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Damaged Lives, the 1933 (released in the U.S. in 1937) Edgar Ulmer Canadian/U.S. venereal disease sexploitation melodrama ("The most daring picture to come out of Hollywood"; "A Mighty and Authentic Social Drama With a Message for the Race."; about a young man who catches VD [venereal disease] from a "bad woman" and then passes it to his sweetheart, thus ruining both their lives when the kindly but stern local doctor informs them that their lives are now forever "damaged"!) starring Lyman Williams, Diane Sinclair, Marceline Day, Jason Robards Sr., Charlotte Merriam, and Victor Potel. Note that this movie was made under the pretense of educating and warning the youth of the time, but actually director Edgar Ulmer was just making a sensational exploitation movie that was sure to draw in the crowds! The official production company of the movie was "Weldon Pictures", but that was actually a dummy subsidiary of Columbia Pictures (they did not want their name on this movie, but they wanted the profits they were sure it would make). Note that we have seen lobby cards that have a snipe that reads "UNDER AUSPICES CANADIAN SOCIAL HYGIENE COUNCIL". We are sure those were put on to help legitimize the movie and make it look like it was an "educational" presentation (the cards are printed in the U.S.A., but this was a Canadian/U.S. co-production, so likely the same cards were used in both countries). The movie was re-released by Toddy Pictures in the 1940s under the title of "The Kiss That Kills" (with a tiny "Damaged Lives" printed under that, on the Toddy lobby cards, and as "Damaged Lives" on the Toddy one-sheet), and there was another re-release without a studio at all that occurred in either 1943, 1948, or 1954 (and they reused the one-sheet that was used for the Toddy re-release, but it switched from "No One Under 16" to "Adults Only", and a printed tagline was added at the top)! If anyone has more information about this movie or any of these re-releases, please e-mail us and we will post it here.
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Important Added Info: Note that producer Toddy Pictures is well known as the leading maker of all black cast African-American movies in the 1940s. They not only made their own movies, but they also distributed movies made by other studios. Almost all of those movies were all-black cast as well, but one of the movies they picked up for distribution in the 1940s was the Edgar Ulmer VD classic, "Damaged Lives", which did not feature any black African-American actors, but certainly played in few mainstream movie theaters!

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