One night of bliss... A thousand nights of hell...
This picture is presented in the hopes that the public may become aware of the terrific struggle to end the curse of drug addiction!
One night in an opium den sends respectable young doctor William Davis hurtling down the slippery slope to doom and self-destruction. When his drug habit renders him incapable of practicing medicine, Dr. Davis becomes a sideshow huckster shilling miracle elixirs. The income provided by snake-oil sales only fuels Davis' monstrous appetite for drugs. A debauched orgy with loose women, cocaine, and heroin leaves him empty and wasted. With his life in ruin, madness and suicide await foolish Dr. Davis!
Director Dwain Esper defined 1930s exploitation films with reactionary social-issue movies such as Maniac (1934), Marihuana, The Weed With Roots In Hell! (1936), How To Undress In Front Of Your Husband (1937), and Sex Madness (aka They Must Be Told!) (1938). Esper gleefully depicted all sorts of scandalous behavior in his movies, allegedly in the interest of warning and educating the public. Narcotic is his most professional and slick production - a worthy mate to such cult movies as Reefer Madness and Damaged Lives.