A cautionary tale about the dangers of smoking, drinking, fornicating, gambling and skinny-dipping (all the fun things in life, basically) is notable for the way it coyly tiptoes around the issues it seeks to condemn. It's a pretty good movie though, even if almost everything young Helen Foster goes through would make up the average teenagers Friday night out these days.
5 Reviews
For Helen and Grant - the Road to Better Movies!!
kidboots24 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Helen Foster went on to a little fame as she essayed the part in
"Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929) that eventually went to Ruby
Keeler in the remake - "42nd Street" and also had minor roles in
other early Warner's talkies, but essentially she found herself
trapped in exploitation films. She even had the dubious honor of
being in the 1934 remake of this movie also with the same title.
Grant Withers seemed to be the only actor in these type of films
who comfortably used them as a stepping stone to more main
stream films.
Foster plays Sally who, because of her too trusting mother finds herself hanging around with worldly school chum Eve. Once again Virigina Roye is the bright spark in this movie, she has the vivaciousness of a young Joan Crawford and it's a pity she didn't move onto more important films. By the time Sally meets up with Don (Withers) at a night club she is well on the road to ruin and Don drags her down even further, introducing her to strip poker parties and gentlemen's suppers where she is hired as a party girl!! It is at one of these that she meets her father!! While he has been putting on the front of family man with pressing business interests, in reality he has been living the high life, very involved in gentlemen's private parties etc. Promised that the girl selected for him is a goer, he is just as shocked as Sally when they confront each other!! Sally has been lured to the party by sleazy Don who wants "compensation" for introducing her to an abortionist who has taken care of a little problem for her. At around 45 minutes there's no time for characterization, most players with the exception of bubbly Eve are very one dimensional.
Florence Turner who played Sally's mother was another older actress whose career had hit the skids. Once publicized as one of the first film stars, by the mid 1920s she was desperate for work. Maybe because she had divided her time between America and Britain and when Britain began to close it's film studios, she returned to America - courtesy of a ticket paid for by Marion Davies.
After directing (uncredited) "Human Wreckage" and "The Red Kimono" Dorothy Davenport first put her name on this controversial and very low budget ($2,500) exploitation movie and it returned a whopping $2,500,000.!!
Foster plays Sally who, because of her too trusting mother finds herself hanging around with worldly school chum Eve. Once again Virigina Roye is the bright spark in this movie, she has the vivaciousness of a young Joan Crawford and it's a pity she didn't move onto more important films. By the time Sally meets up with Don (Withers) at a night club she is well on the road to ruin and Don drags her down even further, introducing her to strip poker parties and gentlemen's suppers where she is hired as a party girl!! It is at one of these that she meets her father!! While he has been putting on the front of family man with pressing business interests, in reality he has been living the high life, very involved in gentlemen's private parties etc. Promised that the girl selected for him is a goer, he is just as shocked as Sally when they confront each other!! Sally has been lured to the party by sleazy Don who wants "compensation" for introducing her to an abortionist who has taken care of a little problem for her. At around 45 minutes there's no time for characterization, most players with the exception of bubbly Eve are very one dimensional.
Florence Turner who played Sally's mother was another older actress whose career had hit the skids. Once publicized as one of the first film stars, by the mid 1920s she was desperate for work. Maybe because she had divided her time between America and Britain and when Britain began to close it's film studios, she returned to America - courtesy of a ticket paid for by Marion Davies.
After directing (uncredited) "Human Wreckage" and "The Red Kimono" Dorothy Davenport first put her name on this controversial and very low budget ($2,500) exploitation movie and it returned a whopping $2,500,000.!!
Better Than Average Exploitation Film
Michael_Elliott7 August 2017
The Road to Ruin (1928)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Sally (Helen Foster) is a sweet and innocent girl who hasn't even kissed anyone. She starts hanging out with Eve who tells her that there's nothing wrong with a little kiss. In order to get Sally prepared, Even offers up some booze and before long the innocent Sally is drinking, smoking, kissing, partying and eventually this leads to sex. Before Sally knows it she's pregnant and the guy wants her to have an abortion.
