Reefer Madness (1936)

Dope Addict
Doped Youth
Love Madness
Tell Your Children
The Burning Question
Love Madness

Cast:

Dorothy Short is Mary Lane
Kenneth Craig is Bill Harper
Lillian Miles is Blanche
Dave "Devil Bat is the greatest bat movie of all time" O'Brien is Ralph Wiley
Thelma White is Mae Colman

What the box says:

Considered by many to be the most famous exploitation film ever, REEFER MADNESS is a hilariously campy cult-classic about the dangers of the devil's weed. You know, marijuana. The story stems from a high school principle's lecture to parents during a PTA meeting about the dangers of smoking pot, which apparently leaves the teens in a state of mental lunacy! Originally titled: "Tell Your Children."

Plot:

We have credits and disclaimer that proclaims how marijuana is the worst drug imaginable… It is followed by the spinning newspaper montage. Dr. Carroll, principal” meets with the PTA and discusses drug smuggling and the federal department of narcotics. A field of marijuana was found growing in Brooklyn. Stock footage shows how to roll the weed and how to hide drugs in shoes, etc…Apparently, marijuana is the worst drug far more terrible than heroin, etc…Dr. Carroll tells the PTA of as story that happened in the town.

In an apartment near a high school, Jack wants May to clean the place up before some teens stop by for a party. May isn’t too happy about getting teens hooked. Jack leaves to make a delivery.

At school, Bill, Eddie and some other teens meet Ralph, a college student who is hopped up on the reefer. Ralph and Eddie’s girlfriend, Mary, and her brother Jimmy. Ralph invites Jimmy to nearby hangout. Horribly unfunky white dancing ensues. The piano player sneaks off to have a bit of the devil weed. Jimmy is getting invited to go to party at May’s place.

Elsewhere, Mary and Bill are studying where kindergarten play acting would be an improvement.

The next day, Bill and Jimmy go to Joe’s Place. The group invites Bill to the party. Reefed piano player playing.

Jimmy, using Mary’s car, drives Ralph on an errand. At May’s place, the party is going on with wild making out. The straight-laced Bill is offered a joint and wheedles him to partake of it.

Jack meets with his boss in organized crime. Pete refuses to sell dope to kids but is threatened to keep selling. After they leave, a stoned Jimmy drives them away. Running a red light, he hits a pedestrian and drives off.

In the morning, Mary is pining for Bill and talks with him when Jimmy comes down.

At the FBI office, Dr. Carroll meets with agents and tries to convince them to stop marijuana. Education is the only way to stop drug abuse. The agent shows Carroll some crime records about teens hopped up on the drugs who killed people, etc…

Later, Dr. Carroll meets with Bill.

May’s apartment, more wild dancing and partying continues. Bill and Blanche engage in some heavy petting before a little something-something ensues.

The police question Mary about how her car may have been involved in a hit and run. She claims to have kept the car to protect Jimmy. Later, she gets the address of May’s apartment to find Jimmy.

Jack offers her a reefer who is higher than “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” He tires to get a bit over-friendly with him. Bill comes out and is hallucinating and thinks that Mary is a bit friendlier.

Jack versus Bill. Ralph gets involved. The gun goes off, and Mary is shot. Jack gets rid of Ralph and May. Jack wakes Bill up whose hand he placed the gun on. Overacting ensues. Jack tells him that he killed Mary. Before leaving, he has May call the police and accuse Bill of Mary’s death.

Back at the soda shop, Jack finds Jimmy telling him he killed the guy he hit to get him away and not mention May’s apartment.

Newspaper montage ensues.

At the trial, Dr. Carroll testifies about Bill’s personality and was once proud of him.

Jack and May are keeping Ralph and Blanche under wraps to keep them from telling the police.

Jack meets with his boss who wants Jimmy not to talk ever.

Court room, the prosecutor’s closing arguments ensue. Bill wasn’t insane when he shot Mary. Claiming that Mary found Bill with another woman, he got rid of her…

Jury room, the jury is deliberating. 11 find him guilty and talk the other guy into changing his vote because of how Bill is guilty.

Back in the court room, Bill’s verdict is announced.

Ralph is getting more and more antsy because of running out of the Acapulco Gold. Going more insane and nuts, Ralph is getting guilty about not telling the truth about Bill. Reefer induced speed piano playing ensues by Blanche. Jack arrives. Ralph is so paranoid about Jack going to kill him. Ralph clubs him to death.

Cops find Ralph and Blanche and drag them off.

She is interrogated.

Police car stock footage about busts etc…

Another newspaper montage ensues.

In the judge’s office, Blanche reveals that Jack shot Mary and framed Bill. She’ll still have to do some prison time. Her overacting ensues. Blanche will be the key witness against Jack.

A long walk down the hallway, Blanche feels guilty. She runs down the hall and jumps out the window committing suicide.

