| Street Corner Directed by Albert Kelley ( U.S.A �1948) Street Corner is a sensational Roadshow movie that deals with the consequences of unrestrained adolescent passion, and unscrupulous backyard abortionists. Like most �educational� films, it begins with an ominous prologue. �This is an everyday story about everyday people� it informs us. �It is fiction, yet it is not fiction. Somewhere at this very moment it is being lived by real persons in real life. To those few who might fail to appreciate the subject matter treated here with the sincerity with which it is presented� remember! It could happen to someone you love. It could even happen to you�. Dr. Fenton is the narrator of this sordid tale. He�s the Marsh family physician, and has a particular interest in Clara and Arnold Marsh�s virginal daughter Lois. His interest borders on obsession. A number of times throughout the film, the elderly physician pressures Clara and Arnold to send Lois along to his sex education class. Perhaps I�m reading a little too deeply into this, but it seems like the dirty old doctor would like nothing more than to give Lois some advanced lessons. He�s always telling Arnold how gorgeous his daughter is, and longingly staring at photographs of the young lady. On the evening of her high school graduation party, Lois leaves for the dance with her friends Bob, Irene, and Hal. Lois and Bob have been going out for quite some time. After twisting the night away, Lois and Bob decide to drive down to the lake after telling Irene and Hal that they need some �fresh air�. And we all know what �fresh air� means, don�t we. Nevertheless, Dr. Fenton feels the need to elaborate. �They had danced there at the country club� he narrates grimly. �They had laughed, and flirted. They were giddy with emotion�. As Bob lays out a blanket by the water, Lois is having second thoughts. �Maybe we better get back. They�ll be wondering where we are� she tells her boyfriend with a hint of concern. �Let �em wonder� Bob replies as they embrace. We see Lois� outstretched hand symbolically crush the corsage that Bob gave her earlier in the evening as she loses her innocence. Being a Roadshow movie, it�s a safe bet that this moment of passion will ruin both their lives. After some post-coital confusion and nausea, the pair of crazy kids return to the dance. There�s an uncomfortable silence as the two couples drive to the local diner for hotdogs. And the last thing that Lois feels like at a time like this is another wiener. Kitty Mae is the worldly waitress who works at the diner. She�s something of an oracle of knowledge for the local kids. A few days later, Bob leaves for college, and Lois realises that something is horribly wrong in the following weeks. �Nothing has happened that should happen� she tells her main squeeze in an earth shattering letter. Bob decides to do the honourable thing. He races home to marry his knocked up girl, but unfortunately he wraps his sports car around a pole in his haste. Lois hears the news on a tinny sounding radio in the diner while she�s waiting for Bob. This really makes things complicated. �Kitty...didja hear?� she asks the weary waitress. �It was Bob. Now I�m not gonna get married, or anything�. After mourning for a few days, the shattered mother to be returns to the diner for some worldly advice from Kitty Mae. Obviously the waitress has been having a bad day. �You little dames with your hot hearts and your chilled brains; you deserve what you get!� she snaps at one of her best customers. As Lois sobs, Kitty has a change of heart. She writes out the address of one of the more reputable disreputable backyard abortionists, and gives the teenager some money out of petty cash. Kitty knows the address by heart, so obviously she was once a little dame with a hot heart and a chilled brain herself once upon a time. So with some cold hard cash in her purse, Lois heads straight for the bad side of town. �Who sentcha?� a suspicious voice asks after she raps on a door on the wrong side of the tracks. �Kitty Mae� Lois answers sheepishly. The door opens. Apparently Kitty Mae racked up quite a few frequent flyer points at the place in her time. They know her on a first name basis. �You sure you want to go through with this?� the surly abortionist asks her once they�re inside. Lois nods. �You women from the other side of town are all the same� you come here when all else fails� the practitioner tells the worried girl. After the procedure, Lois isn�t in the best of shape. Dr. Fenton tells us the score. �Another human life has been destroyed by one of the most malignant practices of a civilized society� abortion�. After a mere hour�s rest, Lois Marsh is bundled onto the street, and collapses on a busy road. As she recovers in a bona fide medical centre, Fenton spends the remainder of Street Corner showing us some of his more cringe-worthy sex education reels. We see both natural and caesarian births. He also shows us cases of syphilis so advanced that you might just consider taking a vow of celibacy. Rarely have so many defective organs been seen outside of a musical instrument repair shop. Although many of the old Roadshow features are hilarious time capsules, the sex / hygiene films still retain their shock value to this day. They attracted eager audiences on the basis of titillation, then had the last laugh when they entirely turned unsuspecting patrons off sex for weeks. Many frugal exploiters also did a brisk trade selling sex / hygiene manuals to the now paranoic members of the audience during the intermission. The Roadshow features are possibly the most uncompromising cinema ever to grace the silver screen, and a solemn reminder of just how homogonised film has become in the new millennium. Entertainment : 3 out of 4 Watchability : 3 out of 4 Overall : 3 out of 4 Reviewed by Blake |