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''Drifting'' is a 1923 American silent
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
based on the Broadway play ''Drifting'', by John Colton and Daisy H. Andrews. The play had starred Robert Warwick and
Alice Brady Alice Brady (born Mary Rose Brady; November 2, 1892 – October 28, 1939) was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in ...
. The film was directed by
Tod Browning Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of vari ...
and features
Priscilla Dean Priscilla Dean (November 25, 1896 – December 27, 1987) was an American actress popular in silent film as well as in theatre, with a career spanning two decades. Biography She was born on November 25, 1896 in Manhattan, New York City to an activ ...
,
Wallace Beery Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' ( ...
, and
Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
. It was produced and distributed by
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
.


Plot

Cassie Cook had played the opium selling game until fate and a bad shuffle compelled her to team up with her biggest rival, Jules Repin, and then the horror of the whole thing weighed down upon her and she determined to quit and leave China before it was too late. She had bought a lot of new gowns on credit, believing in Repin's promise that he had a big shipment of opium coming in which would give them both plenty of money. Now those gowns had to be paid for and Cassie's chum, Molly Morton, taken out of the country before a growing taste for opium got a final hold on her. So Cassie bet on a sure thing in the races and lost. "But I'm going to get you out, Kid," she told Molly, and as a last resort she went back to the game. Up in Hang Chow, a trouble-infested village near the poppy fields, she tried to trace the shipment Repin expected. A white man was there — supposed to be opening an abandoned mine. It was her business to find out if he was a government inspector seeking the den of the dope dealers. She posed as a novelist, and he, believing in her, told her that he was there to fight the dope menace. Cassie felt like a cheat of the lowest order and she turned against her comrades, but they, by trickery, found out what she had learned from the mine superintendent. In a flash they set the little world ablaze with rebellion and the soul of Cassie Cook was cleansed in the fires of remorse as she battled for what she believed was the right cause, and out of it came a love that was clean and honorable.


Cast


Preservation

Copies of ''Drifting'' are located in the
Gosfilmofond Gosfilmofond is a state film archive in Russia. It is the main film archive of the Russian Federation and a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). It is a state cultural institution — curator of films collection and oth ...
of Moscow and in the
George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection The George Eastman Museum Motion Picture Collection in Rochester, New York comprises about 28,000 titles, including features, shorts, documentaries, newsreels, and experimental moving images. The collection is renowned for its holdings of silent f ...
. In 2012 the
National Film Preservation Foundation The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began op ...
awarded a grant to preserve a print that has Czech language
intertitles In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...
which were translated back into English.


See also

*
Anna May Wong on film and television Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress of Chinese heritage, who grew up in a culturally diverse neighborhood adjacent to Chinatown, Los Angeles. Her father believed in exposing his family to the creative ar ...
*
List of American films of 1923 This is a list of American films released in 1923. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P–Q R S T U V W Y–Z Shorts See also * 1923 in the United States References External links 1923 ...


References


External links

* * {{Tod Browning , state=collapsed 1923 films 1923 drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Silent American drama films American films based on plays Films directed by Tod Browning Films set in China Universal Pictures films 1920s American films