THE ROAD TO RUIN was remade in 1934 and that sound version is certainly better know and more widely available but thankfully this original has turned up and is now making the rounds. I was surprised to see how entertaining this movie was as it was certainly rather generic but at the same time it was actually well-made and featured a pretty good lead performance. Of course, the 41-minute running time helped keep things moving.
It's also worth noting that the director, Dorothy Davenport, was a female so it's interesting to have this being directed by a woman. The film's story is pretty basic and there's certainly no character development as Sally pretty much goes from one scene to the next trying something different and becoming more of a "sinful" person. I thought what made the film work was that Foster was so believable in the part and for the most part I thought she turned in a good performance.
This film's subject matter is a bit darker than a couple of the other silent exploitation films that I've seen. The abortion matter is right in your face and there's no question that the film goes after parents for not educating their kids like they should. There's certainly nothing great here but if you're interesting in these type of exploitation movies then it's certainly worth watching.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Sally (Helen Foster) is a sweet and innocent girl who hasn't even kissed anyone. She starts hanging out with Eve who tells her that there's nothing wrong with a little kiss. In order to get Sally prepared, Even offers up some booze and before long the innocent Sally is drinking, smoking, kissing, partying and eventually this leads to sex. Before Sally knows it she's pregnant and the guy wants her to have an abortion.
THE ROAD TO RUIN was remade in 1934 and that sound version is certainly better know and more widely available but thankfully this original has turned up and is now making the rounds. I was surprised to see how entertaining this movie was as it was certainly rather generic but at the same time it was actually well-made and featured a pretty good lead performance. Of course, the 41-minute running time helped keep things moving.
It's also worth noting that the director, Dorothy Davenport, was a female so it's interesting to have this being directed by a woman. The film's story is pretty basic and there's certainly no character development as Sally pretty much goes from one scene to the next trying something different and becoming more of a "sinful" person. I thought what made the film work was that Foster was so believable in the part and for the most part I thought she turned in a good performance.
This film's subject matter is a bit darker than a couple of the other silent exploitation films that I've seen. The abortion matter is right in your face and there's no question that the film goes after parents for not educating their kids like they should. There's certainly nothing great here but if you're interesting in these type of exploitation movies then it's certainly worth watching.
It all started with a romance novel!
planktonrules10 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
"The Road to Ruin" is an exploitation film from the silent era. Unlike most exploitation pictures, however, this one has pretty decent production values.....which is surprising since the film only cost $2500 to make...a pittence even in 1928. It also has the usual over the top warnings about 'youth running wild'. And as such, it's quite entertaining and probably did little to keep kids on the straight and narrow! The producers of such films knew this...and also knew that people were curious and there were lots of salacious aspects that brought folks into the theaters in droves to see all the sin. How curious? The film took in $2,500,000!! A tidy profit for such a small investment...as well as proof that folks LOVED exploitation pics!
When the story begins, Sally is apparently a very normal girl. Her first foray into sin that you see is her reading a romance novel with a friend. It must have been some romance novel as afterwards they are so stoked for evil that the drink up Sally's parent's liquor! Soon, they are hanging out with men who only want one thing....though the film never exactly says what. Folks from that time would have to connect the dots. You see her next hanging with out with riff raff and playing strip poker and she is soon arrested in this den of iniquity. But her mother does nothing to reign her in and soon you find out she is pregnant....but how, exactly, is anyone's guess as all we know she did was smooch a bit and play strip poker....and she still had half her clothes still on her when she was arrested. The boyfriend, naturally, doesn't really care about her and arranges for an abortion...though like other films about it, they never say exactly WHAT is going to happen with the pregnancy. She gets a septic infection from the procedure and eventually dies...but not before her own father turns up as a customer in the brothel where she is now dying...and he, apparently, is her next trick!!! The Bible verse about 'the wages of sin IS DEATH' (Romans 6:23) appears on the screen and the film ends.
