For His Son
About For His Son
A physician played by Charles Hill Mailes can no longer pay for his spoiled son. He invents Dopokoke, a soft drink laced with cocaine, and the drink sells. The son, played by Charles West, learns the secret and starts injecting the drug. His fiancée, Blanche Sweet, finds the needle and breaks the engagement. He runs off with his father's secretary, who is addicted too. When she will not share the drug, he grabs her and then dies. The father is called and cannot save him.
Cast & crew
More about For His Son
D. W. Griffith directed. Emmett C. Hall wrote it. G. W. Bitzer photographed it. Biograph released it on January 22, 1912, and also distributed it. It was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Themes
Background
Cocaine was still being taken out of patent medicines and soft drinks after the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The film puts that ingredient in a soda the father invented for cash.
Making
Griffith shot the short at Fort Lee while Biograph was still working in New Jersey.
Reviews
The guide Silent Films, 1877–1996 calls For His Son one of the earliest films about drug addiction.
Look
G. W. Bitzer photographed the soda fountain and the injection scenes in Fort Lee.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Dorothy Bernard plays the secretary. The drink is named Dopokoke.
- Robert Harron, Edward Dillon, and Christy Cabanne are among the people at the soda fountain.
- Mark Griep links the story to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, to Coca-Cola's early cocaine formula, and to Vin Mariani.
- The soda is advertised as relief for "that tired feeling.
Scenes
- The son injects cocaine after the soda has already hooked him.
- Blanche Sweet breaks the engagement when she sees the needle.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (For His Son (1912).webm)
Quotes
For that tired feeling.
