# Earliest Movies About Drug Addiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829 "2020-04-01T20:09:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/1 "2020-04-01T20:09:35Z")
Or taboo in general… The earlier, the better, as they seem to handle the subject matter better, especially with quality writing, instead of being crass… Nothing after the 1970s. From any country. For some reason, they just seem to be better. Nothing silly, but something mature. I’m watching “Pale Flower” and loving it, and there’s a mention of a guy who is a “dope addict”… I do remember liking “The Man With The Golden Arm”, too. Not the exploitation stuff… ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/2 "2020-04-01T20:13:46Z")
Reefer Madness…quality writing there. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/3 "2020-04-01T20:15:55Z")
“The Lost Weekend” (about an alcohol addict) is a famous classic film. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/4 "2020-04-01T20:19:24Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1kUp1SLt45s/maxresdefault.jpg ""Bennies & Goofballs" Paul Newman Drugs Film, ca. 1961 (full)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kUp1SLt45s) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/5 "2020-04-01T20:23:36Z")
The IMDb says that the first movie that they have a keyword of “drug addiction” for is a 1911 Danish movie called _The Morphine Takers_. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/6 "2020-04-01T20:25:57Z")
Here’s the link for that movie: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246088/?ref\_=adv\_li\_tt](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246088/?ref_=adv_li_tt) ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/7 "2020-04-01T21:03:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The IMDb says that the first movie that they have a keyword of “drug addiction” for is a 1911 Danish movie called _The Morphine Takers_. After not seeing a single vote, and googling, I wonder if its available anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/8 "2020-04-01T21:04:09Z")
There’s a cocaine addict in Chaplin’s 1917 movie [Easy Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Street_(film)). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/9 "2020-04-01T21:21:08Z")
Kind of off to one side is _Bigger Than Life_ (1956) about the side-effects of cortisone treatment. > **[Bigger Than Life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigger_Than_Life)** > > Bigger Than Life is a 1956 American drama film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason, Barbara Rush, and Walter Matthau. Its plot follows an ailing school teacher and family man whose life spins out of control when he misuses cortisone. It is based on a 1955 article by medical writer Berton Roueché in The New Yorker, titled "Ten Feet Tall". In addition to starring in the film, Mason produced it. > Though it was a box-office flop upon its initial release, many modern critics hail it as... > **[Bigger Than Life (1956) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049010/)** > > Bigger Than Life: Directed by Nicholas Ray. With James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon. A seriously-ill schoolteacher becomes dependent on a "miracle" drug that begins to affect his sanity. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/10 "2020-04-01T23:04:44Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > There’s a cocaine addict in Chaplin’s 1917 movie [Easy Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Street_(film)). Chaplin also has the Little Fellow [snorting cocaine himself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ykdb8Zen-o) in _Modern Times_. _[Human Wreckage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Wreckage)_ may have been the first American feature where drug addiction was the central plot. It was written by and starred Dorothy Davenport, whose husband, Wallace Reid, died of an overdose. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/11 "2020-04-01T23:29:34Z")
MortSahlFan, I searched and found the following page from a book. It’s in German, so if anyone knows German well enough, would they please translate the reference to _The Morphine Takers_ to English? It seems to say that there is a copy of the movie in the Danish Film Institute: > **[Zocker, Drogenfreaks & Trunkenbolde](https://books.google.com/books?id=lOaYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Morfinisten%2B1911&source=bl&ots=hQUF06Fvre&sig=ACfU3U2J1AhRxCcBjtQUPL1-JqGghN-Lkw&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn7Lq_rMjoAhV8lnIEHQkxAaIQ6AEwBnoECAcQLg#v=onepage&q=Morfinisten%201911&f=false)** > > Legale und illegale Drogen spielen eine große Rolle in populären Spielfilmen, und das Suchtmotiv stellt seit über 100 Jahren ein beliebtes Thema des amerikanischen und europäischen Kinos dar: Substanzkonsum, Rausch, Ekstase und Sucht werden im... ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/12 "2020-04-02T00:21:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > MortSahlFan, I searched and found the following page from a book. It’s in German, so if anyone knows German well enough, would they please translate the reference to _The Morphine Takers_ to English? It seems to say that there is a copy of the movie in the Danish Film Institute: > > [Zocker, Drogenfreaks & Trunkenbolde: Rausch, Ekstase und Sucht in Film und Serie - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=lOaYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Morfinisten+1911&source=bl&ots=hQUF06Fvre&sig=ACfU3U2J1AhRxCcBjtQUPL1-JqGghN-Lkw&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn7Lq_rMjoAhV8lnIEHQkxAaIQ6AEwBnoECAcQLg#v=onepage&q=Morfinisten%201911&f=false) I don’t think it’s necessary to translate the whole paragraph, but the gist of it is this: the text is about early movies dealing with a drug theme (so exactly what this thread is about). After explaining how many early films got lost, it’s mentioned that some films have been preserved in institutes and can only be reviewed on site. “The Morphine Takers” (“Die Morfinisten”) is mentioned as one example that is kept at the Danish Film Institute (Dänisches Filminstitut). Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/13 "2020-04-02T11:52:31Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > MortSahlFan, I searched and found the following page from a book. It’s in German, so if anyone knows German well enough, would they please translate the reference to _The Morphine Takers_ to English? It seems to say that there is a copy of the movie in the Danish Film Institute: > > [Zocker, Drogenfreaks & Trunkenbolde: Rausch, Ekstase und Sucht in Film und Serie - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=lOaYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Morfinisten+1911&source=bl&ots=hQUF06Fvre&sig=ACfU3U2J1AhRxCcBjtQUPL1-JqGghN-Lkw&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn7Lq_rMjoAhV8lnIEHQkxAaIQ6AEwBnoECAcQLg#v=onepage&q=Morfinisten%201911&f=false) Google Translator is the only thing I can think of… I once found a documentary on Marcello Mastroianni, and did the translations of this almost 4 hour documentary! The only problem is that you can only translate a certain amount of characters, but it should be much easier than also having to indicate these time stamps. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/14 "2020-04-02T12:50:35Z")
