Review of Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962) by Trent R — 18 Aug 2009

Vincent Price references Thomas De Quincey near the beginning, but otherwise the title has nothing to do with the novel - unless the scriptwriter was making a statement of personal admission. This film is insanely exploitative, with all the cliches of `30s Yellow Peril cinema - and indeed some of the same cast in Richard Loo & Philip Ahn.

The Orientalist madness includes: gangs of Tong axemen; secret passages, aqueducts and tunnels beneath SF's Chinatown; an opium den; sex slaves in suspended bamboo cages; and an auction of decrepit old men trading opium bricks for the former. Of course, all of this is supposedly justified by a plot that features Price as a savvy student of Eastern philosophy - playing a sort of double-agent to take down the ne'er-do-wells.

He is eventually aided by Yvonne Moray, ex-Munchkin and member of the Lullaby League. In this, she plays an ex-wife/slave left to die in her cage who disturbingly at first feigns childhood while also coming on to Price.

In his subterranean exploits, Price reluctantly partakes of the dread poppy in a den of vice. This sends him into a bizarre hallucinatory dream sequence where his voiceover speculates, "Was this opium or was it reality? Was I dead? Or was I only beginning to live?" This is followed by a crazy slow-motion escape in which Price leaps through a closed window and is chased across rooftops in a drug-induced and overcranked stupor.

The cinematography from Joseph F. Biroc, (It's a Wonderful Life, The Twonky, China Gate, Superman) is terrific. Many scare and dream sequences are in slow motion and still frames, or reversed as near the very end. Albert Glasser's score is similarly appropriate to the weird spook house vibe, with many nice theremin vamps.

This is a crazily fun piece of high exploitation cinema, with many truly talented people behind and in front of the camera. Amazing that it was produced in 1962, trying to capitalize on drugspoitation in addition to the usual elements of Orientalism - all made acceptable by a mild tone of condemnation.