Open Your Eyes
Cast & Crew
Gilbert P. Hamilton
Faire Binney
Mrs. Joupert
Jack Hopkins
Halbert Brown
Eddie Beryll
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Venereal disease is discussed at a convention of medical men. Among other things, they relate that syphilis can be contracted through kissing, public towels, and drinking cups, that 10% of young men today are syphilitic, most because of prostitution, and that 28% of the insane are that way because of syphilis. After Kitty Walton's sixteenth birthday, her doctor convinces her mother to tell her "the mysteries of life." Frances Forrester, also sixteen but kept ignorant of sexual matters, eagerly accepts the invitation of her suburban mother's friend, rich Mrs. Valentine, to visit in the city. Mrs. Valentine's son Alex, a Broadway "rounder," convinces Frances to get an apartment in a fashionable area, which Alex then frequents. Meanwhile, Harold Connors, Frances' home-town sweetheart, gets syphilis from a city streetwalker. After Alex meets Kitty and falls in love for the first time, Frances learns that she has contracted syphilis and warns Alex, who is assured by his "quack" doctor that he is cured. Frances interrupts Kitty's wedding to Alex and tells the assembled guests that Alex is "unclean." Frances and Harold, reunited, are both cured, Alex ends up in an insane asylum, and Kitty is reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Eddie Samson.
Director
Gilbert P. Hamilton
Cast
Faire Binney
Mrs. Joupert
Jack Hopkins
Halbert Brown
Eddie Beryll
Emily Marceau
Mrs. Viola Allen
Ben Lyon
Gaston Glass
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film was advertised as being produced under the supervision and with the co-operation of the United States Public Health Service. It was privately shown to the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington D. C. in April 1919 and received that department's endorsement. The film opened in New York on June 27, 1919 after showing in other cities including Washington, D.C. and Syracuse, NY. According to Variety, when shown in New York the film was five reels in length.
