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 Alcohol/Alcoholism in the movies
- Drugs in the Movies
- Opium Smoking in the Movies
- Alcohol/Alcoholism and Drugs in the Movies
- Alcohol in the Movies
- The Alcohol Years (2005)
- A film by Carol Morley. A poetic retrieval of the years filmmaker Carol Morley spent in Manchester, where in the early 1980s, her life was lost in an alcoholic blur. In Morley's search for her lost self, conflicting memories and viewpoints weave in and out, revealing a portrait of the city, its pop culture, and the people who lived it. 79 min. DVD 4127
- Barfly (1987)
- Directed by Barbet Schroeder. Cast: Faye Dunaway, Mickey Rourke, Alice Krige, J. C. Quinn, Frank Stallone. Quasi-autobiography of writer-alcoholic Charles Bukowski and life on the skids in L.A.'s bars and flophouses and his choice between that booze-ridden existence or a new life as a poet. 99 min. DVD 3367
 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Betty (France, 1991)
- Directed by Claude Chabrol. Cast: Marie Trintignant, Stephane Audran, Jean-Francois Garreaud, Yves Lambrecht, Christiane Minazzoli, Pierre Vernier.
Betty Etamble, a promiscuous and alcoholic woman who has lost her family, ends an evening at a bar and meets Laure, an elegant retiree who lives in a luxury hotel. Laure takes the girl under her wing, and gradually details of her sinister story unfold and evolves into a lethal game of cat and mouse. 105 min. DVD 6597
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- A Chapter in her Life (1913)
- Directed by Lois Weber. Cast: Jane Mercer, Claude Gillingwater, Eva Thatcher, Frankie Raymond, Jacqueline Gadsdon. A little girl's guileless faith warms the heart of her wealthy but misanthropic grandfather and helps a young man to give up drinking. 84 min. Video/C 999:3624
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Charlie's Drunken Daze (aka Charlie's Night Out) (1915)
- Directed by Charlie Chaplin. Charlie and Ben Turpin are drunks about town, starting at a cafe and ending in a risque hotel room mix-up with a pretty girl. DVD 74
- Clean (Canada / France / UK, 2004)
- Directed by Olivier Assayas. Cast: Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Jeanne Balibar, Don McKellar, James Dennis, Martha Henry, James Johnston, Remi Martin, Laetitia Spigarelli, Tricky, Beatrice Dalle. Emily Wang, the wife of recently overdosed and dead washed-up North American rock star, Lee Hauser, is arrested for possession and spends 6 months in prison. Custody of her son is given to her parents-in-law. When she gets out, she returns to Paris to get herself clean so that she can get her son back. 111 min. DVD 6095
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Clean and Sober (1988)
- Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron. Cast: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, M. Emmet Walsh, Tate Donovan.
A young, hotshot real-estate broker has a drug abuse problem he refuses to acknowledge. When he gets in trouble with his company and the law, he decides to hide out in a detox program. What he doesn't count on is that the drug rehab program will force him to face himself, admit his addiction and come clean. 124 min. DVD 7111
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- The Country Girl (1954)
- Directed by George Seaton. Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden, Anthony Ross, Gene Reynolds, Jacqueline Fontaine, Eddie Ryder, Robert Kent, John W. Reynolds. Frank Elgin is an alcoholic actor and singer who gets a second chance at stardom. His long suffering wife, Georgie, and their marriage is put to the test. Frank is desperate to make a come back and Bernie Dodd is the hotshot Broadway director in need of a "name" star for his new stage production. Georgie is both weary of her husband's weaknesses and Dodd's motives. When Georgie appears to be dragging Frank down, Bernie tries to force her to leave. 104 min. DVD 5133
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- Days of Wine & Roses (1962)
- Directed by Blake Edwards. Cast: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman, Alan Hewitt, Tom Palmer. A domestic drama which reveals the corrosive effects of alcoholism on a hardened young advertising executive and his attractive young wife, both of whom drink heavily to compensate for their insecurity. 117 min. DVD 4677
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- Days of Wine & Roses (1958)
- Directed by John Frankenheimer. Cast: Piper Laurie, Cliff Robertson, Charles Bickford. Originally broadcast by CBS on the Playhouse 90 television series on Oct. 2, 1958; rebroadcast on PBS during the 1980-81 season. This television production of the play by J.P. Miller uses flashbacks to tell the story of a young couple's fall to the lowest depths of alcoholic despair and the man's choice of sobriety over his still-alcoholic wife. 88 min. Video/C 9668
- Don't Come Knocking (2005)
- Directed by Wim Wenders. Cast: Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann, Sarah Polley, Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint.
Howard Spence, a washed-up Western movie star, uses alcohol, drugs, and young women to escape from the pain of his life. One day he suddenly flees the set of his latest Western on horseback and goes to visit his mother in Nevada. She tells him that he might have a grown son in Montana, where he once had a fling with a local waitress. Howard sets out to meet his son with an insurance agent from his abandoned film in pursuit. 111 min. DVD 9212
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- A Drunkard's Reformation. (1909)
- Directed by D.W. Griffith. "A drinking man arrives home, late and sozzled as usual. His wife reminds him that he promised to take their child to a play. The play proves to be a morality tale about the evils of drink; he sees the parallels in his own life and swears off the demon brew." [Internet Movie Database] 999:2775; VHS copy 2: 999:593
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- Drunks (1995)
- Directed by Peter Cohn. Cast: Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Spalding Gray, Amanda Plummer, Diane Wiest.
Story of a small group of recovering alcoholics who meet in a Times Square church basement for an AA meeting. Collectively they share their hopes, fears triumphs and frailties -- keeping their faith even as a dramatic upheaval threatens the life of a man they all admire. 88 min. DVD 7148
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- Factotum (2005)
- Directed by Bent Hamer. Cast: Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens, Didier Flamand, Adrienne Shelly, Tom Lyons, Karen Young.
This drama centers on Hank Chinaski, the fictional alter-ego of author Charles Bukowski, who wanders around Los Angeles, trying to live off jobs which don't interfere with his primary interest, which is writing. Based on the novel by Charles Bukowski. 94 min. DVD 6751
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
- Directed by Daniel Mann. Cast: Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Eddie Albert, Jo Van Fleet, Don Taylor, Ray Danton.
