Confessions of an Opium Eater

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Confessions of an Opium Eater
Confessions of an Opium Eater.jpg
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 byAlbert Zugsmith
StarringVincent Price
Linda Ho
Richard Loo
Philip Ahn
Narrated by Vincent Price
Cinematography Joseph F. Biroc
Edited byRobert 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
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Confessions of an Opium Eater (also known as Souls for Sale, Secrets of a Soul and Evils of Chinatown [1] [2] ) 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.

Contents

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. [3]

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

Release

After circulating for years as a bootleg, it was released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection in 2012. [4]

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." [2]

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." [5]

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. [6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Confessions of an Opium Eater". American Film Institute Catalog. Retrieved January 23, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Confessions of an Opium Eater". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 30 (348): 145. January 1, 1963. ProQuest   1305832225.
  3. ↑ Nortz, Sean (May 27, 2014). "Could You Spare Me a Nightmare? The World of Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)". brightlighrsfilm.com. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Confessions of an Opium Eater (Aka Souls for Sale) | WBshop.com | Warner Bros". www.wbshop.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2012.
  5. ↑ Gonzalez, Ed (June 1, 2003). "Review: Confessions of an Opium Eater". Slant Magazine . Retrieved January 23, 2026.
  6. ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (June 25, 1998). "List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies". Chicago Reader . Archived from the original on April 13, 2020.
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