*SPOILERS* Syphilis was the AIDS of its day (its day being several centuries),a death sentence, slow and horrifyingly debilitating, and passed to loved ones and children. Penicillin changed that, but at the time of this film I think arsenic was the only cure, and iffy at that, with risk of death. {See "Out of Africa."}

Not well written or acted, but historically interesting. They couldn't say "syphilis" but managed to get "venereal disease" and "syphilitic" past the censors. I also found it very interesting that an obviously part-African woman, Diane Sinclair, played a wealthy white woman who marries a white man! Since this was of course absolutely unheard of, I can only guess that the fact she was foreign allowed her to be viewed as exotic, and perhaps Indian rather than black. She would have been a good candidate to play Peola in "Imitation of Life"; but Fredi Washington was a far better actress.

(Some Spoilers) Early 1930's educational movie about the horrors of contracting a social disease and the consequences that come along with it: blindness madness loss of ones abilities to function as well as infecting other people with it, even one's unborn children, and finally death. "Damaged Lives" is far ahead of it's times in educating it's viewers about the dangers Venereal Deasise. viewed now over 70 years after it's release back in 1933 is as good, if not better, then the many films about that subject made back in the 1940's 1950's and even 1960's.

Donald Bradley, Lyman Williams, is a top executive of a major shipping company who's been going study with his girlfriend Joan, Diane Sinclair, for some time. both are finally planing to get married and raise a family. Out at a party one evening Donald meets Elsie Cooper, Charlotte Merriam, and together they have one drink too many and before you know it end up spending the night together in Elsie's home.

Thinking nothing of his one night stand with Elsie Donald later marries his long time love Joan and they both plan to have a child, or so they thought. At the office Donald get a panicked call from Elsie telling him to come over to her place right away about something very important. Rushing over Donald finds out, to his horror, that Elsie has a sexual infection that she got from her boyfriend Nat, Harry Myers, and that she may have given it to Donald, and he in turn may have infected his wife Joan. Telling Elsie that she's wrong about him being infected and that she should seek medical attention Elsie shoots herself as Donald is just about to leave.

Getting over Elsie's tragic death Donald gets another surprise later when his doctor Dr. Bill Hill, Jason Robards Sr, comes over to his office telling him to immediately come with him to the hospital to talk to Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Vincent Leonard, Murray Kinnell, about his wife Joan who's just been admitted there. The terrible truth about Donald and his wife Joan hits him like a bolt out of the blue and leaves him speechless, just like it did Joan earlier. Both have been infected and the infection is the dreaded and unspeakable,back in the 1930's, infection called Venereal Disease.

Told by Dr. Leonard that it would take some two years of treatment for both Donald and Joan to be completely cured it leaves Joan in a state of dangerous suicidal thoughts. Later in the film Joan, feeling that she has nothing to live for, closes all the windows in her and Donald's apartment and turns on the gas stove, full blast, in order to kill herself and Donald who was asleep at the time.

Honest film about the ravages of Venereal Disease and the damage that it does to those who are infected by it, both psychically as well as mentally, and how it could be cured if given immediate medical care instead of hiding it from one's doctor and keeping it hidden, for fear of shame and embarrassment, until it's too late.

"Damaged Lives" has a damaged print, filled with lines, choppy sound that goes in and out (and is often impossible to hear),which makes it nearly impossible to get into. It is an exploitation film about syphilis, made before the production code although with a poverty row exploitation film, the production code probably didn't have much influence. The basic premise is a young man, engaged to be married, discovers that a girl that he slept with has given him venereal disease and must deal with this as well as the girls suicide, presented as it happens as if the girl just sneezed.

Really poor editing and a choppy script makes an already iffy story twice as bad, with the performances ranging from overly emotional (Charlotte Merriam as the girl who gives the boy VD) to unemotional and lethargic (Lyman Williams). Diane Sinclair, as the fiancee/wife has nothing really substantial to do other than fret about not being able to have a child out of fear of transmitting the disease which is really never spoken but seen in her eyes when she looks at Williams' nephew, as well as a breakdown at the end after discovering that she's pregnant. Even with a restored prints, this comes off as something that would be painful to try to get through oh, and I'm not going to wait for a restored print to make my judgment.