Biographical film that tells the story of Lillian Roth, who battled alcoholism as she worked her way to Broadway stardom. After her fall from fame to a booze-hazy existence on L.A.'s Skid Row, she fought her way back with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. 110 min. DVD 8930
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Intoxicating (2003)
- Directed by Mark David. Cast: Mark David, William Tabanou. The story of the downward spiral of a charismatic heart surgeon who abuses alcohol and drugs, trading stolen pharmaceuticals for cocaine. The film follows him through a maze of clubs and binges and surgeries, into the heart of drug abuse. 108 min. DVD 5392
- Karanja, The Suffering Alcoholic: Is There Hope?(Kenya, 1999)
- Director, Steve Kiura. A drama created in Kenya to encourage alcoholics to seek help. Karanja, a family man is caught in the trap of alcoholism. His colleague Frank, a recovering alcoholic, tries to help but Karanja ignores him. Soon he loses his job and family. At rock bottom, Karanja comes to the realization that he really needs help. At this point Frank convinces him that alcoholism is a sickness and that he is powerless by himself. Karanja joins the Alcoholics Anonymous support group, finds a new life and is reunited with his family. 67 min. Video/C 999:3793
- Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
- Directed by Mike Figgis. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands.
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter whom lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera. 112 min. DVD 5035
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- Long Day's Journey Into Night(1962)
- Directed by Sidney Lumet. Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards Jr., Sir Ralph Richardson, Dean Stockwell.
Based on Eugene O'Neill's 1956 autobiograpy, this film depicts a day in the life of a family deteriorating under drug addiction, alcoholism, and imminent death. 180 min. DVD 5035
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- Lost Weekend (1945)
- Directed by Billy Wilder. Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen. A would-be writer's dissatisfaction with his life leads him on a three-day binge. This film gives an uncompromising look at the devestating effects of alcoholism. 100 min. DVD 535; vhs 999:433
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- Sideways (2004)
- Directed by Alexander Payne. Cast: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virgina Madsen, Sandra Oh. Miles is a divorced man and a failed writer who teaches junior high school English. He decides to take his best friend, somewhat famous actor Jack, on a weeklong drive through California's wine country. There they explore their failures and question their relationships. 127 min. DVD 719
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- 16 years of Alcohol (UK, 2003)
- Directed by Richard Jobson. Cast: Kevin McKidd, Laura Fraser, Susan Lynch, Jim Carter, Ewen Bremner. An intelligent but angry man, who has had a rough upbringing and has spent years leading a street gang in Edinburgh, meets the love of his life and he is forever changed. 96 min. DVD 4698
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- The Struggle (1931)
- Directed by D. W. Griffith. Cast: Hal Skelly, Zita Johann, Evelyn Baldwin, Edna Hagan, Charlotte Wynters.
In this, D.W. Griffith's last film, he returns to minimalist production values to tell the story of Jimmie Wilson, a hard-working American everyman who falls victim to the debilitating affliction of alcoholism. 77 min. 999:3489
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- The Thin Man series
- Featuring the hard-drinking, urbane husband and wife detective team, Nick and Nora Charles. "The important thing is the rhythm," Nick explains to a bartender, cocktail shaker in hand. "You always have rhythm in your shaking. Now, a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time. A Bronx, to two-step time. But a dry martini you always shake to waltz time." Nick is joined a few moments later by his wife and his wire-haired terrier. The former inquires how much he's had to drink and is told he's on his sixth martini. As she downs her first, she flags down a waiter: "Will you bring me five more martinis and line them up right here?"
- The Thin Man(1934)
- DVD 4154
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- After the Thin Man (1936)
- DVD 4155
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- Another Thin Man(1939)
- DVD 4156
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- Shadow of the Thin Man(1941)
- DVD 4157
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- The Thin Man Goes Home(1944)
- DVD 4158
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- Song of the Thin Man(1947)
- DVD 4159
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- The Verdict (1982)
- Directed by Sidney Lumet. Cast: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O'Shea.
An alcoholic lawyer stumbles upon one last chance to redeem himself by taking on a controversial court case against seemingly insurmountable opposition. 129 min. DVD 5652
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- What Drink Did(1909)
- Director, D.W. Griffith; Cast: David Miles, Florence Lawrence. A man leaves his wife and two daughters for work in a carpentry shop. At work, he initially refuses a beer with lunch, then gives in. After work, two friends take a little while to convince him to go for a refreshing malt beverage, then to have another and another. Meanwhile, the family waits. He arrives home late and abusive. The next day, hung over, he takes much less convincing to have the drinks; he's gone so long that his wife sends a daughter looking for him. She eventually finds him, can't convince him to return home, goes home, sees her mother's distress, and returns to the bar. This time, her father gets more abusive, a fight ensues, a shot is fired, and tragedy strikes. vhs 999:593; vhs 999:2775
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- 28 Days (2000)
- Directed by Betty Thomas. Cast: Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Diane Ladd, Elizabeth Perkins, Steve Buscemi. A high-flying party girl gets herself a DUI and 28 days in rehab -- and ends up discovering that real happiness must come from within. 104 min. DVD 7112
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- Whisky Galore (Tight Little Island) (Ealing Studios, UK, 1949)
- Director, Alexander Mackendrick; Cast: Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, James Robertson Justice, Gordon Jackson.When a ship loaded with whisky is wrecked on a Scottish island, a battle of wits ensues between the canny Scots islanders and the local customs inspector. Non-US format DVD 3671; vhs 999:520
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- Drugs in the Movies
- Propaganda films(for anti-drug educational films, 1920-1970)
- Teens and Schools in the Movies
- The Acid House (UK, 1998)
- Directed by Paul McGuigan. Cast: Cast: Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd, Maurice Roeves, Martin Clunes, Jemma Redgrave, Stephen McCole, Michelle Gomez, Arlene Lockburn, Gary McCormack.
