This film is presented by Silents, Please! STL and will feature a special introduction from SPSTL’s Kate Stewart.

This month, Silents, Please! shows that exploitation is as old as cinema itself with a salacious sensationalism from the 1910s, featuring drug addiction drama THE DEVIL’S NEEDLE (1916), sex trafficking thriller THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (1910) and more!

The Devil’s Needle
Renee (silent era legend Norma Talmadge) is a French artist’s model who uses morphine as an escape from the dull reality of her life. She recommends it to a neurotic artist because “it kindles the fires of genius.” The artist quickly becomes addicted to the drug and the quality of his work begins to disintegrate. He takes on a new model, marries her, and starts her on the same path of moral degradation, until a guilt-ridden Renee decides to intervene in order to save them both. According to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, THE DEVIL’S NEEDLE was banned by the state of Ohio, but the censor board reversed its decision after recognizing the positive message beneath the film’s scandalous surface.

The White Slave Trade
In this licentious Danish film, the first multi-reeler ever produced in Denmark, Anna, a beautiful girl from a poor background, is offered a well-paid position as a lady’s companion in London, while Anna’s boyfriend, the skeptical Georg, suspects that the job offer is too good to be true. Anna dismisses him and reports to the London address, but this stately English home turns out to be a whorehouse that imports women from Denmark.