The People at No. 19

Reported cases of sexually transmitted disease took a sharp rise during and after WWII, as back on the home front people like Joan from number 19 were indulging in extra marital promiscuity ... An archive government warning film.

Intended as an appeal to young people, this Central Office of Information film from 1949 eschews detached medical logic for high-voltage melodrama. "It couldn't happen to me" Joan repeats in stunned disbelief on learning from her doctor that she has contracted syphilis, and the film drives home the message that marriage and motherhood is the right path to follow. Watch it and weep ...

This title is also available on the DVD/Blu-ray 'That Kind of Girl' in the BFI Flipside collection.