Street Corner – DVD

Lois Marsh and Bob Mason are two naive teenagers in the throes of puppy love. With Bob about to leave for college, they decide to throw caution to the wind. Lois is subsequently shocked to find herself pregnant. Seeing marriage as their only option, the two teenagers decide to wed. But their hopes are dashed when Bob is killed in a car accident. Fearing her parents will condemn a child born out of wedlock, Lois is forced to visit an abortion clinic. But will she be able to live with the shame of what she's done?

Street Corner's morality tale ends with a lurid (for 1948) sex education segment, depicting childbirth and the effects of venereal disease. This portion of the film is hosted by a medical doctor played by the suitably authoritative Joseph Crehan. Crehan had the distinction of portraying President Ulysses S. Grant in nine films, including Union Pacific (1939) and They Died With Their Boots On (1941). Star Marcia Mae Jones started as a child actress, appearing alongside Barbara Stanwyck in Night Nurse and Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper in The Champ (both 1931). As a teenager, Monogram signed her to co-star in a short-lived series of rural teenage romances with fellow former child star Jackie Moran, including Barefoot Boy (1938) and The Old Swimmin' Hole (1940). Youthful Johnny Duncan would become one of the first actors to portray Robin, the Boy Wonder the year after Street Corner was made, in the Columbia serial Batman and Robin (1949). One of the most recognizable voices of the Golden Age of Radio, Wendell Niles, appears briefly playing to type as a radio announcer.

BONUS: EASY TO GET (BW, 1943): An African-American sailor catches syphilis after a vigorous night of jive dancing in this WWII-era VD prevention film.

CONTAINS GRAPHIC SEXUAL IMAGERY

• exploitation