The doggondest movie I've seen in years. From the title, I was expecting an exploitation cheapo where titillation is concealed in a public service wrapper, Elmer Clifton style. But no. Whatever else the flick is, it's sincere in its anti-abortion and non-marital sex message. But, oh my, what titillation there is is the grotesque kind the Army used to scare recruits away from vd risks. It's sex as anti-titillation.
The narrative itself starts out as a routine teen drama of the time. Middle-class Marcia Mae Jones is the embodiment of girlish innocence. Unfortunately, she gets romantically careless one night with her boyfriend and one thing leads to another. In the censored fashion of the time, her intercourse is conveyed by a dropped flower and her missed period by subtle innuendo. Now, being respectably middle-class, she and boyfriend must marry, except her intended is suddenly killed in a road accident. So now, what is Jones to do. She can't tell her parents who are wrapped up in their own concerns. So what else can she do given her class background but get an abortion and keep outward respectability.
Now, the 1948 movie's rather daring to this point, but not wildly so. But then, out of the blue, we're suddenly exposed to a lecture using clinical footage of live vaginal birth, a C-section, and the grotesque effects of syphilis on both male and female sex organs. I had to pinch myself that such visual explicitness would occur in what appeared to be a conventional Hollywood-type production. But there it is in all icky up-close detail.
To me, the question is where could this package with its x-rated material be shown, especially in Production Code, 1948. My guess is that the x-rated footage could be edited out for commercial neighborhood showing and then re-inserted for instances of special viewing. Because of shrewd storyline construction, I think this could be done without harm to the story or its emphatic anti-abortion message. However that may be, the sudden transition from teen angst to vaginal and penile close-ups is jarring, to say the least.
The production itself is quite competent for a low-budget indie. Jones is sweetly sympathetic in the lead and makes me wish I were her age again. Then too, Crehan, the authoritative voice of proper behavior, manages not to be too off-putting. My only complaint is with the abortionist who's made to look like the ultimate evil in an obvious effort at visual manipulation.
All in all, it's a strange flick impossible for me to rate, and unlike any I've seen in many years of movie watching. I just wish IMDB had more info about it. Anyway, catch up with this genuine oddity if you can, but be prepared, as reviewer Hafer puts it, for a heavy "yuck" factor.
