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| Title: | DAMAGED LIVES |
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| Title year: | 1933 |
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| Also known as: | THE SHOCKING TRUTH (1958 re-release title) |
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| Unused title(s): | Dark Waters (Working Title) |
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| Running time: | 69 min 27 sec |
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| Description: | Donald Bradley, working in his father's steamship company after a stint at sea, breaks a theatre engagement with his fiancée Joan, who longs for marriage and a baby, to talk business with colleague Nat Franklin. They go to a night club with Nat's friend Elise Cooper where Nat, intoxicated, flirts with Rosie, the companion of rival shipping magnate Jackson, who invites them all to his house where a party is in progress. Nat leaves with Rosie, and Don goes with Elise to a speakeasy and then to her apartment where she seduces him. The next day Don feels guilty and confesses to Joan, who persuades him to elope rather than wait for their planned June wedding. Later Elise phones, frantic, and Don visits her. She warns him that she has a venereal disease contracted from Nat. Refusing to believe her, Don starts to leave, whereupon she shoots herself fatally. Later, Don's friend and physician, Bill Hall, takes him to see Dr. Leonard, a specialist who has diagnosed Joan as having a venereal disease. Don has already seen a phony doctor, who has assured him that he is alright, so he refuses to accept the situation until Dr. Leonard shows him a variety of patients suffering from the disease. He tells Don that if he and Joan begin a two-year treatment immediately, they and their unborn baby will probably be cured. That night while Don sleeps, Joan turns on the gas in their apartment in a suicide attempt but Don awakens in time: she says that they are dead inside and she fears they will never laugh again but her pestering pregnant friend Marie calls, worried that she forgot her condition and ate pickles. Joan and Don both laugh and realize that they have much to live for. |
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Credited as: |
Character name: |
| Actor(s): | Diane Sinclair | | Joan |
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| Lyman Williams | | Donald Bradley |
| George Irving | | Donald's Father |
| Almeda Fowler | | Donald's Mother |
| Jason Robarts | | Dr. Bill Hall |
| Marceline Day | | Dr. Hall's Wife |
| Charlotte Merriam | | Elsie Cooper |
| Murray Kinnell | | Dr. Leonard |
| Harry Myers | | Nat Franklin |
| Victor Potel | | Captain Jensen |
| Cecilia Parker | | |
| Phillips Smally | | Old Man Jackson |
| Bobby Burns | | |
| Harrison Greene | | Dr. Horton |
| Gladys Blake | | Marie |
| Harry Semels | | |
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| Release: | Toronto (Tivoli) | May 22, 1919 |
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| London (UK) (Coliseum) | August 18, 1919 |
| Boston, Massachusetts (Majestic) | September 15, 1919 |
| New York City (Central Theatre) (Broadway at 47th St.) | June 12, 1919 |
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Financial %: |
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| Co-production: | Country production | |
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| Studio: | Educational Studios Inc. |
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