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Storyline
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>
Plot Summary
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Plot Synopsis
Taglines:
THE INSIDE STORY OF THRILL-SEEKING GIRLS! (print ad - Lubbock Evening Journal - Lyric Theatre - Lubbock, Texas - October 15, 1947 - all caps)
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The origins of this film have been the subject of controversy. Although this film is not in the copyrighted registry, the opening card reads: Formerly "Tell Your Children" - An G and H Production - Copyrighted" (though without a copyright date). American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1939 establishes its production date as 1938, even though some erroneous modern sources, including IMDb, apparently confusing it with some similar film, occasionally, but erroneously, give 1936. Some say it was produced by a church group in the wake of the Victor Licata 1933 murder case.
Dwain Esper sued a distribution company in the 1960s, claiming that he had produced the film for the US Army and that he was the legal copyright owner. He lost the case.
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Goofs
The same art deco ashtray that Mae Coleman has on top her piano (as well as the piano) also appears in the famous "Play Faster!" scene (where Ralph is in hiding from the cops and the girl plays piano for him while he's high).
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Quotes
[
Jack fixes Mae a drink that is not filled as high as she'd prefer]
Mae:
Hey, what an I? An orphan?
[
he pours more into the glass]
Jack:
Where do you put it? D'ya got a hollow leg?
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Crazy Credits
FOREWORD: The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly-increasing numbers. Marihuana is that drug - a violent narcotic - an unspeakable scourge - The Real Public Enemy Number One! Its first effect is sudden, violent, uncontrollable laughter; then come dangerous hallucinations - space expands - time slows down, almost stands still ....fixed ideas come next, conjuring up monstrous extravagances - followed by emotional disturbances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions... leading finally to acts of shocking violence... ending often in incurable insanity. In picturing its soul-destroying effects no attempt was made to equivocate. The scenes and incidents, while fictionized for the purposes of this story, are based upon actual research into the results of Marihuana addiction. If their stark reality will make you think, will make you aware that something must be done to wipe out this ghastly menace, then the picture will not have failed in its purpose.... Because the dread Marihuana may be reaching forth next for your son or daughter....or yours....or YOURS!
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Alternate Versions
The scenes of Hotfinger toking up in the closet at the restaurant and Mary getting lit by Ralph were censored from some prints.
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Connections
Referenced in
Docventures: Hamppu (2013)
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I doubt that anyone still takes this movie seriously these days but it's funny seeing how people went paranoid about pot in the 30's. There are lots of wildly exaggerated or plain wrong comments and accusations in it. Best among them are that pot is more dangerous than Heroin, it will make you violent and eventually incurably insane.
The film details how smoking pot changes the lives of a couple of all-american teenagers. In fact, they're so clean cut, nice to their parents and just plain perfect that you're actually happy when their lives turn bad. On the way there we see some really funny overacting and the way that middle America thought people behaved after smoking pot. A single puff immediately has you in hysterics, after a couple of minutes it's down to pre-marital sex (hey, that's enough to get me hooked!), followed by a violent paranoia and finally of course, insanity.
The film is fairly standard propaganda stuff and follows the three important propaganda ingredients to a T. It's badly acted, exaggerated in hammering home a couple of points and frightening the uninformed about the fact that no one is safe from this great danger. It is however fairly lengthy for a propaganda movie and it's not as ridiculous as I expected. Although there are some really funny scenes that rightly make this a classic.