The public at large remembers the case of Dr. Harry J. Haiselden, the Chicago physician who refused to operate on a newly-born deformed infant in order to prolong its life. This case inspired the writing of "The Black Stork." During the development of the story the terrible consequences that are visited upon the offspring of the man or woman in whose blood the taint of syphilis exists are pictured with uncompromising realism. Numerous types of mental and physical defectives are exhibited, and the entire picture takes the form of a clinic. In fact, about the only audience that the picture might be shown to would be a class of advanced medical students or those making a study of such conditions with a view to imparting such knowledge under proper conditions. The place to exploit it is not the moving picture theater. The revelation of such a subject is of vital importance to humanity, but only under proper conditions; these conditions are not to be found within the walls of a moving picture theater open to the general public. In other words, if "The Black Stork" be a fit subject for the public screen, then the books on the shelves of a doctor's library are fit subjects for places on the shelves of the juvenile department of a public library. I am convinced that an exhibitor who shows this picture with or without a preliminary examination will do himself and his community a distinct disservice, to put it mildly, and probably would commit an offense that by many of his patrons would be considered damnable. In saying this I would in no measure detract from the high and noble purposes that in all probability inspired Dr. Haiselden in his participation in the enterprise. As a propaganda picture, for exhibition before members of eugenic societies, it would reach its limit of usefulness. The story shows the source of the taint to have been in a slave woman, which, of course, means that the contamination is of a double character. The inclusion of the color question will give Southern exhibitors pause on this one angle alone. In the subject appear many deformed children, brought forward to exemplify the evil effects flowing from uneugenic marriages. The lot in life of their prototypes in every community can hardly be a happy one. What will be the position of one of these in a neighborhood following the showing of "The Black Stork," especially among his playmates? What of the parents? I submit this to the consideration of exhibitors who may give a second thought to the showing of "The Black Stork." – The Moving Picture World, February 24, 1917
Review of The Black Stork
