What Price Innocence

Production

Macks taking on multiple roles in the film (as lead actor, director and writer) was unusual in American filmmaking at the time, though it was not uncommon in low-budget, exploitation film production.

Release and Reception

In addition to producing and releasing this film, Columbia Pictures reissued the previously banned sex-hygiene film Damaged Lives. The film was also known by the title Shall We Tell Our Daughter?. In at least one theater, the Strand in Lewiston, Maine, it played on a double bill with the comedy Diplomaniacs. It was paired with Samarang when it played at the Edwards Theatre in Sarasota. It appeared on a double bill with The Masquerader in San Joses Liberty Theatre, along with a shorts program that featured Disneys The Pied Piper.

What Price Innocence? received mixed reviews. A critic for the New York Times wrote: "Judged on general entertainment standards, it is an embarrassing film. ... The film is presented with a certain blunt skill and it is produced with a certain sincerity. But it has none of the subtlety, indirection or dramatic power needed to make the theme palatable for the public screens." Other reviewers commended the film for its frank treatment of its subject, and for Willard Macks performance. The Baltimore Afro-American: "Whether you accept (Dr. Davidges) views of not, you will find the story an interesting and skillfully treated one." The Sarasota Herald-Tribune lauded the performances of Parker, Mack and Gombell in this "moving, human photodrama."

In Canada, What Price Innocence? was given a good review when it played in Montreal on a double bill with Saturdays Millions. The film was well reviewed in Australia, when it played at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. "Willard Macks impersonation as Dr. Dan Davidge," wrote the author of the Sydney Morning Herald review, "is the best thing in the play."