''Traffic in Souls'' (also released as ''While New York Sleeps'') is a 1913 American silent

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

film focusing on forced prostitution ( white slavery) in the United States. Directed by

George Loane Tucker George Loane Tucker (June 12, 1872 – June 20, 1921) was an Americans, American actor, silent film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer, and Film editor, editor. Career Tucker was born George S. Loane in Chicago to George Loane ...

and starring Jane Gail, Ethel Grandin, William H. Turner, and Matt Moore, ''Traffic in Souls'' is an early example of the narrative style in American films. The film consists of six reels, which was longer than most American films of the era. A copy of ''Traffic in Souls'' is preserved at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

and the Film Preservation Associates. In 2006, the film was added to the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

for preservation in the

because it "presaged the Hollywood narrative film" and drew attention through its riveting depiction of the methods used to entrap young women into prostitution.

Plot

The storyline concerns two young Swedish women immigrants who are approached by men soliciting for white slavery under the guise of a legitimate work offer. In the scenes filmed at

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan#Manhattan Island, Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. The park is bounded by Battery Place on the north, with Bowling ...

, after the women are transported there from

Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...

, real immigrants can be seen in the background. The entire film takes place over the course of three days and consists of a prologue; the main narrative in which one of the sisters is kidnapped by a pimp and the other sister and her boyfriend rush to rescue her in time and the pimp is killed; and an epilogue in which the viewer finds out the consequences from a trashed news article. The film concludes with a joke ending, an ending to a thriller that at the time was not the cliché it has become now.

Cast

* Jane Gail as Mary Barton * Ethel Grandin as Lorna Barton * William H. Turner as Issac Barton, The Invalid Inventor - Mary's Father (credited as Wm. Turner) * Matt Moore as NYPD officer Larry Burke * Walter Long as other policeman (Uncredited) * William Welsh as William Trubus *Millie Liston as Mrs. Trubus (credited as Mrs. Hudson Lyston) *Irene Wallace as Alice Trubus *William Cavanaugh as Bill Bradshaw * Howard Crampton as the go-between *Arthur Hunter as the procurer *William Burbidge as Mr. Smith *Laura Huntley as the emigrant girl *William Powers as the emigrant girl's brother *Jack Poulson as R.C. Cadet *Edward Boring as Swedish Cadet

Production

''Traffic in Souls'' was based on a story by the film's director George Loane Tucker. The scenario was written by Walter MacNamara who also served as producer with Jack Cohn. Executive producers include King Baggot,

Herbert Brenon Herbert Brenon (born Alexander Herbert Reginald St. John Brenon; 13 January 1880 – 21 June 1958) was an Irish-born U.S. film director, actor and screenwriter during the era of Silent film, silent films through 1940. Brenon was among the e ...

, William Robert Daly, and

Carl Laemmle Carl Laemmle (; born Karl Lämmle ; January 17, 1867 – September 24, 1939) was a German-American film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures. He produced or worked on over 400 films. Regarded as one of the ...

. The film was shot and produced by Universal Film Manufacturing Company in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a Borough (New Jersey), borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop The Palisades (Hudson River), The Palisades. As of the 2020 Uni ...

, where many early

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...

s in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century. Additional footage was shot on location at

and

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Its subjects were working women who had immigrated to the United States, and it was released at a time when the country was undergoing a "

moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...

" over the issue of prostitution. While the film was passed by the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...

as suggesting methods of controlling prostitution or reform of a prostitute, the film's release eventually resulted in the adding of "white slavery" to the list of topics banned under the

Hays Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as th ...

. Terry Ramsaye, an early film historian, wrote in his book ''A Million and One Nights'', that ''Traffic'' ''In Souls'' was made in under four weeks with a small budget of $5,000. He also claimed that all the money came from

, William Robert Daly, King Baggot, and Jack Cohn. Furthermore, he also wrote that the film had to be made in secret because

(the future head of Universal Film) tried to stop the film's production and did not want to release it when completed. While Ramsaye's account of the Silent Era is influential, many of his claims have been challenged or rejected by contemporary scholars. Film historian

Kevin Brownlow Kevin Brownlow (born Robert Kevin Brownlow; 2 June 1938) is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become inter ...

found evidence that the film actually started with $25,000 provided by theater magnate Lee Shubert, former U.S. Representative Joseph L. Rhinock, and others. And rather than being made in secret, the film actually had a large cast and expensive shooting locations in two states, while Laemmle supported the film because the public's intense interest in white slavery promised substantial profits. The film is notable for its pioneering use of camera movement while shooting scenes. Most films made prior to 1913 relied heavily on scenes shot head-on with a stationary camera. Some filmmakers had been moving, tilting or panning their cameras to track a moving object or follow action. For example, Harold M. Shaw panned his camera during one of the final moments of '' The Land Beyond the Sunset'' (1912) while

Alice Guy-Blaché Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché ( Guy; ; 1 July 1873 – 24 March 1968) was a French pioneer film director. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a Narrative film, narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From ...

mounted a camera on the back of a moving truck in '' Matrimony's Speed Limit'' (1913). What made Henry Alder Leach's cinematography so groundbreaking is how he deliberately choreographed his camera movements to convey meaning and anticipate action—a technique that predicted the future of film-making.

Release

''Traffic in Souls'' opened on November 24, 1913, at Lou Fields's Theatre at 1215 Broadway in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The film was made for $5,700, and reportedly earned $400,000 during its theatrical run, helping to make Universal a major player among movie studios.

Home media

''Traffic in Souls'' was released on VHS by Kino International accompanied by a piano score by Philip Carli in 1994. Flicker Alley released the film, along with '' The Italian'' (1915) and three shorts, as part of a two DVD set entitled ''Perils of the New Land'' in August 2008. Film historian Shelley Stamp provided expert audio commentary for the 2008 release.

Reception

Author and film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

awarded the film two and a half out of four stars, calling it "a trashy, corny guilty pleasure."

References

External links

*''Traffic in Souls'' essa

by Marilyn Ferdinand at

*
''Traffic in Souls''
at HistoricFilms.com
''Traffic in Souls'' at Cleveland Institute of Art with still photo from film''Traffic in Souls'' at UCLA Film and Television Archive (May 2012) showing an 88-minute version
*Ball, Eustace Hale (1914),
Traffic in Souls: A Novel of Crime and Its Cure
', New York: G. W. Dillingham Co., novelization of film at Project Gutenberg {{George Loane Tucker 1913 films 1913 crime drama films American black-and-white films English-language crime drama films American silent feature films Ellis Island Films about prostitution in the United States Films set in New York City Films shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey Films shot in New York City United States National Film Registry films Universal Pictures films Works about sex trafficking Films directed by George Loane Tucker 1910s American films Silent American crime drama films Films about human trafficking in the United States American exploitation films 1910s English-language films