This surreal collection of short stories combines a vicious sense of humor with hard talking drama as it plunges the viewer into increasingly bizarre situations: hapless Boab has a chance encounter with a vengeful God; soft-centered Johnny is forced to contend with a psychotic neighbor and a wayward wife; and Coco takes an acid trip that literally takes him back to the womb. 15 min. DVD 862
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- Another Day in Paradise (1997)
- Directed by Larry Clark. Cast: James Woods, Melanie Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser, Natasha Gregson Wagner. In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up on a cross-country crime spree committing various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong leading to dissent, violence and murder. 101 min. DVD 5779
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- Assassin of Youth (1937)
- Directed by Elmer Clifton. Cast: Luana Walters, Arthur Gardner A high-school girl gets involved with a ring of teenage marijuana smokers, not realizing that she is being framed by greedy relatives out to prevent her from getting an inheritance, and starts down the road to ruin. A reporter poses as a soda jerk to infiltrate the gang of teen dope fiends and save the clean and wholesome youth of the town from the horrors of marijuana addiction. 73 min. DVD 8612
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- The Basketball Diaries (1995)
- Directed by Scott Kalvert. Cast: Faye Dunaway, Mickey Rourke, Alice Krige, J. C. Quinn, Frank Stallone. "Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an unhealthy appetite for heroin -- all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity." [Internet Movie Database] Based on the novel by Jim Carroll. 102 min. DVD 5979
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- Chappaqua (1966)
- Directed and written by Conrad Rooks. Cast: Jean Louis Barrault, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Swami Satchidananda, Ornette Coleman. Semi-autobiographical psycho-drama of a young, well-to-do alcoholic and junkie who enters the psychedelic world of the "Swiss sleeping cure", and experiences a life-affirming epiphany which leads him from his nightmare. 82 min. 999:2818
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- Clean and Sober (1988)
- Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron. Cast: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, M. Emmet Walsh, Tate Donovan.
A young, hotshot real-estate broker has a drug abuse problem he refuses to acknowledge. When he gets in trouble with his company and the law, he decides to hide out in a detox program. What he doesn't count on is that the drug rehab program will force him to face himself, admit his addiction and come clean. 124 min. DVD 7111
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Connection. (1961)
- Filmed version of a play with the same title by Jack Gelber. Based on the Living Theatre production created in 1961, as directed by Judith Malina and designed by Julian Beck. Credits: Writer, Jack Gelber; producers, Lewis Allen, Shirley Clarke; director/editor, Shirley Clarke; production designer, Richard Sylbert; art director, Albert Brenner; director of photography, Arthur J. Ornitz; introduction, J.J. Burden. Performers: Warren Finnerty, Carl Lee, the Freddie Redd Quartet. 105 min. Video/C 999:893
- The Corner (TV, HBO, 2000)
- Director, Charles S. Dutton.. Cast: T.K. Carter, Khandi Alexander, Sean Nelson, Clarke Peters, Glenn Plummer, Toy Connor, Tasha Smith.
Based on a true story, this TV mini series chronicles a year in the lives of 15-year-old DeAndre McCullough, his mother Fran and father Gary, along with their friends, enemies, and neighbors. Ever present in their world is illicit drugs-- heroin and cocaine-- the need that fuels the business, and the business that fuels the need. Based on the book "The corner: a year in the life of an inner-city neighborhood" by David Simon and Edward Burns. 360 min. DVD 5694
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- Dealer (Germany, 1999)
- Director, Thomas Arslan. Can is a small time drug dealer in a Turkish "guest worker" community in Berlin. He is not happy with his situation, constantly trying to reconcile the irreconcilable elements in his life: drugs, family, street violence and love. When his boss Hakan promises to make him a bar manager his hopes are raised but then Hakan is killed and Can is eventually arrested and condemned to four years in prison. PAL format. In German and Turkish. In German and Turkish. 80 min. 999:2997
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- Drugstore Cowboy(1989)
- Director, Gus Van Sant. Cast: Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Remar, James Le Gros, Heather Graham, William Burroughs, Max Perlich, Grace Zabriskie, Beah Richards.
A band of drug addicts, led by a husband and wife team, resort to robbing drugstores to stay high. They are successful in avoiding capture until their luck begins to run out, and the husband has to accept the fact that he must give up drugs to survive. 104 min. DVD 4975; vhs 999:1878
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- Easy Rider(1969)
- Director, Dennis Hopper. Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. " Two long-haired bikers from Los Angeles take off on a cross-country trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. On the way they meet several unusual characters. A rancher and his family, a hitchhiker and the hippie commune where he lives, hookers, red-necks, but most noticeably George Hansen played by Jack Nicholson. Mr. Nicholson gained national attention for his role as the "law'er with the ACLU". Dennis Hopper won "Best New Director" at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival." [Internet Movie Database] Features a particularly vivid and spooky acid-dropping sequence in a New Orleans cemetery, and lots of sundry dope smoking. DVD 4647; vhs 999:229
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Osgerby, Bill. "Sleazy riders: exploitation, "otherness," and transgression in the 1960s biker movie." Journal of Popular Film and Television Fall 2003 v31 i3 p98(11)
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 Roger Corman bibliography
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
- Directed by Terry Gilliam. Cast: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Craig Bierko, Ellen Barkin, Gary Busey.
Fueled by a suitcase full of pharmaceuticals, journalist Raoul Duke and his sidekick Dr. Gonzo set off on a fast and furious ride in Las Vegas through nonstop neon, surreal surroundings and a crew of crazy characters. 119 min. DVD 508
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- For His Son (1912)
- Directed by D.W. Griffith. Cast: harles Hill Mailes, Charles West, Blanche Sweet.
A father, anxious for his son's financial well being, develops a special soda pop called Dopokoke which is laced with cocaine. Dopokoke is advertised as relief "for that tired feeling." The drink is a success, but the son becomes addicted to it, much to his father's regret. Loosely based on the allegations that the Coca-Cola company and other soft drink manufacturers laced their soda with dope. 999:3392
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- Friday (1995)
- Directed by F. Gary Gray. Cast: Ice Cube; Chris Tucker; Nia Long; Tiny "Zeus" Lister, Jr.; Regina King; Anna Maria Horsford; Bernie Mac; John Witherspoon. "Craig and Smokey are two guys in Los Angeles hanging out on their porch on a Friday afternoon, smoking and drinking, looking for something to do. Encounters with neighbors and other friends over the course of the day and night, and their ensuing antics, make up the rest of the movie." [Internet Movie Database] 91 min. 999:2809
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- Groove (2000)
- Directed by Greg Harrison. Cast:MacKenzie Firgens, Lola Glaudini, Denny Kirkwood, Hamish Linklater, Rachel True.
