Actor James Kirkwood stars in director Edgar G. Ulmer’s film for the National Tuberculosis Association, “Goodbye, Mr. Germ” (1940). Utilizing both animation and live-action, Ulmer shows the viewer how tuberculosis is contracted and spreads throughout the body. Using the life of a young boy named Edgar as an example, Ulmer concludes his film by depicting the preventative measures taken so that Edgar’s own children can freely live a life without the disease.
(0:06) title cards over jaunty music and an illustrated image of a gravestone: “The National Tuberculosis Association presents / ‘Goodbye, Mr. Germ’ with James Kirkwood
(0: 24) opening credits: directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and produced at De Frenes Studios
(0:34) title card: “The Assistance Of Numerous Friends Is Gratefully Appreciated”
(0:40) a boy and a girl peer out a window while a parrot screeches, “Oh boy! What a night!”
(0:49) the boy and the girl ask their pipe-smoking father to take them to the movies, but he instead shows them a picture of the germ that causes tuberculosis
(2:01) a laboratory filled with animals: a cat, dog, parrot, rabbit, mouse, and monkey
(2:34) the father/scientist feeds the monkey a banana and the rabbit a carrot before putting on his lab coat, setting up his lab instruments, and closing the window blinds
(4:44) The scientist peers through his microscope and sees a cartoon version of the germ that causes tuberculosis. They speak to each other
(5:48) an elderly woman, Aunt Matilda, coughs before feeding baby Edgar food that she has first tasted
(6:10) close-up of the spoon with the cartoon tuberculosis man emerging from the food
(6:19) the tuberculosis man slides down into “Lungland,” a cartoon version of the baby Edgar’s lungs
(7:01) the tuberculosis man’s children march in a line before invading baby Edgar’s lungs
(7:31) Edgar’s immune system builds tubercles around the tuberculosis man and his children
(8:10) the scientist shows the tuberculosis man a picture of a “tubercle” in a book
(8:33) the tuberculosis people sleeping in their tubercles
(8:39) Edgar grows up, works, dates a girl, and puts a strain on his body, allowing the tuberculosis people to escape from their tubercles
(9:19) Edgar and his girlfriend share a sandwich at an outside picnic table
(9:32) the tuberculosis people break into an artery which causes Edgar to cough up blood
(9:53) Edgar drinks milk and rests at a sanatorium
(10:37) a worker at the sanatorium takes Edgar’s paper cup to the furnace building
(10:46) a scientist works on a tuberculosis culture
(11:52) a doctor performs a tuberculosis test on Edgar’s son
(12:37) the scientist points out a tubercle on an X-ray picture of a young girl’s chest
(13:33) the tuberculosis man faints from sadness
(13:57) the boy and girl sit on the scientist’s lap while their mother brings them cookies and a cool drink
(14:27) title card: “Christmas Seals Fight Tuberculosis” below an image of a double-cross
Edgar Georg Ulmer was an American film director who mainly worked on Hollywood B movies and other low-budget productions, eventually earning the epithet ‘The King of PRC’, i.e.: Poverty Row studios. His most famous movies include the horror movie “The Black Cat” (1934) and the film noir “Detour” (1945). In the same period that he made “Goodbye Mr. Germ”, Ullmer also produced “Let My People Live” (1939) and “Cloud in the Sky” (1940) – both shorts for the National Tuberculosis Association.
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