Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Road to Ruin (1928)

This exploitation quickie, directed by Norton S. Parker, stars Helen Foster and Grant Withers, with Florence Turner, Charles Miller, Virginia Roye, Tom Carr and Don Rader.

As would happen time and again with exploitation films of the sound era, the film begins with the stern, finger-wagging ‘expert’ warning audiences of the dangers to youth that will be salaciously presented to them in the story that follows.

Sally (Helen Foster) is drawn through peer pressure into the wild, unbridled world of cigarette-smoking, alcohol-consuming teens with their flivver cars and hot ukeleles. Every parent’s greatest fears are confirmed as dissipatation and delinquent behavior are soon followed by dancing and wanton sex!

It’s worth noting that this film has higher production values than the exploitation films of the thirties, forties and fifties: better cinematography, better sets and better direction. Where newer explotation films might be too crudely produced to appeal to but a select audience, this film can be appreciated by all as a competent drama of the late silent era.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from archival 35mm print elements provided by Something Weird Video, the Sonney Amusement Enterprises Film Collection and UCLA Film and Television Archive. The surviving source material is impressively good when compared to the usual condition of orphaned films of this vintage. The slightly-worn source material renders a relatively sharp and well-defined image, with moderate but ever-present dust, speckling, schmutz, fine vertical scratches, scuffing, splices, light exposure fluctations, and other flaws. The quality of this edition is significantly better than the blurry presentations of the substandard discs noted below.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Andrew Earle Simpson.

Supplemental material includes the 1934 sound remake of the film; audio commentary for the 1934 film by Eric Schaefer, author of Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films; audio commentary for the 1928 film by film historian Anthony Slide; and a gallery of exploitation film trailers. The sound remake has been mastered from excellent 35mm materials and features (a not-as-blonde-as-before) Helen Foster reprising her 1928 role, Nell O’Day and Virginia True Boardman, and was codirected by the queen of celluloid crusades, Mrs. Wallace Reid.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good Thunderbird Films 16mm reduction print. The transfer or the print itself is dark, with some introductory titles nearly fading off into darkness — which may account for the new video-based intertitles to replace unreadable ones. Highlights are bright, nearly blasted to white and featureless.

The film is accompanied by a music score possibly performed on MIDI synthesizers from public-domain files (with an insert from a preexisting jazzy recording).

Reluctantly, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print (as is evident from the publisher-provided still frame).

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Not recommended for the high cost to low value ratio.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.