Set in San Francisco in the subculture of the raves, the film's main characters include Leyla who recently arrived from New York, neo-hippy Harmony who is celebrating her birthday with her boyfriend Colin and Colin's nerdy brother David who would much rather read than rave. As the film charts David's first taste of chemically-induced Ecstasy and his budding romance with Leyla, who serves as his trip guide, the film also includes a small vignette of the tattoo and piercing set, including blissed-out drug dealers and their attempts at scamming on chicks, a skinhead looking for trouble, and a gay couple who can't figure out where the rave is. 86 min. DVD 409
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- I Love You Alice B. Toklas(1968)
- Directed by Hy Averback. Cast: Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, Joyce Van Patten.
One day you're a career 9-to-5er with a pending marriage, and then next you know, you chuck it all for beads, bell-bottoms and free love. This is the life of Harold Fine, a dedicated lawyer about to become a more dedicated dropout. "Films such as I Love You Alice B. Toklas! (1968) and Easy Rider (1969) can be used to demonstrate the changing attitude towards drug culture during the 1960's and 1970's. Marijuana was commuted, as were the laws surrounding its possession, from "killer weed" to "drop-out weed." As it became popular with middle-class white university students, its stigma was diminished greatly; so much so that it was decriminalised in eleven U.S. states. It is during this period that marijuana is portrayed openly in films as a peaceful and even enlightening natural substance.
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas is a charming comedy focusing on the mid-life crisis of the main character played by Peter Sellers. He meets a sweet flower child and is introduced to the hippie world of counterculture and pot. As Frank Thompson, in his article, "Movies on Drugs", writes, "marijuana is an entirely positive force in Toklas; everyone who uses it (even unwittingly Sellers' aging parents) emerges more thoughtful, aware, spontaneous - freer." I was hard-pressed to find films in any of the other historical periods that portray pot in such a benevolent light. Even Cheech and Chong are shown to be at best dull-witted and slow." [Klein, Philippa. "The Bad Influence
Representation of Marijuana in Hollywood Films." ] 94 min. DVD 5898
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- Intoxicating (2003)
- Directed by Mark David. Cast: Mark David, William Tabanou. The story of the downward spiral of a charismatic heart surgeon who abuses alcohol and drugs, trading stolen pharmaceuticals for cocaine. The film follows him through a maze of clubs and binges and surgeries, into the heart of drug abuse. 108 min. DVD 5392
- Jesus' Son (1999)
- Directed by Alison Maclean. Cast: Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton, Denis Leary, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Jack Black.
"A gentle and usually mellow young man, who sometimes knows things before they happen and gets vibes of premonition, tell us his story: how he met Michelle in Iowa in 1971, how he got the name Fuckhead, how she introduced him to heroin and their falling in love, his thieving, his hospital work and their time in Chicago when she gets pregnant, detox, going to Phoenix to live, AA meetings and a dance, working at a care center where he learns to touch the residents, and modifying his daily schedule so that he passes a neighboring Mennonite household at the right time to hear the wife sing Gospel songs in the shower. Slowly, very slowly, FH lets his gifts emerge." [Internet Movie Database] Adapted from a collection of short stories of the same name by Denis Johnson. 107 min. DVD 4977
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- Less than Zero (1955)
- Directed by Marek Kanievska. Cast: Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey, Jr.
Julian is a boy with looks, charm, intelligence and a father who sets him up in the record business; he also has a drug habit. His best friend Clay wants to help and is willing to do almost anything for his friend, but Julian is going downhill so fast that he might take his girlfriend and Clay with him. 98 min. DVD 4066
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Fenster, Mark. "Containment, excess, ambivalence: the adaptation of Less Than Zero." (Critical Essay). Velvet Light Trap (Fall 1991): p49(16). (12411 words)UC users only
- Lost Soul (1992)
- Directed by Pete Resto. Agustin Rodriguez, Robert Maisonett, Robert F. Amico, John Ortiz, Nelson Nazario.
Dramatization of drug use by hispanic teenager from the barrio of New York City. Despite support from a happy but poor family and attempts to intervene by his parents and siblings, he becomes increasingly addicted to drugs with tragic but realistic consequences. 37 min. Video/C 3934
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
- Directed by Otto Preminger. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak. An ex-convict recovering from heroin addiction returns to the Chicago slums and struggles to become a musician, but his former "business associates" have other ideas. Based on the novel by Nelson Algren. 119 min. DVD 4148
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- Prono, Luca. "Whatever Happened to Nelson Algren? Otto Preminger's Adaptation of The Man with the Golden Arm."
Links and Letters, vol. 6, pp. 61-72, 1999
- Sarris, Andrew. "Otto Preminger: shattering taboos, he pointed the way to rebel filmmaking." American Film 14.n8 (June 1989): 69(5).
- Simmons, Jerold. "Challenging the Production Code: The Man with the Golden Arm.(RETROSPECTIVES)(Critical Essay)." Journal of Popular Film and Television 33.1 (Spring 2005): 39(10). UC users only
- Maria Full of Grace (USA / Colombia, 2004)
- Directed by Joshua Marston. Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paolo Vega, Jhon Alex Toro, Guilied Lopez, Patricia Rae. Maria, a poor 17-year-old Colombian teenager, is desperate to leave a soul-crushing job. She accepts an offer to transport packets of heroin - which she swallows - to the United States. The ruthless world of drug trafficking proves to be more than she bargained for as she becomes ultimately entanged with both drug cartels and immigration officials. 101 min. DVD 3282
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- Filipcevic, V. "Maria Full of Grace." Cineaste v. 30 no. 1 (Winter 2004) p. 44-6 UC users only
- Jaafar, Ali. " Madonna of the Mules" Interview with J. Marston." Sight & Sound v. ns15 no. 4 (April 2005) p. 22-4
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- MacNab, G. "Maria Full of Grace." Sight & Sound v. ns15 no. 3 (March 2005) p. 62, 64 UC users only
- Steyn, Mark. "Morally detached.(Maria Full of Grace)(Movie Review)." Spectator 297.9216 (March 26, 2005): 57(2).
