Children of Loneliness

The above plot synopsis was taken from contemporary reviews and from a review in a January 1953 issue of The Exhibitor. The above cast list was found in the 1953 article, which indicates that the film was re-issued that year. According to the Motion Picture Herald review, the film includes a prologue and an epilogue in which Dr. S. Dana Hubbard of the New York Health Department discusses homosexuality in "clinical detail." The copyright submission includes the following statement from the filmmakers about the picture's intent: "Children of Loneliness is an educational and scientific presentation of an absorbing subject that deals with the manifestations, evil associations and mental complexes that affect and misdirect normal adults into channels resulting in homo-sexuality. It points out in vivid form and manner the fact that it is an acquired anomaly requiring only the influence of some exciting cause to become manifest, among such causes being those associated with fright, improper training, evil associations and mental complexes....In their effort to satisfy their desires these unfortunate people often stoop to the most loathsome practices. Children of Loneliness points out the part that Society plays in the development of normal children into normal humans, and eloquently brings out the potent fact that society cannot cure those who have been so misguided by simply ignoring and refusing to discuss them....The story of these inverts is a tragic one and reveals the known fact that these people are mentally sick and their only hope lies in treatment by competent physicians...."
       According to a January 1934 Variety news item, Sol Lesser negotiated with J. T. Cosman, the film's financier, for distribution rights to the picture after Morris Safier backed out of his distribution deal. It is not known if Lesser actually distributed the film in 1934, the year that it was copyrighted, or if censorship problems kept the picture from being released at that time. A The Exhibitor review from 1937 noted that the picture had "been around quite a bit." According to the Motion Picture Herald review, Samuel Cummins, who was the head of Jewel, leased the Criterion Theater in Los Angeles for screenings of the film in November 1937. At the preview screening, a man dressed like a physician addressed the audience and, aided by three young women dressed separately in scarlet, lavender and white, lectured on perversion and handed out pamphlets, according to Motion Picture Herald. All four people were arrested for distributing "salacious literature," which included copies of Dr. S. Dana Hubbard's work "In Plain English." The film was rejected by the New York State censors in 1937. Records from the NYSA refer to the manufacturer as "Kahn and Barley" and indicate that the picture was also known as Strange Lovers and The Third Sex. No sources confirm that the film received a general 1937 release; the 1937 The Exhibitor review speculated that it would "probably never be passed by censors." The 1953 review listed the film's running time as 59 minutes.