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The End of the Road (1919)
Sponsor: American Social Hygiene Association. Production Co.: War Dept. Commission on Training Camp Activities. Director: Edward H. Griffith. Writers: Katharine Bement Davis, Edward H. Griffith. Cast: Claire Adams, Richard Bennet. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print preserved by George Eastman Museum with support from the NFPF. Running Time: 69 minutes (silent, no music).
Wartime venereal disease prevention film intended primarily for female audiences. Sponsored by a public health organization devoted to eradicating syphilis, The End of the Road tells the parallel stories of two women, one of whom receives instruction in sexual hygiene from her mother, while the other does not.
Note: The End of the Road was originally produced for use by the military. Sometimes referred to as The Story of Life, the popular film was also put in theatrical release but withdrawn in 1919.
Resources
“Government to Teach Here Lesson of Life,” Atlanta Constitution, Mar. 22, 1919, 10; “Sex Film Used by Small as Bait to Women,” Chicago Tribune, Mar. 26, 1924, 6; Robert Eberwein, Sex Ed: Film, Video, and the Framework of Desire (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999), 10, 21, 31–34; Eric Schaefer, “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!”: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 27–36.