- Marihuana(1936)
- Director, Dwain Esper. Cast: Harley Wood, Paul Ellis, Juanita Fletcher. This film is in many ways the great encapsulator of the bulk of mid-1930s drug madness. In this film, a young girl with great prospects smokes marijuana when she goes to a beach party with her boyfriend and ultimately ends up pregnant, abandoned and pushing narcotics as a result!
Opium destruction, San Francisco: Another mass contact high induced by government agents who burn stash & hookah paraphernalia alike before an unfinished City Hall. 57 min. DVD 8612
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- The Marihuana Story (Spain / Argentina, 1951)
- Director, Leon Klimowsky. Cast: Pedro Lopez Lagier, Fanny Navarro ; Eduardo Cuitano, Golde Flami, Nathan Pinzon, Alberto de Mendoza. Pablo Urioste is a respected surgeon, but he is forced to experience a nightmarish world after his wife, a marijuana addict, dies at a nightclub. He tells his story to the police, and tells stories of how he is hooked, beaten, blackmailed, and includes some bad-trip flashbacks. Ms. Quiroga tries to help him, but there is little hope for Dr. Urioste after undergoing THE MARIHUANA STORY. 98 min. DVD 8614
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- Mystery of the Leaping Fish(1916)
- Directors, Christy Cabanne and John Emerson; writer, Tod Browning. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks. The great Douglas Fairbanks appears in this improbable drug-induced fantasy about Detective Coke Ennyday and his delightfully confusing attempts to break up a smuggling ring and a loveless marriage while "hopped"-up, literally, on a variety of drugs. 18 min. DVD 8614
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Watch this movie online (via Internet Moving Image Archive
- Naked Lunch
- Director/writer, David Cronenberg.Cast: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Monique Mercure, Nicholas Campbell, Michael Zelniker, Robert A. Silverman, Joseph Scorsiani, Roy Scheider. Part-time pest-control man and full-time drug addict Bill Lee seeks escape from his troubled existence in 1953 New York and flees to Interzone (a hallucinatory version of Tangiers) where reality and fantasy have merged. It's a strange, surreal landscape inhabited by mugwumps, half-alien, half-insect creatures, man-sized centipedes, carnivorous typewriters and bizarre humans. Compelled to make sense of this alien territory, he writes a book called "Naked lunch." Filled with spectacular special effects and stunning imagery. 115 min. DVD 3630; also VHS Video/C 999:1912
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
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- Narcotic (1933)
- Directed by Vival Sodar't. Narcotic is loosely based upon the life of William Davies, an opium-addicted snake oil salesman who was also producer Hildagarde Esper's uncle. This film follows his downward spiral as an idealistic medical student whose fall from grace leads him to opium dens, a carnival freakshow and swanky drug parties. The film illustrates themes that explicitly violated the Motion Picture Production Code. (On DVD with "Maniac.") 57 min. DVD 1258
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Narcotics: Pit of Despair (1967)
- Director, Mel Marshall. Considered by many to be the greatest of all anti-drug films, tells the story of a good boy gone bad. John, a clean-cut high school senior, is targeted by Pete, a low-life drug dealer, as his next victim. Inviting John to a party, Pete tells him to "blast off for Kicksville" by smoking a joint. John proceeds to do just that and is immediately turned into a marijuana addict, who shortly starts shooting up heroin. 27 min. DVD 8611
- Nowhere (1997)
- Director, Gregg Araki; Cast: James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Chiara Mastroianni, Debi Mazar.
"Nowhere" is the final chapter in Gregg Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy." It follows a day in the life of Dark (James Duval), an 18-year-old living in the psychedelic, drug-addicted, sex crazed world that is life in Los Angeles. 82 min. 999:3276
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Movie Review Query Engine
Gregg Araki bibliography
- Opium (Germany, 1919)
- Director, Robert Reinert.Cast: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Eduard von Winterstein, Hanna Ralph. An early silent German film about a man's addictions to opium and sex which leads to tragic results. Veidt gives a remarkable portrayal in scenes that depicted debauches of sex and drugs, which caused a sensation when first exhibited in Berlin. 96 min. 999:3524
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Panic in Needle Park (1971)
- Director, Jerry Schatzberg; Cast: Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint, Richard Bright.
In Al Pacino's first major movie, he plays the part of a junkie on New York's West Side. Crime, prostitution and overdoses dominate the lowdown life of heroin addicts in New York City's "Needle Park." Presents a good look at a very grimy NYC before urban renewal. 109 min. DVD 2550
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Permanent Midnight (1998)
- Director, David Veloz. Cast: Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Hurley, Maria Bello, Owen Wilson, Cheryl Ladd, Peter Greene, Janeane Garofalo.
A dramatization of the true story of TV writer Jerry Stahl who makes a fortune writing drivel and sinks into unrepentant drug addiction. 88 min. DVD 9086
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Psych-out (1968)
- Directed by Roger Corman. Cast: Susan Strasberg, Dean Stockwell, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Adam Roarke, Max Julien, Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Seeds. Jenny, a 17-year old deaf runaway in search of her brother, stumbles upon and becomes involved with a group of hippies. They invite Jenny to their large home where she is given her first introduction to communal living. Special features (Side A): "Love and Haight" featurette ; original theatrical trailer. (Side B): Audio commentary, Roger Corman ; "Tune in, trip out" featurette; psychedelic film effects; psychedelic light box, American Cinematographer article; original theatrical trailer. 79 min. DVD 1838
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Roger Corman bibliography
- Pusher(Denmark, 2000)
- Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Cast: Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbaek, Slavko Labovic, Mads Mikkelsen.
Frank is a small-time pusher who sells heroin. When a deal goes wrong and Frank is busted by the police, he is released because of lack of evidence. Unfortunately, he now owes a very big debt to Milo, an ex-Yugoslav dealer, who has given him two days to collect the money that will save him from a bullet. 109 min. DVD 2468
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Reefer Madness (Formerly titled: "Tell your Children" and "The Burning Question")
- Cast: Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles, Dave O'Brien, Thelma White, Carleton Young, Warren McCollum, Pat Royale, Josef Forte.
