Title: Feind im blut
Authors: Ruttmann, Walter, 1887-1941,; Bienert, Gerhard, 1898-1986,
Publisher: Reichskino,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Pasteur, Louis,; Syphilis Complications.; Digestive organs Syphilis; Men Sexual behavior; Lymphatics Syphilis; Toxicology Animal models; Man-woman relationships Drama; Rabbits Biological control; Sex Germany Drama.; Syphilis Diagnosis.
Abstract: A dramatization of the impact of syphilis on the lives of four individuals living in Berlin in the 1920's. The film follows several men and women as they engage in casual sex, following their partners as the disease is passed from one individual to the next and finally to a pregnant mother and her newly born infant. Images of dwarfism and the mentally handicapped are included in order to lead the viewer to the conclusion that these maladies are the result of unprotected sex. This is followed by a number of images of syphilitic sores on the arms and backs of various patients. In a scene where a professor explains to his students how the infection moves from the lymph system in the mouth to the victims lips where it produces visible sores, a young student attending the lecture realizes that his girlfriend has the identical sores on her lips. After his professor takes a sample of his blood, he discovers that he has the disease. The film comes to a conclusion as we are shown the young man now cured, happily skiing with his girlfriend in the Bavarian Alps.