If you make it “nothing after the 1970s except 1987” then you can include two of my favorite dissolute movies [Withnail & I](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094336/reference), which is set in 1969, and [Barfly](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092618/reference), which also starts in the 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/15 "2020-04-02T13:18:56Z")
MortSahlFan, it’s not necessary to translate anything more from that book page I linked to than what has already been posted. I was able to guess close enough to what it said, and EinsteinsHund’s translation was enough to let us know what it was in that book in its mention of _The Morphine Takers_. Does this satisfy what you needed to know in the OP? What we can now see is that drug use was mentioned very early in the history of film. It appeared in famous early movies like _Easy Street_ and _Modern Times_. Do you need some deep knowledge about the appearance of drug use in movies? Are you writing a book about it? Or was it just a casual question? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/16 "2020-04-02T13:40:40Z")
An early realistic look at heroin addiction was [The Man with the Golden Arm](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048347/) from 1955. The Code made it difficult to even mention drugs in movies and the producers had to fight to release this movie despite it’s totally negative portrayal of drugs. Heroin addiction wasn’t specifically mentioned, based on a book about a morphine addict, but the movie is considered to be representing heroin addiction instead. The movie is often credited as having the first complete jazz score, though I’ve never seen confirmation of that, but it is often considered the movie that cemented together jazz and noir. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/17 "2020-04-02T13:41:47Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > MortSahlFan, it’s not necessary to translate anything more from that book page I linked to than what has already been posted. I was able to guess close enough to what it said, and EinsteinsHund’s translation was enough to let us know what it was in that book in its mention of _The Morphine Takers_. Does this satisfy what you needed to know in the OP? What we can now see is that drug use was mentioned very early in the history of film. It appeared in famous early movies like _Easy Street_ and _Modern Times_. Do you need some deep knowledge about the appearance of drug use in movies? Are you writing a book about it? Or was it just a casual question? I’m not writing a book on it… I was inspired to ask this after seeing “The Pale Flower”. It was a great movie, and it dealt with the issue very well, unlike many other movies who just exploited. I wish I would have put “post-1933”, because it seems there are a TON before The Hays Code. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/18 "2020-04-02T20:35:05Z")
I assume you mean _Pale Flower_, filmed in 1964 in Japan and directed by Masahiro Shinoda. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/19 "2020-04-02T20:58:46Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > “The Lost Weekend” (about an alcohol addict) is a famous classic film. This is an excellent movie. There’s a movie from 1933, called _The Mystery of the Wax Museum_, which belongs to the “antics and adventures of newspaper reporters” genre-- being a newspaper reporter was a supposedly exciting, and romanticized profession until television. Anyway, the movie has a shocking twist that usually get it listed as a horror movie these days, especially since most people aren’t familiar with the “reporter” genre. I’m mentioning it, because it’s a pre-code movie that features a character who is a drug addict. They never mention which drug, but he’s clearly jonesing in several scenes, and the police want some information out of him, and pretend that they’ll get him “something” if he tells them what they want to know. Basically, they say they’ll “help” him, and imply without saying directly that they’ll get him a fix if he gives up the information they want. They also try to keep him from leaving, so he can’t go get anything on his own-- not that he seems to have means of doing so. He keeps trying to get a firm commitment from them that they’ll really “help” him by getting him what he needs, and he hedges by saying little bits of what they want, trying to get a promise from them. It’s very revealing psychological brutality, that probably really went on, and the movie is overall, a fast-talking, and sort of light fare, in spite of its horror twist. It’s not about police brutality, and the police are actually mostly good guys, so this probably happens because it’s something people would recognize. It may even be that it’s supposed to be funny, although it does not play that way now. The movie is probably predictable to someone watching it even for the first time now, but it must have stunned audiences with its originality in 1933. Personally, I saw it when I was only about 11, and didn’t know what it was about, except that there was something scary in it. It played as “original” to me, because it was the first time I saw most of the trops in it. I still think it’s a very good movie, and worth watching. I’ve seen it four or five times, and I always enjoy it. It is also a very early color film, that used a two-color process, which isn’t as flashy as early three-color films, which can look brighter than natural. I think the color is beautiful. So, it’s not really _about_ an addict or addiction, but you get to see how very early Hollywood handled the subject before the Hays’ code dictated to the letter how it HAD to be handled. And it’s just a good film, so if you’re casting around for something to do, there you are. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/20 "2020-04-02T21:35:15Z")
It’s another Pre-Code movie, but there’s _Three on a Match_, in which a well-to-do but bored society woman throws her life away looking for a little excitement with a skeevy gangster-connected boyfriend and (it is implied by Humphrey Bogart) a cocaine addiction. Remarkably, the film stars Joan Blondell and a very young Bette Davis, but it’s the pretty much forgotten Ann Dvorak as the addict who gives the most memorable performance. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829.md?page=2)