When originally produced, this was a sincere exploration of the evils of marijuana. Over time, it has become classic camp. High school kids get hooked on marijuana, which leads to wild behavior, accidents and ultimately death and murder. DVD bonus features: Audio commentary by Mike Nelson of TV's "Mystery Science Theater 3000"; color design commentary by Legend Films; short film: "Grandpa's marijuana handbook" by Evan Keliher; Reefer Madness trailer. 67 min. DVD 7378; also on DVD 8613; vhs Video/C 4805
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Watch this movie online (via the Internet Moving Image Archive)
- Annas, George J. "Reefer Madness ? The Federal Response to California's Medical-Marijuana Law." Legal Issues in Medicine, Volume 337:435-439 August 7, 1997, Number 6
- Johnson, Gary. "The Golden Age of Exploitation." Images
- Klein, Philippa. "The Bad Influence
Representation of Marijuana in Hollywood Films."
- Peary, Danny. Cult movies : the classics, the sleepers, the weird, and the wonderful New York : Delacorte Press, 1981 (MAIN: PN1997.8 .P37)
- Requiem for a Dream(2000)
- Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans.
Harry and his best friend, Tyrone, are impoverished heroin addicts living in Coney Island, NY. Harry's girlfriend, Marion, is a fellow addict trying to distance herself from her wealthy father. Harry's mother, Sara, spends her days watching television and wants to lose weight to go on a game show. She visits a sleazy doctor who prescribes amphetamines and soon Sara has a drug habit of her own. 102 min. DVD 2924
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Movie Review Query Engine
- Rush(1991)
- Directed by Lili Fini Zanuck. Cast: Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sam Elliott, Max Perlich, Gregg Allman, Tony Frank, William Sadler.
Undercover narcotics officers Jim Raynor and Kristen Cates are partners who become lovers and addicts as they infiltrate the local drug scene in order to bring down a suspected drug lord. 120 999:2297
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Movie Review Query Engine
- Sullum, Jacob. "Narc adaptation. (the movie adaptation of Kim Wozencraft's novel, 'Rush' has not been able to include the criticism of the war against illegal drugs) (Movies) (Column)." Reason 23.n11 (April 1992): 44(2).
- A Scanner Darkly (2006)
- Directed by Richard Linklater. Cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane, Winona Ryder, Sean Allen, Mitch Baker, Cliff Haby, Steven Chester Prince, Natasha Valdez.
Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, L.A. undercover agents change their faces along with their identities. One officer's liberal ingestion of the drug "Substance D" causes him to develop a split personality, a notorious drug dealer. Along with his superior officers, the police set up an elaborate scheme to catch his drug dealer alter-ego and tear down his operation. Filmed using an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope, with animation over filmed sequences. Special features: Commentary by Keanu Reeves, writer/director Richard Linklater, producer Tommy Pallotta, author Jonathan Lethem and Philip K. Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett; One Summer in Austin: the story of filming 'A scanner darkly'; The 'Weight of the line: animation tales; theatrical trailer. Based on the novel by Philip K. Dick. 100 min. DVD 6760
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sherlock Holmes
- The Hound of the Baskervilles Directed by Sidney Lanfield, 1939. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, Wendy Barrie, Lionel Atwill. The first of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The final scene represents the only reference any of the 14 films made to Holmes' "seven-percent" cocaine habit as Rathbone asks Bruce to retrieve "the needle." The scene, criticized as too risque by 1939 audiences, caused the film's producers to make a conscious decision to omit any additional mention of Holmes' recreational drug use in future outings.
80 min. DVD 4321
- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Billy Wilder, 1970. Cast: Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely, Genevieve Page, Christopher Lee. "It's easy to see what Wilder loved about Holmes. Brilliant, irascible, witty, impatient, cultured and cynical, Holmes was a bundle of the same paradoxes as Wilder himself. Holmes' cocaine addiction, included as an aside in several Holmes stories, fascinated Wilder, as the very symbol of decadence. Here, Holmes' needle points to the curiosities and bizarre, even diabolical behavior which walks the streets of Victorian London, just as Wilder's Berlin of the 1920's had hosted its own happy perversions and fin-de-siecle revels." [Kevin Hagopian, Penn State University. Notes]125 min. DVD 1765
- Sid & Nancy (UK, 1986)
- Directed by Alex Cox. Cast: Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, David Hayman, Andrew Schofield, Debby Bishop. Portrays the love affair between the famous bad boy, Sid Vicious of the rock group Sex Pistols and his American groupie girlfiend, Nancy Spungen, from the initial euphoria of their romance to their tragic plunge into the vortex of drugs and self-delusion. 113 min. 999:2772
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Spun (2002)
- Director, Jonas Akerlund. Cast: Jason Schwartzman, John Leguizamo, Mena Suvari, Patrick Fugit, Peter Stormare, Alexis Arquette, Deborah Harry, Eric Roberts, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke.
When college drop-out, Ross, becomes the local crystal meth cook's personal driver in exchange for free drugs, he has no idea what he's in for as he bounces from one bizarre situation to the next and ends up slipping deeper and deeper into the amoral world of speed freaks. 101 min. DVD 9087
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Traffic.(2000)
- Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Cast: Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas, Luis Guzman, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Presents a mix of interrelated stories: a Mexican policeman finds himself and his partner caught in an often deadly web of corruption; a pair of DEA agents work undercover in a sordid and dangerous part of San Diego; a wealthy drug baron living in upscale, suburban America is arrested and learns how quickly his unknowing and pampered wife takes over his business; and the U.S. President's new drug czar must deal with his increasingly drug-addicted teenage daughter. 147 min. DVD 866
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Traffik(TV, 1989)
- Directed by Alastair Reid. Cast: Lindsay Duncan, Bill Paterson, Tilo Pruckner, Linda Bassett, Fritz Muller-Scherz, Jamal Shah, Talat Husain.
