Seitenstraße der Prostitution

Venereal disease threatens to tear a young couple apart.

For the past year or so, brothers Jim and Steve Peters, both ordained ministers, have been traveling around the nation on a mission from God. Convinced that rock and roll is "one of the largest satanic forces in the country," they have been exhorting American kids to build bonfires of albums in public places.

This American Medical Association (AMA) and U.S. Public Health Service (PHS)-sponsored film aims to present the most current knowledge about causes, effects, and treatment of syphilis. Remarks by the heads of the AMA and PHS open the film, and doctors are shown lecturing and describing symptoms and indications of primary and secondary syphilis. Clinical techniques for examining patients and testing for syphilis are shown. Recommended treatments including arsenic, bismuth, and mercury for various manifestations and duration of disease are presented.

Diagnosis of gonorrhea should be done by clinical and laboratory investigation. The physician and patients are shown in the physician's office and examining room. The patients remove their clothing, and the physician takes samples from the end of the penis and makes thin smear slides from them. The techniques for stripping gonococci from male and female patients with chronic gonorrhea are shown in drawings and live footage. The physician is shown getting and preparing a urine sample for laboratory testing for the presence of gonococci, including using a hand-cranked centrifuge. The material is packaged to be sent away for laboratory diagnosis by gram stain and culture.

A young beauty queen travels to New York to further her modelling career, but contracts syphilis after being tricked into a sexual encounter. She is torn between the prospect of a slow, intensive but proven therapy and a supposed miracle cure.

A wife and her husband have both contracted syphilis and don't know how to tell each other.

The Price He Paid

A short animated War Office commissioned health education film, showing the fate of each of the 6 jungle soldiers.

A propagandistic melodrama recounting the dangers and horrors of venereal disease.

A dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners. The film is now considered to be a lost film.

A doctor who believes that only the immoral catch syphilis reconsiders his stance.

A painter with syphilis infects his brother's wife and the child born of their affair.

A groom-to-be contracts syphilis and wrestles with the consequences of his diagnosis.

Chicken farmer John Lloyd learns the importance of blood tests when he gives his pregnant wife a dose of the clap after a one-night fling with a lonely waitress.

Die Geisel der Menschheit

Supported by a simple story, this film is merely educative: gives advice against venereal diseases.

Childhood friends Mary Lee and Vera receive two different versions of the 'birds and the bees' from their mothers. Mary Lee gets the facts, while Vera gets a prudish fairytale version. Their lives separate after graduation, Mary Lee becomes a nurse who falls in proper love with a Doctor, whereas Vera follows her mother's advice and seeks to marry a rich man, but falls for the unlawful and syphilitic charms of a wealthy cad. Mary Lee and her Doctor rescue Vera and help her get proper care after a series of revelations showing actual patients of the loathsome disease. Finally, Mary Lee and her new husband volunteer to help our boys fighting the Huns in France.

Bob, John, and Edward--three young boys growing up in the same neighborhood--have vastly-different experiences with sex. Bob's father patiently explains "the birds and the bees" to him, and even takes him to a hospital to see the effects of venereal disease.

This educational film combines medical information and story to teach the viewers about the prevention and treatment of syphilis. The four episodes cover the stories of students looking to pick up prostitutes, a careless medical student, a wet nurse who has infected an infant, and a country girl afraid of seeking treatment.

Tuula, Mirri and Aino are roommates at a nurse college. At her hospital internship, Aino works with Dr. Eero who has had an affair with Viivi, the director of the nurses' dormitory. At the same time, Tuula is starting to get closer to Mirri's fiancé Ragnar who has begun to doubt Mirri's love and loyalty.