kissed You, You Stayed Kissed!"...
azathothpwiggins16 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
THE ROAD TO RUIN is about another group of typical, 35 year old high school students, in a typical neighborhood, on a typical planet.
Poor Anne Dixon (Helen Foster) doesn't know the sort of kids with whom she's mingling! After school, instead of studying studiously, these hepcats are busy dancing to the latest devil jazz, whooping it up like the hellbound heathens they are!
When Anne spends the night at Eve Monroe's (Nell O'Day) house, all hades breaks loose! While her mother drinks good, nourishing alcohol, Eve introduces Anne to untoward romance stories! When mom and company depart for the evening, Eve pours Anne a Martini and lights up a tobacco cigarette! Within seconds, Anne is on cloud nine! Perhaps, ten!
The next day, Anne accepts a ride home from school. From a BOY! In a CAR! His name is Tommy.
We can almost hear Jeezuz cry!
Soon, Anne is smoking and drinking semi-regularly, "hanging out" by the lake with those up-to-no-good "friends" of hers! They even go canoeing! In no time, the lust demon flaps his wings over them, leading to unabashed, reprobate behavior! Anne ends up crying like the guilty sinner she's become.
Before long, Anne's out at rustic "lodges" with "the gang", dancing far too close while crooners croon their lilting songs of Satan! Oh, but it's the devil jazz that sets fire to their h-o-r-m-o-n-e-s, sending them into fits of dancing that only savages could enjoy! That's when the men in tuxedos -we know how they are!- move in, introducing Anne to their dim world of darkness.
Tommy's been replaced by Ralph, and Anne's running with a "fast crowd" now! Ralph gives Anne narcotic drinks, sending her into a state of wanton abandon!
The next night, Anne's old friends are dancing the Hully Gully at Brad's big bash. Eve shows her knees! Dice playing breaks out. For money! And clothing! Could these people possibly sink any lower? Yes! They can! Stripping down to their "birthday suits", they go cavorting in the pool! Unclothed "skinny dipping" has erupted! Topless, young men and women! Together! Without shame!
Thank God, a police raid takes place and everyone is taken to the pokey.
Later, Anne and Eve are examined by a doctor, and both are determined to be "sex delinquents"! The shame arrives at last! The tragedy is compounded when Anne discovers that she's "in the family way"! Ralph convinces her to go to a certain physician he knows for a "procedure". The last state of this unfortunate girl is worse than the first!
Anne is doomed. Her life is over. Let us not do as she has done. Let us live clean, sexless lives, free of soul-darning intoxicants.
Listen to mom. She knows best!...
Poor Anne Dixon (Helen Foster) doesn't know the sort of kids with whom she's mingling! After school, instead of studying studiously, these hepcats are busy dancing to the latest devil jazz, whooping it up like the hellbound heathens they are!
When Anne spends the night at Eve Monroe's (Nell O'Day) house, all hades breaks loose! While her mother drinks good, nourishing alcohol, Eve introduces Anne to untoward romance stories! When mom and company depart for the evening, Eve pours Anne a Martini and lights up a tobacco cigarette! Within seconds, Anne is on cloud nine! Perhaps, ten!
The next day, Anne accepts a ride home from school. From a BOY! In a CAR! His name is Tommy.
We can almost hear Jeezuz cry!
Soon, Anne is smoking and drinking semi-regularly, "hanging out" by the lake with those up-to-no-good "friends" of hers! They even go canoeing! In no time, the lust demon flaps his wings over them, leading to unabashed, reprobate behavior! Anne ends up crying like the guilty sinner she's become.
Before long, Anne's out at rustic "lodges" with "the gang", dancing far too close while crooners croon their lilting songs of Satan! Oh, but it's the devil jazz that sets fire to their h-o-r-m-o-n-e-s, sending them into fits of dancing that only savages could enjoy! That's when the men in tuxedos -we know how they are!- move in, introducing Anne to their dim world of darkness.
Tommy's been replaced by Ralph, and Anne's running with a "fast crowd" now! Ralph gives Anne narcotic drinks, sending her into a state of wanton abandon!
The next night, Anne's old friends are dancing the Hully Gully at Brad's big bash. Eve shows her knees! Dice playing breaks out. For money! And clothing! Could these people possibly sink any lower? Yes! They can! Stripping down to their "birthday suits", they go cavorting in the pool! Unclothed "skinny dipping" has erupted! Topless, young men and women! Together! Without shame!
Thank God, a police raid takes place and everyone is taken to the pokey.
Later, Anne and Eve are examined by a doctor, and both are determined to be "sex delinquents"! The shame arrives at last! The tragedy is compounded when Anne discovers that she's "in the family way"! Ralph convinces her to go to a certain physician he knows for a "procedure". The last state of this unfortunate girl is worse than the first!
Anne is doomed. Her life is over. Let us not do as she has done. Let us live clean, sexless lives, free of soul-darning intoxicants.
Listen to mom. She knows best!...
Somewhere Between
dougdoepke4 May 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Okay, there is the familiar slippery slope from kissing to petting to intimacy, then the not so familiar slide from love affair to strip craps (!?) to midnight underwear dipping and finally to a slice and dice abortionist. Unfortunately, the virginal-looking Ann traverses each stage on her way to meeting the angels as conveyed in the ethereal last shot that seems to say she has been redeemed despite her transgressions. Her trouble is she just fell in with the wrong crowd and couldn't resist the peer pressure, especially from her wanton friend Eve (likely the name is no accident). Then too, Dad appears to have his own outside diversions, while Mom hovers somewhere in the ineffectual background. Thus, the parents helped grease the slide, and the warning goes out to everyone interested.
Sure, the production values are somewhere between meager and absent. But despite the peek-a-boo subject matter, this is no Reefer Madness (1936) or even Ed Wood territory. It's simply too well acted. The main performers are more serious than laughable, and the situations fairly realistic though titillating (note the poor lighting in the pool scene, likely so that we don't see too much). Some silliness lurks at the margins (the old guy voyeur), but the film appears to settle somewhere between a "tell your daughters" morality tale and trench coat sensationalism. Likely the stab at respectability comes from writer Mrs. Wallace Reid whose name was identified with the tragedy of a drug-addicted husband. As another reviewer perceptively points out, the shenanigans here are not that distant from what Mae West or Jean Harlow were projecting during this permissive pre-Code period.
Anyway, the movie is now little more than a dated curiosity piece whose popular message seems to be that boys in cars are a risky proposition for girls on their way home. Not surprising, since automobiles were generally viewed as a slippery way of escaping parental supervision during a period when youth were beginning to get cars of their own.
Sure, the production values are somewhere between meager and absent. But despite the peek-a-boo subject matter, this is no Reefer Madness (1936) or even Ed Wood territory. It's simply too well acted. The main performers are more serious than laughable, and the situations fairly realistic though titillating (note the poor lighting in the pool scene, likely so that we don't see too much). Some silliness lurks at the margins (the old guy voyeur), but the film appears to settle somewhere between a "tell your daughters" morality tale and trench coat sensationalism. Likely the stab at respectability comes from writer Mrs. Wallace Reid whose name was identified with the tragedy of a drug-addicted husband. As another reviewer perceptively points out, the shenanigans here are not that distant from what Mae West or Jean Harlow were projecting during this permissive pre-Code period.
Anyway, the movie is now little more than a dated curiosity piece whose popular message seems to be that boys in cars are a risky proposition for girls on their way home. Not surprising, since automobiles were generally viewed as a slippery way of escaping parental supervision during a period when youth were beginning to get cars of their own.
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