Cheap Traffic in Souls (Video) (George Loane Tucker) Price

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Customer Reviews of Traffic in Souls

A Remarkably Good 1913 Feature Film!
I'm very glad I came across "Traffic in Souls" because I thoroughly enjoyed it and was surprised how very good and entertaining such an early feature film could be. Not only is it an excellent crime drama in itself, it has special significance for its adventurous exposure of the real-life crime problem at that time, namely white slave traffic. The film depicts the various ways in which innocent young women were tricked and abducted, then held captive in a "den of iniquity" for the slavery market. Emigrants arriving in New York were targeted, as were naive women from the country, and even a shop assistant who falls victim to the charms of one of the operators. Another true-to-life aspect emphasized in this film is that the "man higher up" in the racket is a prominent and honorable member of society to pretends to be taking the lead in ridding the city of white slave trafficking. The film also gives us a closer, more personal look into the lives of the two families involved, making it much more than just a crime story about the cops getting the bad guys in the end. Another fascinating aspect, I found, was the means by which the main members of the operation where ultimately convicted, namely by recording their conversations with the latest technology of the time; the phonograph recording. Futhermore, the film quality is very good throughout, and the new piano musical score by Philip Carli is also excellent, making this a really worth while film to add to any good movie collection.

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White Slavery Racket Exposed!
It may come as a surprise to some that there were feature films in America before THE BIRTH OF A NATION in 1915. The recently restored RICHARD III from 1912 is a good example. So is TRAFFIC IN SOULS, a long forgotten 1913 crime drama about the white slavery rackets in New York City. When filmmaking was headquartered on the East coast and before America's entry into World War I, the movies didn't shy away from tackling tough social issues (see Kevin Brownlow's book BEHIND THE MASK OF INNOCENCE). The movies' first real audiences were the newly arrived immigrants who saw them not only as cheap entertainment that they could afford but also as a way of learning about their newly adopted country. One of the greatest concerns for newly arrived women immigrants was finding a safe place to stay. Many foreign women with no place to go were turned into prostitutes by their "benefactors". It was this issue which became the subject of TRAFFIC IN SOULS. The film was directed by George Loane Tucker, a gifted young director who died in 1921. This appears to be his only complete film to have survived. It was backed by one of the first effective ad campaigns (Daring Expose' of American Vice and Treachery!) which helped the picture to do big box office. This in turn enabled Carl Laemmle's fledgling IMP outfit to become Universal Pictures. The film plays like a silent version of DRAGNET with its well documented police methods used to break open the case. More of interest to us today are the authentic 1913 NYC locales which dominate the film. It was so successful in depicting its subject matter that it was screened for new immigrants at Ellis Island for many years. Actor Matt Moore who plays the lead was the brother of Owen Moore, Mary Pickford's first husband. Entertaining and exciting with documentary style realism, TRAFFIC IN SOULS can still hold an audience after almost 90 years. This video is part of Kino International's FIRST AMERICAN FEATURES, 1912-1918 series.