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Bessie Love.
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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Human Wreckage
(1923) United States of America
B&W : Eight reels / 7215 feet
Directed by John Griffith Wray
Cast: Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport) [Ethel MacFarland], James Kirkwood [Alan MacFarland], Bessie Love [Mary Finnegan], George Hackathorne [Jimmy Brown], Claire McDowell [Mrs. Brown], Robert McKim [Doctor Hillman], Harry Northrup [Steve Stone], Victory Bateman [Mrs. Finnegan], Eric Mayne [Doctor Blake], Otto Hoffman [Harris], Philip Sleeman [Dunn], George Clark [the baby], Lucille Ricksen [Ginger Smith], George E. Cryer [a city official], Doctor R.B. von Kleinsmid [an educator], Benjamin Bledsoe [a jurist], Louis D. Oaks [a police official], Martha Nelson McCan [a civic leader], Mrs. Chester Ashley [a civic leader], John P. Carter [a civic leader], Mrs. Charles F. Gray [a civic leader], Doctor L.M. Powers [a health authority], Brigadier C.R. Boyd [a Salvation Army worker]
Thomas H. Ince Corporation production; distributed by Film Booking Offices of America, Incorporated [FBO]. / Produced by Thomas H. Ince. Scenario by C. Gardner Sullivan, from a screen story by C. Gardner Sullivan. Cinematography by Henry Sharp. / Released 17 June 1923. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Produced in cooperation with the Los Angeles Anti-Narcotics League. The film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors in 1924.
Drama.
Synopsis: [Motion Picture News, 14 July, 1923, page ?] Treats the evils of drugs, pointing out the disasters which visit several figures in general and the MacFarlands in particular. The husband is an attorney who suffers a nervous breakdown. Becomes addicted to morphine and his efforts to shake off the habit are fruitless until he realizes that his wife is encouraged to take up the habit because of his weakness and the futility of trying to cope with it.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Drugs: Addiction, Anti-drug, Morphine
Listing updated: 30 October 2011.
References: Bohn-Light p. 111; Brownlow-Behind p. xxiii; Fell-History p. 109; Robertson-British p. 186; Sinyard-Silent p. 94; Vermilye-Twenties p. 85 : Documentary-Slide : Website-AFI : with additional information provided by Pete Jones.
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