Crime drama following all aspects of the heroin trade from Pakistan to Western Europe. Tells four intertwined stories of people who's lives are related by their involvement in the drug trade. Docudrama filmed in Britain, Germany, and Pakistan. 360 min. Video/C 3166
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Trainspotting (UK, 1996)
- Directed by Danny Boyle. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kelly MacDonald. In this freeform Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life a group of disaffected Scottish youths turn to heroin to escape the banalities of modern-day existence. As they begin to suffer the consequences they realize there are no easy solutions to the inherent loneliness and pain of life. Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. 94 min. 999:2085
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Trip (1967)
- Directed by Roger Corman. Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Susan Strasberg and Salli Sachse. Paul, a TV-commercial producer in the midst of a divorce, is persuaded by a friend to enter into the world of his inner consciousness by way of an LSD trip. Special features (Side A): "Love and Haight" featurette ; original theatrical trailer. (Side B): Audio commentary, Roger Corman ; "Tune in, trip out" featurette ; psychedelic film effects ; psychedelic light box, American Cinematographer article ; original theatrical trailer. 79 min. DVD 1838
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Roger Corman bibliography
- 24 Hour Party People. (UK, 2002)
- Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Cast: Steve Coogan, Keith Allen, Rob Brydon, Enzo Gilenti, Ron Cook, Chris Coghill, Paddy Considine, Danny Cunningham, Dave Gorman, Sean Harris.
"Manchester 1976: Cambridge educated Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), Granada TV presenter, is at a Sex Pistols gig. Totally inspired by this pivotal moment in music history, he and his friends set up a record label, Factory Records, signing first Joy Division (who go on to become New Order) then James and the Happy Mondays, who all become seminal artists of their time. What ensues is a tale of music, sex, drugs, larger-than-life characters, and the birth of one of the most famous dance clubs in the world, The Hacienda - a mecca for clubbers as famous as the likes of Studio 54. Graphically depicting the music and dance heritage of Manchester from the late 70's to the early 90's, this comedy documents the vibrancy that made Mad-chester the place in the world that you would most like to be." [Internet Movie Database] 117 min. DVD 1794
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Valley of the Dolls. (1967)
- Directed by Mark Robson. Cast: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward.
Lured by dreams of fame and fortune, three ambitious young women enter the world of show business and discover how easy it is to sink into a celebrity nightmare of ego, alcohol and "pills" -- the beloved "dolls". Based on the novel of the same title by Jacqueline Susann. 123 min. 999:2819
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Wasted. (2001)
- Directed by Stephen Kay. Cast: Nick Stahl, Summer Phoenix, Aaron Paul.
Samantha is a straight A student with a dark secret. Owen is rebelling and is consumed with hard-core drugs. Chris wants to help his friends as they struggle to overcome their demons, but soon he finds himself spiraling downward on his own path of self distruction. 91 min. DVD 1812
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Weed of Death (aka. Death Weed) (193?)
- Cast: Yakima Canutt, Arthur Mackley. An otherwise inexplicable feature which tells the incredible story of silent-era cowboys killing each other while stoned on reefers. Any other explanations can hardly do justice to just how weird this film is. 16 min. DVD 8614; vhs Video/C 7818
Other films that involve drug trafficking and traffickers
- Belly (1998)
- Directed by Hype Williams. 95 min. 999:2812
- Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
- Directed by Martin Brest. 105 min. 999:3181
- Boyz 'n the Hood (1991)
- Directed by John Singleton. 112 min. DVD 182; VHS 999:744
- Brother (2000)
- Directed by Takeshi Kitano. 113 min. DVD 1084
- Chungking Express (Chung-ching sen lin) (Hong Kong, 1994)
- Directed by Wong Kar-Wai. 104 min. DVD 4167; vhs 999:1971
- Cleopatra Jones (1973)
- Directed by Jack Starrett. 89 min. 999:1820
- Clockers (1995)
- Directed by Spike Lee. 129 min. DVD 562; VHS 999:1636
- Coffy (1973)
- Directed by Jack Hill. 91 min. 999:1869
- Disco Godfather (1979)
- Directed by J. Robert Wagoner. 93 min. DVD 4589
- District B13 (Banlieue 13) (France, 2004)
- Directed by Pierre Morel. DVD 7651
- Everything's Gonna Be Great (Hersey cok guzel olacak)
- Director, Omer Vargi. PAL format DVD. 105 min. DVD 2188
- The French Connection (1969)
- Director: William Friedkin. 104 min. DVD 851; vhs 999:2307
- Funeral Parade of Roses. (Bara no soretsu) (1969)
- Director: Toshio Matsumoto. 107 min. DVD 3515
- Havoc (2005)
- Director: Barbara Kopple. 85 min. DVD 6731
- King Midas (2003)
- Directed by Brandon David. 83 min. DVD 1739
- Latin Kingz (2002)
- Directed by Daniel Zirilli. 88 min. DVD 1576
- New Jack City (1991)
- Directed by Mario Van Peebles. 101 min. 999:1165
- One False Move (1971)
- Directed by Carl Franklin. 109 min. DVD 2550
- Port of New York (1949)
- Directed by Laslo Benedek. 83 min. 999:3573
- Road Dogz (2001)
- Director, Alfredo Ramos. 96 min. DVD 1241
- Scarface (1983)
- Directed by Brian DePalma. 170 min. 999:2600
- Super Fly (1972)
- Directed by Gordon Parks, Jr. 93 min. DVD 4648; also vhs 999:1181
- Violent Cop (Sono otoko kyobo ni tsuki) (1989)
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Director, Takeshi Kitano. DVD 1082; vhs 999:3199
- Who'll Stop the Rain(1978)
- Director, Karel Reisz. DVD 2817
Opium Smoking
- Broken Blossoms or, The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
- Directed by D.W. Griffith. Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp. Adapted from the story: The Chink and the child. A peace-loving young Chinese man (played by white actor, Richard Richard Barthelmess) in a London slum (complete with the expectable opium dens) befriends a young girl brutally mistreated by her own father. 71 min. DVD 1543; DVD 42; vhs 999:57
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
- Directed by James Tinling. Cast: Warner Oland, Irene Hervey, Charles Locher, Russell Hicks, Keye Luke. Chan visits China, the country of his honorable ancestors, only to encounter a murder and an opium ring. 71 min. DVD 5746
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Chinaman's Chance (1933)
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Animated cartoon. Directed by Ub Iwerks. Flip the Frog and his trusty hound sidekick are on the trail of an escaped Fu-Manchu-like criminal named Chow Mein. The chase turns into a nightmare complete with crocodile pits and sundry opium-induced hallucinations. DVD 2355
- Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)
- Directed by Albert Zugsmith.
