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Black Market Babies

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Black Market Babies
Directed byWilliam Beaudine
Written byGeorge Maurice
Virginia Reid (article)
George Wallace Sayre
Produced byJeffrey Bernerd
CinematographyHarry Neumann
Edited byWilliam Austin
Music byEdward J. Kay
Distributed byMonogram Pictures
Release date
  • December 15, 1945 (1945-12-15)
Running time
71 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Black Market Babies is a 1945 American crime drama film directed by William Beaudine and released by Monogram Pictures.[1] The film has been released on DVD.[2]

Plot

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A small-time hood teams up with an alcoholic obstetrician to set up a private maternity ward, where the expectant mothers' expenses are paid by the "donations" of "adoptive" parents. The racket goes wrong when one of the previously sold children is stillborn, which means the hood has to come up with a replacement baby.

Cast

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Production

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The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, which enforced the Hays Code at the time, did not allow films to show that pregnancy, if shown at all, resulted in any visual changes to a woman's body.[3] After reviewing the script for Black Market Babies, it cautioned that actresses were not to use any padding to simulate pregnancy.[3]

References

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  1. ^ American Film Institute entry for Black Market Babies.
  2. ^ Warner Bros. Entertainment film summary
  3. ^ a b Kirby, David A. (September 2017). "Regulating cinematic stories about reproduction: pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and movie censorship in the US, 1930–1958". British Journal for the History of Science. 50 (3). Cambridge University Press / British Society for the History of Science: 451, 458. doi:10.1017/S0007087417000814. ISSN 0007-0874. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
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