The Road to Ruin is a 1928 American silent black-and-white exploitation film directed by Norton S. Parker and starring Helen Foster.[2] Due to its popularity, a sound version of the film was released late in 1928. While the sound version of the film has no audible dialog, it featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film is about a teenage girl, Sally Canfield, whose life is led astray by sex, smoking, and drinking, and ruined by an abortion. The film was remade as a talkie in 1934.
| The Road to Ruin | |
|---|---|
 Lantern slide | |
| Directed by | Norton S. Parker |
| Written by | Willis Kent |
| Produced by | Willis Kent |
| Starring | Helen Foster |
| Cinematography | Henry Cronjager |
| Edited by | Edith Wakeling |
| Distributed by | True-Life Photoplays |
Release date |
|
Running time | 60 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
| Box office | $2,500,000[1] |
Cast
edit- Helen Foster as Sally Canfield
- Grant Withers as Don Hughes
- Florence Turner as Mrs. Canfield
- Charles Miller as Mr. Canfield
- Virginia Roye as Eve Terrell
- Thomas Carr as Jimmy Canfield
- Don Rader as Al
- Eddie Dunn as Strip Poker Player
- Joe Darensbourg as Musician in Barn Dance Scene (uncredited)
- Kallie Foutz as Extra (uncredited)
- Walter James as Headwaiter (uncredited)
Music
editThe sound version featured a theme song entitled “The Road to Ruin” by Lottie Wells and Maurice Wells.
Production
editThe Road to Ruin was made on a budget of either $15,000 or $25,000, making it one of the least expensive films made that year.[3] Director Norton S. Parker later told his wife that lead actress Helen Foster was much like her character in that she was relatively naive; during the filming of the strip poker scenes, Parker kept a bottle of hard alcohol to offer Foster "liquid courage". The film was shot by Henry Cronjager using a hand-cranked camera typical of the era, but at faster-than-normal crank speed; this helped fill up each reel and getting the final film to feature length, but had the effect of making all the action in the film move slower.[4]
References
edit- ^ Box Office Information for The Road to Ruin
- ^ Progressive Silent Film List: The Road to Ruin at silentera.com
- ^ "Star Gazing Along Movie Way". The Belleville News-Democrat. Vol. 73 No. 275, 16 November 1928, p. 7. Accessed 31 March 2022.
- ^ Brownlow, Kevin. Behind the Mask of Innocence: Sex, Violence, Prejudice, Crime: Films of Social Conscience in the Silent Era. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-118-74365-2
External links
edit
- The Road to Ruin at IMDb
- The Road to Ruin at the TCM Movie Database
- Synopsis at AllMovie
- The Road to Ruin is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
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