Dwain esper narcotic filme
5/10
So-so film that's definitely worth watching at least once
Watching Narcotic as a film for its own sake--as an artwork or a piece of entertainment, that is--at this point in time is not entirely satisfactory. For one, it's very choppy. Scenes are missing or truncated oddly, but this is the best print known at the moment. But even if the missing footage were replaced, the film is still uneven. Director Dwain Esper and his wife, writer Hildegarde Stadie, have a bizarre sense of dramatic construction only rivaled by Ed Wood. Esper inserts odd shots for symbolism (such as poisonous snakes, skunks and such near the end), inserts odd intertitles at odd times, and so on. And a lot of the performances intermittently go off the rails. Yet as a historical and sociological oddity, Narcotic is fascinating. Any film buff worth his or her weight in Fassbinder posters should be familiar with it, as should anyone interested in sociology or cultural theory.
I'm not sure if this is the first paranoid anti-drug film, but it must be one of the earlier ones. It beat Esper's similar and more famous Reefer Madness by three years. Additionally, this is much broader in scope than that later film. It's not quite as black and white or ridiculously propagandistic, and it's supposedly based on a true story--a real equivalent to Dr. William G. Davis (played here by Harry Cording), who went on the road hawking "Tiger Fat" (a name only mentioned in intertitles here as far as I could tell), and who was a drug addict stuck in a depressing downward spiral.
The content, which focuses on explicit drug use (including scenes of drug preparation), violence--both accidental and intentional--that remains morally unrectified, serious relationship problems, drug-induced and illicit sexual behavior, and a fantastic, nihilistic ending, may sound like a perfect recipe for a Cheech and Chong film, but in 1933, it was all very challenging. So challe
Dwain Esper
American film director
Dwain Esper | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1894-10-07)October 7, 1894 Snohomish, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | October 18, 1982(1982-10-18) (aged 88) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, producer |
| Spouse | Hildagarde Stadie (m. 1920) |
| Children | 2 |
Dwain Atkins Esper (October 7, 1894 – October 18, 1982) was an American director and producer of exploitation films.
Biography
Esper who was born in Snohomish, Washington was a veteran of World War I and worked as a building contractor before switching to the film business in the mid-1920s. He produced and directed inexpensive pictures including Sex Maniac, Marihuana, and How to Undress in Front of Your Husband. To enhance the appeal of these low-budget features, he included scenes containing gratuitous nudity and violence that led some to label him the "father of modern exploitation."
Esper's wife, Hildagarde Stadie, wrote many of the scripts for his films. They employed extravagant promotional techniques that included exhibiting the mummified body of notorious Oklahoma outlaw Elmer McCurdy before it was acquired by Dan Sonney.
Maniac (1934)
Maniac, also known as Sex Maniac, an exploitation/horror film directed by Esper, is a loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Black Cat" and follows a vaudeville impersonator who becomes an assistant to a mad scientist.
It is considered by many film critics and historians to be one of the worst films of all time. Danny Peary believes that Maniac is the worst film made, Charlie Jane Anders of Gawker Media's io9 described it as "possibly the worst movie in history" and Chicago Tribune critic Michael Wilmington wrote that it may be the worst film he had seen, writing: "There are some voyages into ineptitude, like Dwain Esper's anti-classic Maniac, that defy all reason." Ro A once-promising doctor begins a downward spiral, finding himself in opium dens, a carnival freak show, and drugs parties. To my knowledge, I don't think I've seen any classic exploitation films before, although I have long been aware of the "Gold Standard," Reefer Madness. This was nowhere near as outlandish as I've heard about the latter, but it did have its moments, the centerpiece of which was a "dope party" with all manner of drugs and where the women turn into giggling idiots. Beyond that, the film was actually kind of dull, but it did have some occasionally interesting camerawork. Acting, as one would expect, was nothing to write home about. They also overused intertitles in a few places. Translated from en by Google "That's very unprofessional" - Scandalized Woman, Drugs are cool, and they feel good, and they are everywhere, so it's really hard to fight them.... this film tried and failed at a level more epic than nearly any piece of propaganda I've seen in my life. Astonishingly bad, inducing me to smoke more weed than normal just to get through it, and boy is there irony in that. A truly monumental failure. Translated from en by Google “We’re going to get – lit!” One of Dwain Esper’s exploitation films that played on a double bill alongside Maniac (1933). Narcotic is an incredibly slow film and it’s plagued with continuity issues which makes it hard to get invested into — though once you’re in it’s a fast ride to the finish. The movie is filled with strange and abnormal shots. Cocaine and caviar spoons, doctors performing a C-section, a car driving down railroad track colliding with a moving train, which all somehow fits into the pacing of the picture. “The weird and revolting behavior of addicts while under the sinister influence of .Synopsis
YOU WILL BE ELECTRIFIED WITH HORROR! STRICKEN WITH REALIZATION! YOU CAN TAKE IT OUT OF THE BODY- BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE IT OUT OF THE MIND!
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