Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The "Citizen Kane" of marijuana films, it's "Reefer Madness", March 2, 2006
In the history of camp, the piano player getting high in the closet in "Reefer Madness" is as iconic as Scarlett vowing she will never be hungry again. There are lots of copies of this 1936 film out there on DVD and VHS, but do not be surprised if when the title comes up in the beginning is says "Dope Addict," "Dope Youth," "Love Madness," "Tell Your Children," or "The Burning Question," because roadhouse pictures like this one kept getting reissued under different titles (although some argue that "Tell Your Children" is actually the original title). Actually, if you see a copy of this movie and the title of the actual film is "Reefer Madness," count yourself pretty lucky. The important thing here is that you understand marijuana is dangerous. As the tag line for this movie points out: "Women Cry For It - Men Die For It!" So you know it is bad, very bad indeed.
The movie begins with Dr. Carroll (Josef Forte), principal of the local high school, warning the parents he has assembled against the dangers of marijuana and telling the story of Bill Harper (Kenneth Craig) and Mary Lane (Dorothy Short). The two youngsters 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. The only problem is that by the time this film started making the college circuit in the late 1960s and early 1970s it was clear that smoking marijuana made you space out not laugh hysterically. So the great irony was that watching movies like "Reefer Madness," "Assassin of Youth," or the other anti-drug movies from the 1930s made you laugh hysterically (even if you were watching without contributing to the haze that hung in the air). This is the movie that defined "camp" for my generation.
"Reefer Madness" also represents the birth of the exploitation genre, where as you long as you had that scroll at the introduction insisting your were doing a public service by warning the public against the evils of ________. You can put anything you want in that blank: marijuana, LSD, adultery, teen pregnancy, devil cults, and every thing else under ths sun that allows you to show sex and/or violence to the general public. When you see "Reefer Madness" you have not seen them all, just the tip of the exploitation iceberg. However, once you check out the original your best bet is to check out the musical version of "Reefer Madness" that was recently released. That way you can end your cinematic experience of the dangers of the demon weed on a high note.
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