Customer Reviews

Traffic in Souls [VHS]

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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 who 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.

The DVD arrived promptly and in good condition, so that part of the transaction was flawless.
I purchased this video after a failed attempt to record this off Turner Classic Movies on cable TV. My only complaint is that this DVD version has no soundtrack! No music score --NOTHING! Yes, it IS a silent film (I knew that) but even the TCM version had a soundtrack with music, and IMHO the people who produced this DVD could have provided something on the soundtrack, even if it was canned "elevator music" to provide something to listen to.