# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/21 "2020-04-02T21:55:54Z")
It’s not early, and not addiction per se, but The Gene Krupa Story (1959) tells the story of how the famous big band leader/drummer derailed his career and hit bottom due to his use and abuse of (duh duh duuuuhhhh)…marijuana. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/22 "2020-04-02T22:04:22Z")
_Mystery of Edwin Drood_ Choirmaster John Jasper is an opium addict in Dickens’ last, unfinished novel. First filmed version of the story was done as a short in 1909, followed by a feature in 1914. Claude Rains stars in the best-known version in 1935. _Broken Blossoms_ (1919) This is something of an anomaly because while opium is part of the story, no one gets addicted or suffers any adverse consequences as a result of smoking it; indeed, opium serves a useful purpose by offering the characters a respite from the everyday misery of their lives. _Heroes for Sale_ (1933) The protagonist lets someone else take credit for his WWI heroics, then gets hooked on morphine while recovering from his wounds. A better title for this flick might be _Chumps for Sale_. _The Invisible Man_ (1933) Monocaine! _A Hatful of Rain_ (1957) Bland Hollywood treatment of addiction. _Confessions of an Opium Eater_ (1962) Awful, yet it does contain an opium trip sequence. ---
**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, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/23 "2020-04-02T22:34:17Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _Broken Blossoms_ (1919) > This is something of an anomaly because while opium is part of the story, no one gets addicted or suffers any adverse consequences as a result of smoking it; indeed, opium serves a useful purpose by offering the characters a respite from the everyday misery of their lives. Which is NOT how it’s portrayed in the original story the movie is based on (which has a totally different ending, too). In the original, people use opium because their lives are miserable. They are good people who have a lot to offer, but because they suffer a lot of racial prejudice and no one wants their talents, they end up in dead-end jobs, smoking opium to relieve their boredom. It’s a fascinating piece. It’s a mixture of horrible racism of its time (the title is “The Chink and the Child”), and weird enlightenment. It’s in a collection of short stories set in Limehouse, London’s Chinatown just before WWI, and all the villains are white people. It’s written by a white guy, whose style is imitative of English translations of Asian literature. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/24 "2020-04-02T23:18:34Z")
Even Betty Boop cartoons mentioned drug addiction, such as [Minnie the Moocher](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOz8q1Rh9as) (1932) Starting 5:00 \*She messed around with a bloke named Smokey She loved him though was cokey He took her down to Chinatown And he showed her how to kick the gong around [smoke opium] \* ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/25 "2020-04-02T23:26:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Chaplin also has the Little Fellow [snorting cocaine himself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ykdb8Zen-o) in _Modern Times_. The first time I saw _Modern Times_ (decades ago) it really surprised me. They never said “cocaine” of course. They called it “nose candy.” ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/26 "2020-05-07T19:26:51Z")
Victim (1962) ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/27 "2020-05-21T16:15:26Z")
“Spring Night, Summer Night” – taboo, but no exploitation at all. Very cinema-verite. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/28 "2020-05-21T16:47:22Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > The first time I saw _Modern Times_ (decades ago) it really surprised me. They never said “cocaine” of course. They called it “nose candy.” Heh. I used to know a farmer/trucker who was the most straitlaced guy I’d ever met. He worked really hard, managing a small farm and driving a truck, putting in long days and longer weeks. One day he told me he’d lost his truck due to “nose candy”. He actually used that term. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/29 "2020-05-21T17:07:51Z")
[**A Pipe Dream** (1905)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUuxEOkEbwQ) ---
**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:** [May 21, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/30 "2020-05-21T17:29:05Z")
_A Pipe Dream_ is kind of stretching it, since it’s just a 43-second movie of a woman smoking a cigarette and imagining the smoke as being a man dancing on her outstretched hand. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/31 "2020-05-26T15:53:50Z")
Shoes (1916) ---
**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:** [May 26, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/32 "2020-05-26T17:34:18Z")
Does _Shoes_ actually contain any references to drugs? Have you watched it? I couldn’t find a copy of it online. It’s supposed to be a fascinating film for its time. It’s about poverty and prostitution, for instance, but I couldn’t find any mention of it discussing drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/33 "2020-05-26T18:57:18Z")
_Alice’s Restaurant_ (the movie), 1969, contains themes dealing with drug addiction (not included in the original song). OP asks for “taboo in general”. So also consider _Oh, Calcutta!_, a long-running Broadway revue started in 1969 I think, later made into a movie in 1972. This was a series of skits on sex topics, much more explicit than was commonly considered acceptable in those days. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/34 "2020-05-26T20:09:49Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Does _Shoes_ actually contain any references to drugs? Have you watched it? I couldn’t find a copy of it online. It’s supposed to be a fascinating film for its time. It’s about poverty and prostitution, for instance, but I couldn’t find any mention of it discussing drugs. No drugs, but a girl selling herself for a pair of shoes was pretty taboo for 1916. I just didn’t want to “spoil” it and figured whoever was curious would find out… I just saw this yesterday on TCM (and I think its still available On-Demand) and it reminded me of this. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/35 "2020-06-27T20:04:22Z")
Madchen in Uniform ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/36 "2020-06-27T20:17:34Z")
In 1916, Douglas Fairbanks spoofed Sherlock Holmes in [THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_the_Leaping_Fish), where he > [@](#): > > is given to injecting himself from a bandolier of syringes worn across his chest, and liberally helps himself to the contents of a hatbox-sized round container of white powder labeled “COCAINE” on his desk. > [@](#): > > Fairbanks’ character otherwise lampoons Sherlock Holmes with checkered detective hat, clothes and even car, along with the aforementioned propensity for injecting cocaine whenever he feels momentarily down, then laughing with delight. > [@](#): > > The film displays a lighthearted and comic attitude toward Coke Ennyday’s use of cocaine and laudanum. While he catches a gang of drug smugglers, he does so after consuming most of their opium. ---
**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:** [June 27, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/37 "2020-06-27T21:56:42Z")
An article about early drug addiction movies is [The Cokey Comedies of the Silent Screen Era | Features | Roger Ebert](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/the-cokey-comedies-of-the-silent-screen-era). ---
**Author:** ![shstrang98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@shstrang98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shstrang98)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829/38 "2020-06-28T12:38:15Z")
Days of Wine and Roses. Depressing and thought provoking. Less that Zero is another but it was basically an 80’s film. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-movies-about-drug-addiction/850829.md?page=1)