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.

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

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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