Cocaine (1922 film)

Cocaine
1922 trade advertisement
Directed byGraham Cutts
Written byFrank Miller
Produced byHarry B. Parkinson
StarringHilda Bayley
Flora Le Breton
Ward McAllister
Distributed byAstra Films
Release date
  • June 1922 (1922-06)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Cocaine is a 1922 British crime film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Hilda Bayley, Flora Le Breton, Ward McAllister and Cyril Raymond. It depicts the distribution of cocaine by gangsters through a series of London nightclubs and the revenge a man seeks after his daughter's death.

Because of its depiction of drug use, it was the most controversial British film of the 1920s.[1] Authorities feared that it might encourage the spread of narcotics.[2] However, as it had a clear message about the dangers of drugs, censors eventually passed it in June 1922 and it was released in cinemas under the alternative title While London Sleeps.[3]

The Chinese gangster Min Fu was reportedly based on real-life criminal Brilliant Chang.[4]

Cast

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References

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  1. ^ Sweet p. 48
  2. ^ Sweet p. 50
  3. ^ Robertson p. 25
  4. ^ Sweet p. 48

Bibliography

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  • Robertson, James Crighton. The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action, 1913–1975. Routledge, 1993.
  • Sweet, Matthew. Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema. Faber and Faber, 2005.
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