Cast: Vincent Price, Linda Ho, Richard Loo, King Vidor, Florence Vidor. Set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the Tong wars of the 1800s, women are sold as slaves by an evil drug lord named Ling Tang. DeQuincey is hired to find a woman who has escaped the slave trade and bring her back. As he hides out in Chinatown he discovers the wonders of the opium trade and the drug's hallucinogenic effects. "Filled with absurd dialogue, Asian stereotypes and A-typical Zugsmith exploitation touches, the film is a classic of the early 60's sleaze genre." 85 min. DVD 5141
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Flowers of Shanghai (Hai shang hua) (Taiwan, 1998)
- Director, Hou Hsiao-hsien. Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Michiko Hada, Lee Yu-ming, Carina Lau Ka-ling. Based on the 1894 novel by Han Ziyun this film is set in the elegant brothels of late nineteenth century Shanghai, a hermetic world with its own highly ritualized codes of behavior, where "flower girls," must win, and then hold, the affection of their wealthy callers. "Time does not so much pass as pass out; reflecting perhaps the film's unabashed opium smoking, a scene will fade unexpectedly into black, then reawaken, minutes or months later, in the same lacquered interior burnished by filtered light, or in a different one very much like it. The tableaux are like the frenzies of some gaudy insect trapped in amber." [Boston Phoenix] 113 min. DVD 1229; vhs 999:2537
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Footlight Parade(1933)
- Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Features infamous "Shanghai Lil" musical number involving opium dens, bars, and all manners of oriental fetish. 108 min. 999:713
- From Hell (USA / UK / Czech Republic, 2001)
- Directed by Albert and Allen Hughes. Cast: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Ian Richardson, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Flemyng. In 1888 London's Whitechapel slums, poor women like Mary Kelly and her friends walk the streets for a living. When the streetwalkers begin to be murdered one by one, it attracts the attention of Inspector Abberline, who takes a personal interest in the case, and Mary Kelly. Now he must use his opium-induced visions to stop the most notorious serial killer in history--Jack the Ripper--before Mary is killed. 121 min. DVD 5006
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Maniac (1934)
- Directed by Dwain Esper. Maniac offers a walking tour through the mind of a bona fide lunatic, distorted by fragmented scenes and ugly realities that mimic insanity's own warped perspective. This is actually a Depression-era rendition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat," injected with catfights, nudity, necrophilia, and the ingestion of one fresh eyeball. (On DVD with "Narcotic.") 52 min. DVD 1258
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
- Directed by Robert Altman. Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, William Devane, John Schuck, Corey Fischer, Bert Remsen, Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Michael Murphy, Tom Hill, Hugh Millais, Jace Van Der Veen, Linda Sorenson, Janet Wright, Jack Riley, Graeme Campbell, Don Francks. Julie Christie as a shrewd, opium-smoking whorehouse owner. 121 min. DVD 1275; vhs 999:419
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
- Director, John Emerson; writer, Tod Browning; with Douglas Fairbanks. A silent drama in which a cocaine-using "scientific detective," catches a gang of opium smugglers. 18 min. Video/C 7818
- Watch this movie online (via the Internet Moving Image Archive)
- Narcotic(1933)
- Directed by Dwain Esper and Vival Sodar't. Narcotic is loosely based upon the life of William Davies, an opium-addicted snake oil salesman who was also producer Hildagarde Esper's uncle. This film follows his downward spiral as an idealistic medical student whose fall from grace leads him to opium dens, a carnival freakshow and swanky drug parties. The film illustrates themes that explicitly violated the Motion Picture Production Code. 52 min. DVD 1258
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Opium (1919)
- Director, Robert Reinert. "A contemporary of the German Expressionist classics "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "M," "Opium" delivers a cautionary tale about addiction and sexual licentiousness. [Internet Movie Database] 96 min. 999:3524
- Oriental Evil (1950)
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A rare low-budget mystery set in Japan with stereotypical images of orientals but with good performances. Roger, a Brit living in Japan hooks up with a Cheryl, a woman who has arrived in the country to try to prove that her dead brother's import company was not mixed up in opium smuggling. Cheryl must track down the shadowy "Thomas Putnam" who holds the key to the mystery. Roger gradually wins Cheryl's confidence while keeping his unscrupulous business practices hidden but his world starts to fall apart as the Japanese god of fate inexorably catches up with him in a bloody climax. 67 min. 999:2761
- The Quiet American(USA / Germany / Australia, 1996)
- Directed by Phillip Noyce. Cast: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Tzi Ma, Robert Stanton, Holmes Osborne, Pham Thi Mai Hoa, Quang Hai, Rade Sherbedgia.
A story that led to the events of the United States military involvement in Vietnam. Here, a love triangle between a British journalist(Michael Caine) named Thomas Fowler, his mistress, and a mysterious CIA operative evolves into a much greater mystery that eventually leads to murder and deception. "The film's real feat may be in its production design, in the sumptuousness and veracity with which it re-creates central Saigon and the Vietnamese countryside of the '50s: an exotic lost world of brothels and opium dens, trishaws and ao-dai dresses, Ming-deco interiors and water buffalos in rice paddies." [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 min. DVD 1795
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sinister Menace(1930)
- Director, Dwain Esper. An early "shockumentary," shot in Egypt, which shows the interiors of drug dens and documents the habits of opium addicts. 10 min. Video/C 7818
- Temptress Moon (Feng yue) (China / Hong Kong, 1996)
- Directed by Chen Kaige. Cast: Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, Kevin Lin, He Saifei, David Wu. This is a captivating story of a beautiful young woman, her seductive lover and their struggle for power, passion and revenge. Highly provocative and filled with sensual imagery, it was banned in the director's own country. 127 min. DVD 2044
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Tong Man (Silent, 1919)
-
Director, William Worthington. Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Helen Jerome Eddy, Mare Robbins,Toyo Fujita, Jack Abbe. "Hatchet man" Hayakawa is in love with a merchant's daughter. He is ordered to kill the merchant but instead does his best to save him in this story about opium and the Chinese Mafia. 58 min. DVD 1376; vhs 999:1182
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
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