Damaged Goods (1914 film)
Damaged Goods (1914) is an American silent drama film directed by Tom Ricketts, starring Richard Bennett. It is based on Eugène Brieux's play Les Avariés (1901) about a young couple who contract syphilis. No print of the film is known to exist, making it a lost film.[1] It is believed to have begun the sex hygiene/venereal disease film craze of the 1910s.[2]
| Damaged Goods | |
|---|---|
.jpg.webp) Advertisement for the 1917 edition | |
| Directed by | Tom Ricketts |
| Written by | Harry A. Pollard (adaptation) |
| Based on | Les Avariés by Eugène Brieux |
| Starring | Richard Bennett Adrienne Morrison |
| Cinematography | Thomas B. Middleton |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Mutual Film Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 reels |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The play was adapted into a British silent film Damaged Goods in 1919. A sound film based on the Brieux play, also titled Damaged Goods (1937) was directed by Phil Goldstone, released by Grand National Pictures.
Cast
- Richard Bennett as George Dupont
- Adrienne Morrison as a Girl of the Streets
- Maud Milton as Mrs. Dupont
- Olive Templeton as Henriette Locke
- Josephine Ditt as Mrs. James Forsythe
- Jacqueline Moore as Seamstress
- Florence Short as Nurse
- Louis Bennison as Dr. Clifford
- John Steppling as Senator Locke
- William Bertram as a Quack Doctor
- George Ferguson as the Quack's Assistant
- Charlotte Burton as Mrs. Lester
Production and release history
Film historian Terry Ramsaye stated that the film was "pretentiously made" for a cost of less than $50,000, including marketing, and that "its states' rights ... sold for $600,000, thus indicating a box-office take of probably more than $2,000,000".[3] According to a 1915 account, audience demand for the film in Detroit was so great that police were required to control the crowds at the theater.[3]
Damaged Goods was re-released in a "new edition" in 1917, perhaps in response to concerns about the spread of venereal disease among World War I soldiers. It was re-released again in 1919.[3]
Reception
The film was positively received by critics. Reviews in Variety and The Moving Picture World praised it as morally salubrious.[3]
See also
References
- "Damaged Goods". silentera.com. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
- Eric Schaefer, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999).
- Schaefer, Eric (1992). "Of hygiene and Hollywood: origins of the exploitation film". Velvet Light Trap.
External links
