Traffic in Souls (1913)
Direction: George Loane Tucker
Screenplay: Walter MacNamara
Cast: Ethel Grandin, Matt Moore, Jane Gail, William H. Turner
At the time of its release, the scandalous Traffic in Souls, one of the first feature films made in the United States, became a huge moneymaker.
This moralistic/sensationalistic melodrama about the white slave trade — immigrant women are forced into prostitution in New York City — remains watchable chiefly because of director George Loane Tucker's sure touch. Tucker became a major name in the 1910s — The Miracle Man (1919), starring Thomas Meighan, Betty Compson, and Lon Chaney was another major hit — but he had his career cut short by illness. He died in 1921 at the age of 49. Unfortunately, most of his films are now lost. (Just as unfortunately, only fragments remain from The Miracle Man.)
Traffic in Souls stars Ethel Grandin and Matt Moore, both of whom were quite popular in the 1910s. The film was released by Carl Laemmle's Universal Film Mfg. Co., which is — more or less — the same Universal that released Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a couple of weeks ago.