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Road to Ruin

Play trailer Poster for Road to Ruin 1934 1h 2m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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17% Tomatometer 12 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
A sweet-natured good girl, Ann Dixon (Helen Foster), plunges into depravity after she meets vampy Eve Monroe (Nell O'Day) and gains a taste for alcohol, marijuana and sex. Dixon is insatiable, but she quickly wants more than what her boyfriend, Tommy (Glen Boles), has to offer. She gets involved with a much older and more experienced Lothario, Ralph Bennett (Paul Page), who introduces her to an even darker world of venereal disease, teen pregnancy, prostitution and back-alley abortions.

Critics Reviews

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John L. Scott Los Angeles Times The picture becomes a preachment... against parents keeping their daughters in ignorance of life and its complications, and to accentuate the point, situations arise which might be better explained by the family physician than by the public screen. Apr 15, 2024 Full Review Andre Sennwald New York Times The deficiencies of Road to Ruin lie not so much in its amateurish composition as in its dull and unnecessary preoccupation with subject-matter which belongs in a sociological case history. Apr 15, 2024 Full Review Epes W. Sargent Variety The development of the early episodes is sketchy and fragmentary. Apr 15, 2024 Full Review Sarah Boslaugh TheArtsStl Both [versions] are pure melodramas and not particularly scandalous by today’s standards, but remain interesting as documents of their time. Rated: 4/10 Apr 16, 2024 Full Review Charles Vanda Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles) [It's] a picture designed to help those who believe babies are born in cabbage patches... An extremely capable cast tell this rather, outmoded story, and while they work energetically, they are quite handicapped by inferior photography and slow direction. Apr 15, 2024 Full Review James T. Hamada The Nippu Jiji (Honolulu) It Isn’t as powerful as the silent film, probably because the novelty has worn off, but still It’s powerful enough. Apr 15, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Road To Ruin is a very simple and admittedly cheesy film about a good girl going bad when she gets involved with the wrong kids at school, resulting in her eventual downfall. The acting isn't too bad, but the script itself is quite over the top and it makes the film turn into a hammy drama. Still, I like it for what it is. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member I don't know where RT got the year 1938, it was released in 1934 and on the credits the year is 1929. Good film, weakly acted but no one is awful or anything. Clearly a low budget film, but the focus is more on the characters and the story anyway, so that isn't that detrimental to the film. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Road to Ruin

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Cast & Crew

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Melville Shyer

Director

Helen Foster

Ann Dixon

Glen Boles

Tommy

Nell O'Day

Eve Monroe

Paul Page

Ralph Bennett
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Road to Ruin

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Movie Info

Synopsis A sweet-natured good girl, Ann Dixon (Helen Foster), plunges into depravity after she meets vampy Eve Monroe (Nell O'Day) and gains a taste for alcohol, marijuana and sex. Dixon is insatiable, but she quickly wants more than what her boyfriend, Tommy (Glen Boles), has to offer. She gets involved with a much older and more experienced Lothario, Ralph Bennett (Paul Page), who introduces her to an even darker world of venereal disease, teen pregnancy, prostitution and back-alley abortions.
Director
Melville Shyer
Production Co
Willis Kent Productions
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 30, 2016
Runtime
1h 2m