The judge sets asides Bill’s verdict. He still blames Bill to keep thousands away and is to watch the next trial for Ralph. Ralph is bug nuts insane. The state is sure he’s insane from marijuana and placed in an asylum for all his life.

Dr. Carroll lecturizing more about how knowledge protects us, etc…

What I say:

Reefer Madness has a reputation as the worst anti-drug movie ever. Today, people are unsure if a church group funded this movie or if the army did. Well, in the 1970s, it became a cult classic and even marijuana legalization groups showed it. More recently in the past couple of years, it has became a big enough cult classic for a new musical version to have been released a couple of years ago along with numerous DVD releases of the original including the Mike Nelson commentary tracked version.

Dopesploitation, say it. Let the syllables of "sploitation" roll off your tongue. While, many genres didn't really have the "sploitation" tacked onto until the 1970s with blaxsploitation, hicksploitation, nunsploitation, among others. It does have a ring to it.

Ever watch any of the Dragnet episodes from the 60s where Joe Friday battled the drug scourge? One ended with a couple who were on the drugs and their baby daughter drowned in the bathrub. The 60s had drug abuse seeming come into the open. Sure, some movies tried to portray it seriously like Opium Connection. With a few serious attempts the far more common-place lousy attempts ensued. A few of the anti-drug movies made in the 60s and 70s would have junkies so high they baked babies, etc..Well, or was the baked baby the urban legend. Don't forget Blood Freak the only Christian, anti-drug movie where the main character smokes weed and turns into a turkey monster that craves human blood.

The late 80s anti-drug episodes of such cartoons like GI Joe, Captain Planet, and Marshal Bravestarr are a lot closer to reality than Reefer Madness. It seems strange when Captain Planet is closer too reality than a movie that was supposedly made to inform people of the dangers of drugs. Even the 80s cartoons may just be 30 minute commercials, they are nowhere as exploitive or completely divorced from facts of drug education as Reefer Madness.

The actors playing teenagers look old enough to actually have teenage kids themselves. For instance, Bill is so whitebread, he makes Beaver from Leave it to Beaver look like the lead singer of Slayer. None of the actors escape with any dignoity from the hepped up teens, or the stodgy principal.

What can be said when the most famous actor in a movie is the hero from a poverty row Bela Lugosi movie, Devil Bat. Dave O'Brien is Ralph who becomes increasingly hooked on the reefer. Near the end, he just is demanding more and more. His overdose of Acupulco Gold flips him out to beating Jack to death. Yes, he took so many drugs to snap his thin connection to reality forever and winds up in a rubber room for the rest of his life.

First off, is this movie as funny as you heard? Pretty much. The acting is below that of 1st grade class putting on a spring pagent and forgetting every single line. It is hard to believe that any movie was so completely incompetent. Reefer Madness makes Catman in Boxer's Blow, Fat Spy, Fantasy Mission Force, and Plan 9 From Outer Space actually seem like coherent films.

The audience must realize that Reefer Madness doesn't occur in a universe like ours. It is sort of like the Mirror universe in Star Trek without the bearded Spock. In this alternate universe of this movie, drugs are free. They lead to monkey smackin' fornication. If you exclude the fact they can cause permanent insanity, what exactly will keep the kids off the hashish. Plenty of people would risk compelte insanity for the monkey smackin' fornication.

I'm not doing any research to see about the dangers of marijuana. It's illegal and just leave it at that. If someone told you that eating a single candy bar would turn your hair brilliantly red, start limping, talking like a pirate, and eating small live woodland creatures, would you believe them? That is about as realistic as this movie. I can't say that marijuana causes maniacal laughter, frantic dancing, love of jazz, and superior piano playing. According to this film, one toke turns you into a raging dope fiend. Ralph smokes so much he goes completely insane, and his brain is more baked than Tommy Chong. With as many completely baseless accusations, I'm surprised they didn't claim that marijuana abuse will lead to male pattern baldness and rabies. Those wouldn't be much less realistic than anything else in this movie. I don't know the medical problems but research has shown some. Though anyone researching and using a website called sideorderofninjas for medical information is probably a few strands of dopamine from a synapse firing.

Quotable Dialogue
"He's a little too old for us that's what my dad says..."
"Well, that bunch last night was high enough to take over the marines and the navy!"
"Yes. I remember. Just a young boy... under the influence of drugs... who killed his entire family with an axe."
"I went home and told mother that the trouble with her pot roast gravy was that she hadn't added three heaping teaspoonfuls of olive oil."
"I'm going to ask you a straightforward question: isn't it true that you have, perhaps unwillingly, acquired a certain habit through association with certain undesirable people?"
Morals of the Story
"Fictionized" is a word.
Children of rich divorced parents are too be shunned as if they have the plague.
Teenage guys will do anything to prove they're not cowards.
Marijuana grows wild in every state.
Marijuana causes bad tennis skills.
Fostering moral deliquency is a crime.