Bekenntnisse eines Opiumsüchtigen

Vincent Price is one of my favourite actors, always delivering no matter the material. Confessions of an Opium Eater is no exception, it is not his best film or performance by a long shot, but it is an interesting film and Price commands the film wonderfully in the way few people do. Confessions of an Opium Eater is a long way from flawless, some of the direction is uninspiring, the dialogue does have a tendency to ramble on too much and the dance numbers are very dreary. However, while the story is on the silly side, what does elevate it to a significant degree is the startling atmosphere that is evoked. When it comes to the film's highlights, they are most certainly the trippy dream sequence and the slow-motion escape scene. I did like the look of the film, slow-motion technique is not a favourite of mine but due to the subject it actually worked to give some realism. The costumes and scenery are quite nice too, as is the eerie score. Price is great, and the supporting performances are good(though few stand out as really, really impressive) especially from Linda Ho. So overall, it was an interesting and decent movie. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The only similarity this bears to Thomas De Quincy's "Confessions Of An English Opium Eater" is that both characters have the name Thomas De Quincy. The novel is an autobiography of the effects on opium on one man's life, while the film is a Vincent Price lead "Lady From Shanghai" like twisting film noir.

Price's De Quincy is a sailor, whose voice over is a Raymond Chandler meets De Quincy poetry, come to San Francisco after a long stay in "the orient", where he involves himself in the dubious world of human trafficking, particularly brides in China Town during the 1800's Tong Gang Wars. The film opens with a brutal scene involving screaming women thrown in a net like freshly caught tuna, and then a violent battle between two gangs on the beach as they try to deliver the kidnapped women to their fate.

Albert Zugsmith produced classics like "The Incredible Shrinking Man", "Written On The Wind", and "Touch Of Evil", along with directing many exploitation flicks, which this film veers into from time to time. The film is more in the Siejun Suzuki brand of wildly inventive, free wheeling pulpy expressionism, than Ed Wood kitschy ineptness. Despite the title the only scene involving opium is when Price takes some in order to get close to the women trafficking ring, and has a particularly impressive Lynchian circa Elephant-Man era hallucination scene (which is worth price of admission alone).

However the best scene comes when Price wakes up surrounded by guards and has to make a slow motion (cus he's high on opium) dash out of the den, and to the rooftops of china town. The scene is also completely silent, and truly marvelous in it's execution. I know slow motion action sequences where Greogiran chanting plays over sweat glistened A-listers shooting each other in mid air are common place now, but in Zugsmith's hands your reminded of excting an action sequence can be when it's done right. The plot is not particularly strong.

Why De Quincy is saving the girl, or what he is doing in China town at all, has many twists and turns, and leaves some gaps to be filled? But the direction, the suspense, and especially Price's performance make lines that would sound preposterous and almost Terrance Malick like in their stream of consciousness like "You wear as many masks as their are stars reflected in a gutter", sound as if he says them everyday. Such are the gifts of Price.

I was very pleased with this movie, that can be found easily on Youtube, though you might want to get a good copy to take in the fullness of Zugsmith's frames.There is a dreaminess and nightmarishness to all of the scenes, like opium was poured over a script to a lesser film, and this movie stumbled out of a smoke ridden room, rambling of dancing girls emerging from cages, crashes through windows, being swept to sea from sewer drains, and teetering on the edge of rooftops with vertigo at a snails pace, and feeling "the abbacus of fate has your number". Good times.

Confessions Of An Opium Eater (1962) DVD 7/10

An adventurer (Vincent Price) in 19th century San Francisco becomes involved with Tong wars, slave auctions of Chinese girls and opium dens.

This is one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen. Even more jaw dropping that it got made in 1962. It is exploitation madness at it's best. Price however brings his great talent and class to make this a cut above other strange films made in the 1960s. All the Asian roles are played by real Asians such as busy character actors like Richard Loo and Philip Ahn. Linda Ho plays an evil "Mata Hari" type. She is deliciously nasty and smolderingly sexy in this part, probably the best role she ever had in her short film career. When Price settles down with a pipe in an opium den, there is a incredible druggy fight sequence all done in slow motion, it has to be seen to be believed. Another highlight is a wisecracking female Chinese dwarf (Alicia Li) who provides some wickedly funny quips. It ends with an auction scene where girls are sold for opium. They do some suggestive dances which most have seemed scandalous at the time. Price fans and anyone interested in something weird should seek this out.

Seaman Vincent Price arrives in San Francisco from the Far East. He gets involved with Linda Ho, a picture bride who is to be auctioned off in the underground maze beneath Chinatown.

Nominally based on Thomas De Quincy's CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER, it seems a mildly incoherent, sloppily composed movie. On the other hand, there is the implication that this is all an opium dream, which would go a ways towards explaining the lack of sense. Given that the producer-director, Albert Zugsmith, was a hard-working man who had produced movies like Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL and directed SAPPHO DARLIng, I'll come down in the middle. I think he intended this to be an opium dream, but given the script by Robert Hill, the remnants of the Production Code, and his own less than stellar talents, it's not a great success. Still, it provides a chance to see a lot of Studio Era actors like ichard Loo, Phillip Ahn, and Victor Sen Yung.

OK, I've known I've wanted to see this for years, but had no idea how great it would be!!! Price is as ace as usual, but the scene is well and truly stolen by the little dwarf girl. Some more things that make the film great - The fact that all the Orientals talk in broken English, while Price fills every line with overblown emotion and literate philosophical asides, the record number of secret passages and lifts, the incredible opium trip/dream sequence (and the resulting slow-motion escape is even better)and the fact that the whole thing plays like a 30's adventure film mixed with a 60's drug film! Perfect.

Highly recommended, naturally.