The Devil's Joint (1969)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A documentary tracing the evolution of the marijuana "scare films", movies that were made from the early teens to the late '60s to warn adults and teenagers of the "evils" of marijuana use. |

Plot Keywords:

Marijuana | Underground | Cult | First Of Its Kind | Title Cards

Cast

Richard Nixon

...

Himself (archive footage)

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Company:

Metrolina Films

Trivia:

The Devil's Joint, a groundbreaking underground documentary about marijuana propaganda films, preceded Ron Mann's documentary Grass (1999) by thirty years.

Movie Connections:

Features The Pace That Kills (1928)

Soundtrack:

Reefer Man

Enjoyable mixture of trailers & film clips

Nothing like "Reefer Madness" (which had a story-line), but scenes from that film are widely used here, as well as clips from many other low-budget "smokers" (and by "smokers", I don't mean blue-movies).

Some of the clips used are from silent films, and I must admit that they whetted my appetite for those obscure movies. Unfortunately, the titles these clips are from are not revealed to us.

I recognized some of the scenes from "sound" films, as I have the "source" films in my own film library.

Not only is "Reefer Madness" heavily drawn upon (no pun intended), but so is the 1930's film "Marijuana".

All in all, "The Devil's Joint" is a compact compilation of earlier exploitation films, and an enjoyable one at that.

The 1930's "jazzy" reefer music is the best part of this package. It's not the same music that originally accompanied the films the clips are from. The score was added to the completed compilation in 1969 (as was the narration).

I found myself rewinding, and then replaying scenes, just for some of the great piano and "blues-y" musical numbers.

Enjoy! - I rated this 9-- mostly for the music!