Confessions of an Opium Eater

Director: Albert Zugsmith
Year Released: 1962
Rating: 3.0

World traveler Gilbert de Quincey (Vincent Price) goes to San Francisco's Chinatown and finds himself caught up in a conflict between rival Chinese factions and, after sampling the title drug, tries to stop the auctioning of young female slaves for men who need wives.  For the longest time, this cult oddity was difficult to track down (for me, at least), but thankfully a viewable print is available: even though it is a very, very low budget effort (watch out for those dummies dropped onto the ground!) and doesn't have a whole lot to do with the infamous Thomas de Quincey 'autobiography,' the longer it goes on the more trippy and dream-like it gets - by the conclusion, neither Price nor the audience knows what to believe.  You get the works: zoom-ins on skeletons, a sassy Chinese little person, a swirling drug sequence, hatchet tossing, several uncomfortable dance numbers and captive ladies being sold for a couple of hens.