NOT Available on DVD: CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER

As a movie producer, Albert Zugsmith was a major player in Hollywood in the 40′s and 50′s working alongside his friend Howard Hughes for RKO, then moving to Universal where his credits included THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) and Orson Welle’s TOUCH OF EVIL (1958). His less stellar directorial efforts from later in his career were sheer exploitation madness with such gems as SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE (1960 – with Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld, and Vampira!), PRIVATE LIVES OF ADAM AND EVE (also 1960 with Van Doren, Weld, and June Wilkinson!) and FANNY HILL which he co-directed with Russ Meyer in Germany in 1964 (sensing a pattern here?). CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER (1962) was his most unusual and artful film as director, a tawdry mix of Asian stereotypes and sleaze that no one should mistake for great art -but one that makes for fascinating viewing. It’s a real oddity; meditative, eerie, and dreamlike with a great haunted central performance by Vincent Price, but it is a movie that is NOT available on DVD.

The story in CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER has little to do with the same-titled 18th-century autobiography by British author and intellectual Thomas De Quincey (1785-1849) which chronicled the effects his opium and alcohol addictions had on his life. De Quincey’s dark philosophical meditations influenced many tormented writers, most notably Edgar Allen Poe. The film version tells of a black-clad 19th-century adventurer named Gilbert De Quincey (Vincent Price) who’s involved in a San Francisco tong war while aiding runaway oriental slave girls with the help of a female Asian midget. It all takes place in a surreal realm of narrow sewers, sliding doors and secret passages that lead to opium dens and hidden rooms sporting bamboo cages inhabited by captive women. It’s a very, very strange and eccentric film for 1962.
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM opens on the foggy coast near San Francisco. The crew of a Chinese junket unload from a net their human cargo; kidnapped Asian women brought to America to be sold at a slave auction. A young girl named Lotus (June Kim) escapes and is almost caught again, but saved by a white horse that knocks one of the kidnappers off a cliff. Soon the rest of the girls appear to be rescued by another group, but they have equally nefarious plans. When De Quincey arrives in Chinatown, he quickly finds himself in the middle of a viscous Tong war between the two rival cabals. The cruel Ruby Low (Linda Ho) organizes the slave auctions but is at war with a more progressive Chinese clan whose leader has recently been murdered in a battle. Low is convinced De Quinecy is on her side because of his serpent tattoo, but his true alliances may only lie in his drug-addled mind. Like a turn of the century Travis Bickle, De Quinecy becomes obsessed with saving Lotus from a life of prostitution but his heroics may all be a pipe dream. The plot doesn’t make much sense, but that hardly matters as the parade of odd images and odder characters gives CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM a trippy momentum which transcends convention. John Carpenter was a fan of the film and his BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA presents a similar cockeyed view of Chinatown and he gave June Kim a small role in that film as homage.

Zugsmith directs CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER as if he wanted the film to physically resemble a drug experience, and its logic-challenged action, fortune-cookie dialog (“Man’s view of evil is like water boiling in box”), and odd pacing really are suggestive of an opium-induced trip. Despite the title there’s only one scene actually involving opium. It’s when De Quinecy takes some in order to get close to the women trafficking ring, and he has a particularly bugged-out hallucination scene climaxing in a silent, drowsy, slo-mo chase across rooftops. Zugsmith’s film illustrates the darkest elements of humanity where women are caged, starved, and doped-up like lab rats. De Quincey is a reluctant hero whose solution for dealing with the danger is to cloud his mind with drugs at every opportunity. Except for the beach prologue, Vincent Price is at center stage at all times and the film succeeds because of his performance. Price was often accused of overacting, but his frantic scenery-chewing was usually the correct style for the material he was in. He’s not as hammy in CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER as in other films, but he’s far from low-key either. Whether spouting bemused philosophy while being washed down a sewer or climbing the sides of walls and getting into fitsfights (this was definitely one of Price’s most athletic roles), he’s perfectly in tune with what Zugsmith seemed to be going for here and the film absolutely would not have worked with any other actor in the role. The pressbook for CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER had a classic ballyhoo bad idea:

“Oriental Slave Girls in Bamboo Cages – a sure stopper for Lobby or Store window!…If you cannot obtain bamboo, have your artist simulate the bamboo shoots on beaver board. If an Oriental girl is not available, have a white girl made up to look like one. She is to occupy the cage during peak show hours!”

CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER is a little-known classic, a genuinely singular and psychedelic affair that deserves major cult status and it’s not even available on DVD.

Vincent Price was born in St. Louis May 27th, 1911 so our city will be hosting Vincentennial, the Vincent Price 100th Birthday Celebration here this May to honor a favorite son and its most iconic movie star. Vincentennial consists of two exhibits, two stage productions, two publications, and a comprehensive 10-day long film festival presented by Cinema St. Louis to be kicked off by Roger Corman and capped with a presentation by Victoria Price, author of Vincent Price, a Daughter’s Biography. Visit www.vincentennial.com for details or visit the Vincentennial facebook page HERE, or always check here at We Are Movie geels.com for all the latest on Vincentennial. CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER is not one of the films that will be showing at the film fest (unfortunately), but is well worth tracking down.