{"id":5586,"date":"2008-05-22T11:08:09","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T18:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5586"},"modified":"2021-01-04T00:56:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T07:56:14","slug":"confessions-of-an-opium-eater-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5586","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/a><strong>&#8220;There is no poison in a green snake&#8217;s mouth as in a woman&#8217;s heart.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster-194x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-61477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster-194x300.png 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster-662x1024.png 662w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster-83x128.png 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster-175x270.png 175w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Poster.png 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn adventurer (Vincent Price) in 19th century San Francisco stumbles upon a female slavery ring run by a Chinese warlord, and tries to help a captive (June Kim) escape.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Escape<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Slavery<\/li>\n<li>Vincent Price Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis once-difficult-to-find exploitation flick by producer\/director Albert Zugsmith is beloved by nearly every mainstream critic, with Jonathan Rosenbaum of the <em>Chicago Reader<\/em> claiming it&#8217;s &#8220;not to be missed&#8221;, and Ed Gonzalez of <em>Slant Magazine<\/em> referring to it as a &#8220;beautiful and often bizarre little gem.&#8221; While I&#8217;m not quite sure it deserves such explicit praise, <em>Confessions<\/em> is certainly an unusual and atmospheric B-flick, one which merits a second look simply to understand what&#8217;s happening throughout its convoluted script. Based in-name-only &#8212; think AIP&#8217;s Poe &#8220;adaptations&#8221; &#8212; on Thomas De Quincey&#8217;s 1821 memoir, it follows the adventures of a mysterious mercenary (a descendant of De Quincey) who discovers a labyrinthine underworld of human slave trafficking in San Francisco&#8217;s Chinatown, and decides (we&#8217;re never sure why) to try to rescue a desperate young woman from her salacious fate. Meanwhile, he&#8217;s seduced by the allure of an opium den &#8212; he insists he &#8220;doesn&#8217;t like the pipe&#8221;, but continues puffing away anyway &#8212; which prompts the film&#8217;s most celebrated sequence: a truly surreal nightmare montage which segues into a slow-mo chase scene. <\/p>\n<p>Vincent Price&#8217;s unusual turn here as an &#8220;action hero&#8221; is less flamboyant than what fans are used to, but he&#8217;s perfectly suited for intoning the stilted lines in Robert Hill&#8217;s pulpy script (many of which sound like fortune cookie quips): <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Maybe you&#8217;re the one who should find out if you&#8217;re a side of beef or a side of man.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Man&#8217;s view of good and evil is like water boiling in a box: open the package to the east and we flow east; open the package to the west and we flow west.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The campiest sequence by far, however, is voiced by Linda Ho as the film&#8217;s wily femme fatale, Ruby Low: while seducing Price, she alludes to sex as &#8220;swimming in the forbidden waters&#8221;, and tries to convince him that they are meant to be with each other by insisting: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It is not many times in one life a man and a woman found [sic] the other half of themselves. When I see you for first time, I felt it &#8212; as if, long ago, we&#8230; whispered to the wind&#8230; together&#8230; and the moon&#8230; shone on us&#8230; and you&#8230; and me&#8230;&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Equally enjoyable is feisty Yvonne Moray (best known for her poorly acted role in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3782\"><em>The Terror of Tiny Town<\/em><\/a>) as an aging &#8220;Chinese midget&#8221; who has given up hope of finding happiness outside the confines of her dungeon, but remains remarkably cheerful nonetheless; the decades seem to have mellowed Moray, and turned her into a more confident performer. The best aspect of <em>Confessions<\/em>, however, is its overall atmospheric ambiance: we really believe we&#8217;ve been submerged into the bowels of a unique form of hell, and wonder how &#8212; or if &#8212; Price&#8217;s character will be able to escape. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vincent Price as Gilbert De Quincey<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price-1024x773.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"483\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-61479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price-1024x773.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price-768x580.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price-358x270.png 358w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Price.png 1241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Yvonne Moray as &#8220;the Chinese midget&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray-1024x729.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"456\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-61478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray-1024x729.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray-300x214.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray-128x91.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray-768x547.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray-379x270.png 379w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Moray.png 1319w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The infamous &#8220;opium trip&#8221; slo-mo sequence<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo-1024x773.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"483\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-61481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo-1024x773.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo-768x580.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo-358x270.png 358w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-SloMo.png 1241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Atmospheric sets and cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets-1024x756.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-61480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets-1024x756.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets-300x221.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets-128x94.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets-768x567.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets-366x270.png 366w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Confessions-Opium-Eater-Sets.png 1253w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for its cult-like status.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0055864\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=8300\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s4058opiu.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvguide.com\/movies\/confessions-of-an-opium-eater\/review\/111407\/\">TV Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There is no poison in a green snake&#8217;s mouth as in a woman&#8217;s heart.&#8221; Synopsis: An adventurer (Vincent Price) in 19th century San Francisco stumbles upon a female slavery ring run by a Chinese warlord, and tries to help a captive (June Kim) escape. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Escape Historical Drama Slavery Vincent Price Films Review: This once-difficult-to-find exploitation flick by producer\/director Albert Zugsmith is beloved by nearly every mainstream critic, with Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader claiming&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5586\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61483,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions\/61483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}