Confessions of an Opium Eater

Confessions of an Opium Eater
Film poster
Directed by	Albert Zugsmith
Written by	Seton I. Miller
Screenplay by	Robert Hill (film writer)
Based on	Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 1821 story in London Magazine by Thomas De Quincey
Produced by	Albert Zugsmith
Starring	Vincent Price Linda Ho Richard Loo Philip Ahn
Narrated by	Vincent Price
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Edited by	Robert S. Eisen Roy V. Livingston Edward Curtiss
Music by	Albert Glasser
Production company	Photoplay
Distributed by	Allied Artists Pictures
Release date	June 20, 1962 (1962-06-20) (United States)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Confessions of an Opium Eater (also known as Souls for Sale, Secrets of a Soul and Evils of Chinatown) is a 1962 American crime film directed and produced by Albert Zugsmith and starring Vincent Price as Gilbert de Quincey, a nineteenth-century adventurer who becomes involved in a tong war in San Francisco. It was written by Seton I. Miller and Robert Hill, loosely based on the 1821 autobiographical novel Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey.

Price also narrated the film, whose evocative cinematography resembles a nightmare. The film was something of a departure for Price; the prolific actor never performed another role that involved so much physical action.

Plot

In 1902, adventurer Gilbert De Quincey, a descendant of Thomas De Quincey, is hired by the editor of a Chinese newspaper to stop auctions of trafficked Chinese women to be the brides of Chinese men resident in the United States. The community is split down the middle between those feeling the traditional practice is the only way for overseas Chinese to obtain brides, and those who regard the practise as indecent.

Cast

• Vincent Price as Gilbert De Quincey
• Linda Ho as Ruby Low
• Richard Loo as George Wah
• June Kyoto Lu as Lotus (as June Kim)
• Philip Ahn as Ching Foon
• Yvonne Moray as midget girl with sing-sing voice
• Caroline Kido as Lo Tsen
• Terence De Marney as Englishman in opium den

Release

After circulating for years as a bootleg, it was released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection in 2012.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This crude piece of claptrap has to be seen to be believed: it is a hotchpotch of Chinatown melodrama (circa 1920 vintage) with rival tongs, starved girls captive in cages, secret panels, sliding doors, sewer escape routes, opium dens and nightmares, with the hero described as a descendant of the great De Quincey. Presentation is scrappy and disordered. Flowery, quasi-philosophic dialogue sprinkled with Chinese proverbs hardly helps an attempt at the bizarre, which emerges less successfully in the opium-nightmare sequence than in the semi-comic performance of a Chinese midget. On the credit side should be mentioned a few scenes distinguished by remarkable art direction, though it comes as something of a shock to find Lourié working on a film of this calibre. Not even Vincent Price is in his element, for he plays his impossible role straight and almost disinterestedly."

Slant Magazine wrote: "Robert Hill’s pulpy script makes Thomas De Quincey’s philosophical rumblings sound less lugubrious than they often are and certainly puts to shame anything posing as serious philosophical thought in the Matrix films. ... there’s plenty of talk in the film about sparring dualities, namely dreams versus nightmares and pessimism versus optimism. Every choice is a road not taken. And every reality may be little more than a product of a pipe dream, and not unlike this beautiful and often bizarre little gem."

In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100.

See also

• List of American films of 1962

External links

• Confessions of an Opium Eater at IMDb
• Confessions of an Opium Eater at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)