{"id":12381,"date":"2017-08-23T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=12381"},"modified":"2017-08-24T09:24:39","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T13:24:39","slug":"edgar-ulmer-the-nta-and-the-power-of-sermonic-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2017\/08\/23\/edgar-ulmer-the-nta-and-the-power-of-sermonic-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Edgar Ulmer, The NTA, and the Power of Sermonic Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger\u00a0<\/em>Dr. Devin Orgeron, an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University, teaching courses in Film Theory, Film History Since 1940, The New American Director, International Film and Realism, Documentary, and The French New Wave. Today, Dr. Orgeron shares some insights on a group of recently digitized films in the Library’s collection highlighted in our Medical Movies on the Web<\/a> project.
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\"An<\/a>
Director Edward G. Ulmer, 1945
Courtesy Producers Releasing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the late 1930s through the early 1940s, low-budget filmmaker and perennial Hollywood underdog Edgar G. Ulmer (1904-1972) directed what appear to be eight educational health shorts for the National Tuberculosis Association (NTA). The National Library of Medicine holds and has added to its digital collections Let My People Live<\/a> (1938); Cloud in the Sky<\/a> (1939); They Do Come Back<\/a>, and Another to Conquer<\/a> (1941). Also in the NLM collection, but not digitized, is Ulmer\u2019s Goodbye Mr. Germ <\/em>(1940). The remaining three titles are Diagnostic Procedures <\/em>(1940) and a mysterious pair of undated, unconfirmed Fox Movietone films, Mantoux Text<\/em> and Life is Good<\/em>. These films admirably served the educational mission of the media-savvy NTA, but should not be viewed as mere promotional products. They are also the work of a director with a unique understanding of the role germs\u2014literal and metaphorical\u2014play in the American social fabric. This understanding is evidenced in the films Ulmer made outside of the NTA-sponsored films.<\/p>\n

For example, Ulmer\u2019s Detour<\/a> (not held at NLM, but available for viewing in the Internet Archive along with several other Ulmer titles) was made several years after the TB campaign. The cruel but pathetic femme fatale, Vera (Ann Savage), is dying of tuberculosis. While holed up in her cheap rented rooms, Vera starts coughing. Her hostage, Al (Tom Neal), says to her \u201cYou\u2019ve got a mean cough\u2026you oughta do something about it.\u201d Vera snaps back, with visible though wounded hostility, \u201cI\u2019ll be all right,\u201d to which Al replies, not skipping a beat, \u201c…s\u2019what Camille said\u2026\u201d and then, under his breath, an insult aimed at his captor: \u201cNobody you\u2019d know.\u201d\u00a0 Looking unusually concerned, even fragile, Vera asks, \u201cWasn\u2019t that the dame that died of consumption?\u201d<\/p>\n