The Desperate Women
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Louis B. Appleton Jr.
Anne Appleton
Douglas Howard
Paul Hahn
Ben Daniels
Samuel Newman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After his teenage daughter dies in a cheap hotel room as a result of an illegal abortion, a newspaper publisher assigns two top reporters, Mona and Eddie, to investigate and expose the abortion ring, headed by gangster Jan Kovacs, and the doctors who are in league with him. Mona and Eddie enlist the help of a legitimate doctor who presents them with case histories of married and unmarried women who have gone to quack doctors or have attempted ineffective, often fatal, self-induced abortions utilizing drugs and other methods. The frightened and emotionally distraught victims in the cases come from all classes--the privileged and underprivileged--and are driven to these desperate measures through fear of social ostracism or economic disaster. The reporters learn that annually many thousands of women die from abortions in the United States. Eventually, Mona and Eddie accumulate enough evidence to smash Kovacs' racket and have him and his associates arrested by the police.
Director
Louis B. Appleton Jr.
Cast
Anne Appleton
Douglas Howard
Paul Hahn
Ben Daniels
Samuel Newman
Maria Girard
Virginia Leon
Karen Moore
Joseph Allen Jr.
Robert Lee
Theodore Marcuse
Richard Risso
Stanley Glenn
Rebecca Young
Karen Wolfe
Raymond Barrett
William Sharpe
Ross Durfee
Jean Mccampbell
Richard Learman
Ragna Kyle
Jo Young
Joseph Penner
Hughes Rudd
Millie Carroll
Virginia Royce
William W. Coshow
Eve Meyer
Jan Pitre
Louis B. Appleton Jr.
Frank Bolger
Kenneth Frisbe
George G. Walker
Ted Kukula
John Burton
Flip Glenn
Susan Glenn
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the Variety review claimed that the The Desperate Women was "without sensationalism," it was released with an exploitation campaign-"The Motion Picture the World Dared Hollywood to Make!" and "A Million Women Every Year Will Try the Impossible!"-and admission was restricted to those over eighteen years of age. The film's pressbook states that the entire film was shot on real locations in San Francisco. The film was reissued in 1960 as The Road to Hell.
