CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER
US, 1962, 85 minutes, Black and white.
Vincent Price, Linda Ho, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn, June Kim.
Directed by Albert Zugsmith.
Confessions of an Opium Eater (GB title: Evils of Chinatown) is an oddball, small B-budget feature which has gained something of a cult reputation after its release in the early '60s. It was produced and directed by Albert Zugsmith, usually a director of exploitation films with actors like Mamie van Doren, The Private Life of Adam and Eve.
This is an adaptation and updating of Thomas De Quincey's early 19th. century classic about drug-taking and hallucinations, Confessions of an Opium Eater. The screenplay is literate as well as B-budget action style, an unlikely combination. The unlikely combination is embodied in the main star, Vincent Price, who has to mouth some of De Quincey's lines as well as do a Poe-like rendition of the action and its interpretation. However, he has a Jack London-type sailor involved in all kinds of action and some stunt work in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1902. It doesn't quite work - though there is a certain fascination, because of Price, in watching it. The special effects are obviously special effects; there is an attempted hallucination sequence showing the effect of opium on the hero. The background is of white slavery in San Francisco, illegal immigrants, the power of the Tongs in San Francisco's Chinatown. The film is watchable - though always in danger of being laughable.
1. De Quincey's classic and the way that it has been updated to San Francisco 1902? The adaptation to the American scene? Vincent Price's delivery of De Quincey material as well as De Quincey-like statements on the action and their interpretation?
2. B-budget film-making, basic, obvious special effects, standardised use of genre techniques, black and white photography, San Francisco at the turn of the century? The musical score? The title and its focus on De Quincey, opium and China, drugs and hallucinations opium dens? The background of the Chinese at the time, sailors, white slavery, Chinese wives and auctions? In San Francisco?
3. The introduction and the explanation of the adaptation? The prologue with the junk and the cargo, the U.S. Coast Guard attacking? The lengthy battle on the cliff? Setting the tone?
4. Vincent Price as De Quincey, his background, in China, his arrival, the introduction to the enigmatic Chinese, to Ruby? His fascination with her? Clashes with her? The irony of her being Lin Tang? The finale with their going down the channel and his romantic and mysterious comment? His being a double agent? His concern about the women, his liberating the starving woman and the dwarf? His adventures - getting into the editor's office, overhearing the conversations, the chase in the underground canals? The fights with the Chinese? His going to the opium den and his hallucination? Insight into his character? The final confrontation and fight? His destiny? The strange blend of Vincent Price and his oratory with Vincent Price as the macho hero?
5. The situation of the Chinese women, on the boat, their being transferred, the battle on the beach, imprisoned, the auction, the husbands and their killing their wives? Imprisonment? The exploitation of Lin Tang? The irony of its being Ruby? Ruby and our first meeting her, her speeches with De Quincey, her beliefs and power, her relationship with George? The irony of the auction, her mask, in the channel?
6. George and the reformers in San Francisco, the papers, his feigned death, his reappearance?
7. The women, the dwarf and her comments, the battles, the bodyguards, the scene in the bath-house? A blend of action and comedy?
8. The overall impact of the film? Its being negligible in its time? A cult following?
