Human Wreckage (1923) was an independent film production by Dorothy Davenport, widow of actor Wallace Reid, who died on 18 January 1923 from complications of morphine addiction.

The film, featuring James Kirkwood, Sr., Bessie Love and Lucille Ricksen, portrayed the dangers of drug addiction, and was shown across the country by Davenport herself, billed as Mrs. Wallace Reid, in an early example of what would later be called a roadshow engagement. The film was co-produced with Thomas Ince and distributed by Film Booking Offices of America. No print of this film is known to exist today, and it is considered a lost film.

Four days before Wallace Reid's death, the movie studios appointed Will H. Hays as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Although it took some years for the Hays Code to be finalized, Hays did set certain standards for movies early on, including a ban on any reference to drug use. Despite this, Davenport received a dispensation from Hays allowing her to produce Human Wreckage because of its anti-drug message.^[1]

According to the website SilentEra, the film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors in 1924.^[2]

• List of lost films

• Human Wreckage at the Internet Movie Database
• Human Wreckage at SilentEra