Sinister Menace
Sinister Menace
AKA "Sinister Harvest". An anti-drug propaganda film "made by the Egyptian government, shown at the Geneva Anti-Narcotic Conference, and presented to the producers of "Narcotic" by HARRY J. ANSLINGER, Federal Narcotics Commissioners and one of the United States Representatives to Geneva in 1932". An early "shockumentary," shot in Egypt, which shows the interiors of drug dens and documents the habits of opium addicts.
Sinister Menace
Scrolling title: "As the illicit narcotic trade from Europe and the Near East diminishes, the Far East steps in to supply the demand. How does that effect America? Our Pacific Coast has become the danger spot of the smuggled dope traffic. Unless there is an immediate estoppal the country will be cursed with a deplorable increase of narcotic addiction-- New York American." "These remarkable pictures are ransom shots taken in Egypt's drug infested areas. It is hoped that they may enlighten other countries and individuals to the horrible curse of drug addiction. Not actors, just fellow human beings." Beefcake MSs of young shirtless Egyptian men flexing their brawny muscles for the camera; narrator waxing eloquent on how strong they are. MS Egyptian man carrying a 300 pound bale of cotton; MSs men loading cotton and irrigating agricultural fields. MCUs narcotics officer showing the camera hidden packets of drugs (Opium? Marijuana?) inside fruit and bread. Re-enactment TLS/MSs of Egyptian narcotics officers busting the nomadic camel herder being busted in the desert for trafficking drugs smuggled on herd of camels. MSs rural drug smugglers under arrest, brought into a compound; desert police inspect a pile of smuggled hashish.
Sinister Menace
MS of Egyptian "dope peddler" cutting drugs with his lackeys. MSs of drug addicts sitting on the ground in public square, high and strung out; some men snort a drug I assume is either cocaine or heroin; the narration here is classic purple prose about the international drug problem and how to cure it. Ranks of addicts, men and women, file dutifully in front of the camera. More shots of drug addicts rounded up by the police. Addicts pose for camera. A female drug addict on the street eats her stash and the paper it is wrapped in to avoid detection by a vigilant cop in a fez. Female drug addicts pose for camera.