| Confessions of an Opium Eater | |
| Director: | Albert Zugsmith |
| Producer: | Albert Zugsmith |
| Screenplay: | Robert Hill (film writer) |
| Narrator: | Vincent Price |
| Starring: | Vincent Price Linda Ho Richard Loo Philip Ahn |
| Music: | Albert Glasser |
| Cinematography: | Joseph F. Biroc |
| Editing: | Robert S. Eisen Roy V. Livingston Edward Curtiss |
| Studio: | Photoplay |
| Distributor: | Allied Artists Pictures |
| Runtime: | 85 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Confessions of an Opium Eater also known as Souls for Sale and Evils of Chinatown[1] is a 1962 American crime film produced and directed by Albert Zugsmith. It is loosely based on the 1821 autobiographical novel Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, written by Thomas De Quincey. After circulating for years as a bootleg, it was released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection in 2012.[2]
This film stars Vincent Price as Gilbert de Quincey, a nineteenth-century adventurer who becomes involved in a tong war in San Francisco. 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]
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.
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.[4]