Sex Madness
Brief Synopsis
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Tom, the son of a crusading newspaper reporter, goes partying with his friends and winds up at a burlesque house. The strippers invite the boys back to their house, where Tom proceeds to get drunk and have sex with one of the strippers. Soon afterwards, he finds out he has gonorrhea.
Cast & Crew
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Vivian Mcgill
Millicent Hamilton
Rose Tapley
Mrs. Hamilton
Al Rigeli
Mr. Hamilton
Stanley Barton
Wendel Hope
Linda Lee Hill
Sheila Wayne
Ruth Edell
Mrs. Fay
Film Details
Also Known As
Human Wreckage, Human Wreckage: They Must Be Told
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jan
1938
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Cinema Service Corp.
Distribution Company
Cinema Service Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
57m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
5,175ft
(6 reels)
Synopsis
After performing in a burlesque show in New York City, dancer Sheila Wayne goes backstage and tries to convince her friend, Millicent Hamilton, to join her for drinks with reformer Tom Lorenz, son of the renowned venereal disease expert Dr. Paul Lorenz, but Millicent turns down the offer because she has an appointment with Dr. Harris early the next morning. Sheila and her friends attend a party that night and engage in casual sex with the male guests. Meanwhile, Millicent reads a letter from her boyfriend from her hometown of Lorain, and begins to regret ever having left him to come to the big city. The next day, Dr. Harris informs Millicent that she has contracted syphilis, though he admits that she does not fit the personality profile of the disease's typical victim. The devastated Millicent then recounts for the doctor the events leading up to the one sexual encounter she had with a theatrical manager in New York upon her arrival to the city. After winning a beauty contest in Lorain, Millicent explains, she left for New York, where, desperate to find work, she accepted an invitation to a theatre manager's Long Island hideaway and submitted to his sexual advances. Dr. Harris then takes Millicent on a tour of the venereal disease ward at the hospital, where he shows her examples of the physical ravages of her disease in its advanced stages. Afterwards, he assures her that her condition is treatable with a new cure. He then makes Millicent promise to remain celibate until completely cured. When Millicent tells Dr. Harris that she plans on returning to Lorain, the doctor warns her to be wary of unscrupulous doctors who bilk their patients out of hundreds of dollars and then fail to cure them. Millicent returns to Lorain, where she settles in with her boyfriend, Wendel Hope, and her parents. One year later, after having been under the care of Dr. Grenoble, who has assured her of her readiness for marriage and childbirth, Millicent believes herself to be cured of the disease. Tragically, though, Millicent gives birth to an unhealthy child, witnesses her husband rapidly losing his eyesight, and soon learns that Dr. Grenoble has been arrested on charges of medical fraud. At the suggestion of a pediatrician, Millicent and Wendel have themselves examined by a another doctor, who informs them that Millicent has unwittingly infected her family with the disease. Millicent watches helplessly as her bedridden husband slowly dies. Just as she is about to end her life by taking poison, Millicent's old friend Sheila calls to tell her that she is engaged to be married and that she has been successful in treating her case of syphilis with the new cure.
Cast
Vivian Mcgill
Millicent Hamilton
Rose Tapley
Mrs. Hamilton
Al Rigeli
Mr. Hamilton
Stanley Barton
Wendel Hope
Linda Lee Hill
Sheila Wayne
Ruth Edell
Mrs. Fay
Charles Olcott
Paul Lorenz
Ed Redding
Dr. Hampton
Pat Lawrence
Tom Lorenz
Allan Tower
Dr. Harris
Richard Bengali
Mr. Maynard
W. Blake
Dr. Grenoble
Frank Howsen
Dr. Bayard
Allan Lee
Mr. Winthrop
Jean Temple
Mrs. Winthrop
Albert Patterson
James Winthrop
Miriam Bilavsky
Jane
Nathalie Donet
Peggy
Polly Bester
Betty
Joseph Kramer
Lon Mays
Harry Antrim
Theatrical manager
Film Details
Also Known As
Human Wreckage, Human Wreckage: They Must Be Told
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jan
1938
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Cinema Service Corp.
Distribution Company
Cinema Service Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
57m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
5,175ft
(6 reels)
Articles
Sex Madness
Philanthropist Paul Lorenz is one of the more public faces in the fight against behavior that spreads the many social diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
Sex Madness
Philanthropist Paul Lorenz is one of the more public faces in the fight against behavior that spreads the many social diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
No contemporary reviews of this film have been found. The film was copyrighted under the title Human Wreckage. The viewing print contained no credits. According to the file for the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the film was also known as Human Wreckage: They Must Be Told. Although copyright records list Joseph Seiden and Vincent Valentini as the "authors" of the film, the exact nature of their work on the production has not been determined. Seiden and the Cinema Service Corp. were associated with a number of Yiddish films in the 1930s, including the 1939 film Kol Nidre. Regional censorship reports in the MPAA/PCA file indicate that the film was rejected by censors in New York, Pennsylvania and Kansas, and that Ohio censors approved the film only after eliminating a number of scenes and lines of dialogue, including a scene in which "one girl strokes another's arms in a suggestive manner" and the accompanying dialogue: "You do have plenty of IT"; close-up shots of "an exposed navel" and the entire house party sequence.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1938
Released in United States 1938
