Reefer Madness
(1936)
|
|
| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Reefer Madness
(1936)
|
|
| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Complete credited cast: | |||
|
|
Dorothy Short | ... | |
|
|
Kenneth Craig | ... |
Bill
|
|
|
Lillian Miles | ... | |
| Dave O'Brien | ... | ||
|
|
Thelma White | ... | |
|
|
Carleton Young | ... | |
|
|
Warren McCollum | ... |
Jimmy
(as Warren McCullom)
|
|
|
Patricia Royale | ... |
Agnes
(as Pat Royale)
|
|
|
Joseph Forte | ... |
Dr. Carroll
(as Josef Forte)
|
|
|
Harry Harvey Jr. | ... |
Junior
|
Propaganda film that relates the story, as told by high school principal Dr. Carroll to parents at a PTA meeting, of the scourge of marijuana. The tale revolves around Mae and Jack, accomplices in the distribution of marijuana, who manage to entice the local high school kids to stop by Mae's apartment to smoke reefer. The lives of all who are involved with this menace are inevitably shattered. One man becomes so addicted to the killer weed that the guilt over framing a teen for murder causes a judge to order him to be committed for life to a mental hospital! Dr. Carroll closes by advising us to not incur the same tragedy. Written by Rick Gregory <rag.apa@email.apa.org>
Because of 70's NORML propaganda falsely claiming that the FBI sponsored Reefer Madness, most viewers believe that this Exploitation classic was meant to be taken seriously. Not so! Thelma White (Mae) has noted in interviews that the producers and director Louis Gasnier asked the cast to "hoke it up." The famous "Faster, Faster" scene is, in fact, a direct parody of a similar scene in the classic musical 42nd Street (a scene in which Dave O'Brien--Ralph in Reefer Madness--played a chorus boy).
So why make a cautionary tale, but do so tongue-in-cheek? Simple. To get around the Hays Code and show more skin than the Code allowed...but also to capitalize on the public's fear of drugs. Either way, the producers made a ton of money on the Exploitation circuit--more than covering their costs for this relatively expensive sub-Poverty Row production.
Made over the course of 3 weeks (most Exploitation films were shot in a few days), using an experienced director and a couple of talented actors who went on to have respectable careers in Hollywood, Reefer Madness is quite simply the finest Exploitation film to come out of the 30's.
The film's funny, is it? Well, the folks who made it thought so too. And they laughed all the way to the bank.