Search - Marihuana/Assassin Of Youth/Reefer Madness on DVD

Cinematic proof that smoking grass makes you giggle uncontro

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 11/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are three things you need to know before you launch into this Something Weird triple feature of classic anti-marijuana movies from the 1930s. First, the disc seems to want you to watch "Reefer Madness" first. The menu is the titles of the three movies and the special features link shown through a smoky haze. So here I was wondering why "Reefer Madness" looked exactly like "Marihuana." I eventually figured it out, but it took a moment because the prints that Something Weird came up with to make this DVD do not always have the same title by which the film is best known. So "Reefer Madness" appears under the reissue title "Doped Youth (Victims of Marijuana)" (it was originally called "Tell Your Children"). Finally, you can tell these are anti-drug propaganda films because they all begin with a scroll that tells you just that, otherwise you might think these movies were intended to entertain rather than educate.

"Marihuana" (1936) was the film that shocked me the most, mainly because there was nudity when the girls, high on reefer, decide to go skinny-dipping. I knew these films were all pre-Code, but this was still a surprise. Burma Roberts (Harley Wood) is getting high with her boyfriend, Dick Collier (Hugh McArthur), and while the other girls are out running around naked in the surf she gets pregnant. Dick goes to work for drug dealer Tony Sentello (Pat Carlyle) but gets killed the first day. This forces Burma to give up her baby and become a drug-dealing prostitute known as "Blondie." She ends up taking over the gang and comes up with the bright idea of kidnapping her sister's daughter. After Burma disappeared the sister married into high society, and if you do not see the twist coming at the end of this one you must be high. But notice they use music from "La Traviata" at the end to underscore the tragic ending of this morality play.

I first saw "Assassin of Youth" (1937) on a college campus at a midnight showing. Every time Henrietta Frisbie (Fern Emmett) went by on her little motor scooter we would all start dong the Wicked Witch's theme from "The Wizard of Oz" (it still works). A kid high on weed runs down old Mrs. Barrie and she leaves her fortune to her granddaughter Joan Barrie (Luana Walters), provided she lives a moral life. But Linda Clayton (Fay McKenzie) is next in line for the money, so she and her boyfriend Jack Howard (Michael Owens) plot to get Joan high and/or drunk in public. Henrietta Frisbie is perfectly willing to spread gossip about Joan around town, but fortunately she has "Pop" Brady (Earl Dwire) and reporter Art Brighton (Arthur Gardner). There is just so much comic relief in this movie, provided by the adults in the courtroom scene, that it really is more of a melodrama than an anti-drug film.

"Reefer Madness" (1936) is the "Citizen Kane" of marijuana films for good reason. In the history of camp, the piano player getting high in the closet is as iconic as Scarlett vowing she will never be hungry again. We begin with Dr. Carroll (Josef Forte), principal of the local high school, warning the parents against the dangers of marijuana and telling the story of Bill Harper (Kenneth Craig) and Mary Lane (Dorothy Short). They attend a party at the apartment of Mae Coleman (Thelma White) and Jack Perry (Carleton Young), where joints are being given free to get the teens hooked. Also there are Ralph Wiley (Dave O'Brien), another student who likes Mary, and Blanche (Lillian Miles), a moll, who like Bill. Then Mary's kid brother Jimmy (Warren McCullum) gets hooked on drugs by Blanche and ends up killing someone in a hit-and-run while high. When Bill ends up with Blanche and Ralph attacks Mary, Bill goes after Ralph and during the fight a gun goes off and Mary ends up dead. Bill is innocent but he ends up on trial while the crooks try to cover up what really happened. Justice triumphs in the end, but not before the wages of sin are played out while Dr. Carroll continues to provide stern lectures on the subject.

What makes these movies so laughable is their insistence that smoking grass gives you the giggles. You contrast the wild eyed laughing maniacs of these 1930s films with the stereotypical hippies mellowing out by smoking grass from the 1960s, and no wonder it was so easy to dismiss these films and their warnings on the dangers of weed. It is not too farfetched to watch "Marihuana" and think that if young men associate the drug with women wanting to run around naked they would be trying to get their hands on some demon weed as soon as the movie was over. The commentary track for "Marihuana" has SW guru Mike Vraney interviewing David F. Friedman about this particular type of exploitation film as well as the way Roadshows were done way back then. There are theatrical trailers for "Marihuana," "assassin of Youth," and "Devil Harvest," as well as a marijuana excerpt from "Wages fo Sin." There are a couple of shorts, "Sinister Menace" and the silent "High on the Range," and a Gallery of Drug Scare Exploitation Art featuring Drug Scare Radio-Spot Rarities that are always a joy to check out. Also, check out Vraney's chapter titles for each film. Next on the agenda: "Reefer Madness: The Musical.""