European legislatures began implementing laws on forced abduction of women for prostitution aimed at addressing a vast societal problem in the early 1900's. But there weren't any movie studios who wanted to touch the subject until two Danish companies produced films on the underground industry.
Nordisk Films in August 1910 released "The White Slave Trade." The movie was a result of the Denmark studio's owner, Ole Olsen, viewing the movie of his competitor, Fotorama Films, with the same title his studio would use in its own production. Olsen hired actor August Blom to study the movie and direct his own. Blom not only studied the film carefully, his "The White Slave" is practically a duplicate scene-by-scene copy of the Fotorama Film (Copyright laws then were practically nonexistant in Denmark).
Blom's 32-minute film dramatizes a family's angst when the daughter answers an ad in the newspaper, only to disappear. She ends up in London where she is forced into prostitution against her will. Blom uses a new technique to cinema a three-panel split screen shot to show the two operators of the prostitution ring talking between Denmark and England, and the woman abducted in the middle panel. Nordisk Films' primary market was outside of Denmark. The movie was wildly successful in Europe, showing the existing criminal enterprises in stark terms as well as being artistically entertaining. "The White Slave Trade" also was cinema's first in the study of prostitution as well as a primary example of the first vice movie to ever be shown on the screen.
American movie goers never got a chance to see "The White Slave Trade" since a stricter national censorship in film was forming. Nordisk Films, however, was so encouraged with the picture that it produced two sequels, "In The Hands of Impostors" and "The White Slave Trade lll." Nordisk Films Studio is the fourth oldest movie production company still in existence. The other three are France's Gaumont Film Company and Pathe, and Italy's Titanus.
Nordisk Films in August 1910 released "The White Slave Trade." The movie was a result of the Denmark studio's owner, Ole Olsen, viewing the movie of his competitor, Fotorama Films, with the same title his studio would use in its own production. Olsen hired actor August Blom to study the movie and direct his own. Blom not only studied the film carefully, his "The White Slave" is practically a duplicate scene-by-scene copy of the Fotorama Film (Copyright laws then were practically nonexistant in Denmark).
Blom's 32-minute film dramatizes a family's angst when the daughter answers an ad in the newspaper, only to disappear. She ends up in London where she is forced into prostitution against her will. Blom uses a new technique to cinema a three-panel split screen shot to show the two operators of the prostitution ring talking between Denmark and England, and the woman abducted in the middle panel. Nordisk Films' primary market was outside of Denmark. The movie was wildly successful in Europe, showing the existing criminal enterprises in stark terms as well as being artistically entertaining. "The White Slave Trade" also was cinema's first in the study of prostitution as well as a primary example of the first vice movie to ever be shown on the screen.
American movie goers never got a chance to see "The White Slave Trade" since a stricter national censorship in film was forming. Nordisk Films, however, was so encouraged with the picture that it produced two sequels, "In The Hands of Impostors" and "The White Slave Trade lll." Nordisk Films Studio is the fourth oldest movie production company still in existence. The other three are France's Gaumont Film Company and Pathe, and Italy's Titanus.