Subtlety, this film lacks...that's for sure. If the message had been presented in a more realistic and rational fashion, it would have made for a much better film...and probably would have earned a lot less money!! Compared to most other exploitation pics, it's quite good and is very entertaining. Unfortunately, its message is rather bizarre (mostly because she went from romance novels to death in what appeared to be a few days at the most--how could she have gotten pregnant THAT quickly?!) and could have actually been worth seeing had it been handled in a less ham-fisted manner. Passive-parenting and hypocrisy are worth exploring...just not in this silly film!
If you enjoy this sort of fare, it's available as an extra with the film "Street of Forgotten Women"...both by the same director.
When the story begins, Sally is apparently a very normal girl. Her first foray into sin that you see is her reading a romance novel with a friend. It must have been some romance novel as afterwards they are so stoked for evil that the drink up Sally's parent's liquor! Soon, they are hanging out with men who only want one thing....though the film never exactly says what. Folks from that time would have to connect the dots. You see her next hanging with out with riff raff and playing strip poker and she is soon arrested in this den of iniquity. But her mother does nothing to reign her in and soon you find out she is pregnant....but how, exactly, is anyone's guess as all we know she did was smooch a bit and play strip poker....and she still had half her clothes still on her when she was arrested. The boyfriend, naturally, doesn't really care about her and arranges for an abortion...though like other films about it, they never say exactly WHAT is going to happen with the pregnancy. She gets a septic infection from the procedure and eventually dies...but not before her own father turns up as a customer in the brothel where she is now dying...and he, apparently, is her next trick!!! The Bible verse about 'the wages of sin IS DEATH' (Romans 6:23) appears on the screen and the film ends.
Subtlety, this film lacks...that's for sure. If the message had been presented in a more realistic and rational fashion, it would have made for a much better film...and probably would have earned a lot less money!! Compared to most other exploitation pics, it's quite good and is very entertaining. Unfortunately, its message is rather bizarre (mostly because she went from romance novels to death in what appeared to be a few days at the most--how could she have gotten pregnant THAT quickly?!) and could have actually been worth seeing had it been handled in a less ham-fisted manner. Passive-parenting and hypocrisy are worth exploring...just not in this silly film!
If you enjoy this sort of fare, it's available as an extra with the film "Street of Forgotten Women"...both by the same director.
Cheap And Easy Movie About Girls Who Are Likewise
boblipton15 January 2024
Helen Foster is a nice young woman, and her mother trusts her when she wants to go to unsupervised parties. Alas! It's a hop, a skip and a jump from necking in a canoe to an affair with Grant Withers. When she's caught in a police raid on a strip poker game, her mother is outraged.... at the police. She determines to supervise her daughter better, but the girl discovers she's in trouble and goes to Withers, who refuses to marry her. He suggests a doctor. In return for that, she agrees to go to a party his boss is throwing, with tragic results.
I saw the Alpha Video version of the old Thunderbird print: 41 minutes instead of the listed 60, and what's left is a doleful litany of what the title promises; Miss Foster is reputed to have gone through a bottle of whiskey a day during the filming of the strip poker scene. What remains is clearly antecedent to both pre code movies, with its litany of lascivious behavior, but also the cheap exploitation films of the middle of the 1930s. It's an inartistic, unadorned story of what happens to bad girls, and any commercial success it had was due to its harshly moralistic story.... and the strip poker scene.
I saw the Alpha Video version of the old Thunderbird print: 41 minutes instead of the listed 60, and what's left is a doleful litany of what the title promises; Miss Foster is reputed to have gone through a bottle of whiskey a day during the filming of the strip poker scene. What remains is clearly antecedent to both pre code movies, with its litany of lascivious behavior, but also the cheap exploitation films of the middle of the 1930s. It's an inartistic, unadorned story of what happens to bad girls, and any commercial success it had was due to its harshly moralistic story.... and the strip poker scene.
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