Drifting
1923 · United States · 70 min
- Director
- Tod Browning
- Screenplay
- Tod Browning
- Producer
- Carl Laemmle
Cast
What it is about
Cassie Cook has been peddling opium in Shanghai, but a run of bad luck pushes her into a partnership with her fiercest rival, Jules Repin. As the human cost of the trade begins to weigh on her, she resolves to walk away and head home before it is too late. Her plans grow complicated when she travels to a lawless village near the poppy fields to chase a missing shipment, and meets Captain Arthur Jarvis, who is posing as a mine reopener while hiding an official mission.
How it was made
The story comes from the Broadway play Drifting by John Colton and Daisy H. Andrews, which had starred Robert Warwick and Alice Brady. Tod Browning directed and also wrote the screenplay, while Carl Laemmle produced the picture for Universal Pictures. This silent drama, running about 70 minutes, features Priscilla Dean, Wallace Beery and Anna May Wong in its cast.
Reception and legacy
The available sources do not document its critical reception or any awards in detail. Prints survive at the Gosfilmofond in Moscow and in the George Eastman Museum collection. In 2012 the National Film Preservation Foundation funded the preservation of a copy with Czech intertitles, which were translated back into English.
Stills
Trivia
Print with Czech intertitles
One surviving print includes Czech-language intertitles. With a 2012 grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, it was preserved and its text was translated back into English.
Two archives hold copies
Copies of Drifting are held by the Gosfilmofond in Moscow and the George Eastman Museum, allowing comparison between versions of a silent film of which little material survives.
More films by Tod Browning
Dracula
Freaks
London After Midnight
The Unknown
The Unholy Three
Mark of the VampireOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.