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Reefer Madness (1938)Rate Movie
                                      Directed by | Louis
J. Gasnier
Reefer Madness is a 1936 propaganda film revolving around the tragic events that follow when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marihuana": a hit and run accident, manslaughter, suicide, rape, and descent into madness all ensue. The film was directed by Louis J. Gasnier and starred a cast composed of mostly unknown bit actors. It was originally financed by a church group and made under the title Tell Your Children. The film was intended to be shown to parents as a morality tale attempting to teach them about the dangers of cannabis use. However, soon after the film was shot, it was purchased by producer Dwain Esper, who recut the film for distribution on the exploitation film circuit. The film never gained an audience until it was rediscovered in the 1970s and gained new life as a piece of unintentional comedy among cannabis smokers. Today, it is in the public domain in the United States and is considered a cult film. It inspired a musical satire, which premiered off-broadway in 2001, and a Showtime film, Reefer Madness, based on the musical. "Reefer Madness" is the best example of propaganda that was used to give false information to the public on the effects of Marijuana.
Plot Bill begins an affair with Blanche. Mary, Jimmy's sister and Bill's girlfriend, goes to Mae's apartment looking for Jimmy, and accepts a joint from Ralph, thinking it to be a normal cigarette. When she refuses Ralph's advances, he tries to rape her. Bill comes out of the bedroom after having sex with Blanche, and hallucinates that Mary strips for Ralph. He attacks Ralph, and as the two are fighting, Jack tries to break it up by hitting Bill with the butt of his gun. The gun goes off, and Mary is killed. Jack puts the gun in the hand of an unconscious Bill, and wakes him up. Bill sees the gun in his hand, and is led to believe that he has killed Mary. Bill is sent to prison. The group of dealers lie low for a while in Blanche's apartment while Bill's trial takes place. Ralph, losing his sanity, wants to tell the police who is actually responsible for the death of Mary. The film attributes Ralph's insanity to marijuana use.
Ralph is arrested for Jack's murder. The film's story is told in bracketing sequences at a lecture given at a PTA meeting by a high school principal, Dr. Alfred Carrol. At the end of the film, he tells the parents he has been talking to that events similar to those he has described are likely to happen again, and then points to random parents in the audience and warns that "the next tragedy may be that of your daughter's... or your son's... or yours, or yours..." before pointing straight at the camera and saying emphatically "...or YOURS!" as the words "TELL YOUR CHILDREN" flash on the screen.
History The film was reissued under a number of alternate titles, including The Burning Question, Dope Addict, Doped Youth and Love Madness. The concept of after-market films in film distribution had not yet been developed, especially for films that existed outside the confines of the studio system, and were therefore considered "forbidden fruit." For this reason, neither Esper nor the original filmmakers bothered to protect the film's copyright, and it eventually fell into the public domain. In 1971, Reefer Madness was discovered in the Library of Congress archives by NORML founder Keith Stroup, who bought a print for $297, and made it the darling of pot smokers and college campuses. For this modern audience the poor production values and overacting create an uproarious comedy. Stroup is also responsible for the notion that the film was originally created as a propaganda piece. Distributing Reefer Madness to college campuses of the 1970s helped bankroll the burgeoning film company New Line Cinema. In 1973 a young Karl Rove, then on his way to becoming the chairman of the College Republicans, suggested (in a memorandum to president Nixon's counselor Anne Armstrong) showing nonpolitical films for fund-raising (e.g. John Wayne flicks, ‘Reefer Madness’) at College Republican clubs as part of a strategy to raise support for the Republican party among students. Today, Reefer Madness is considered to be a cult classic, and one of the best examples of a midnight movie. Its fans enjoy the film for the same unintentionally campy production values that made it a hit in the 1970s. The film was spoofed in a musical of the same name, which was later made into a made-for-television film in 2005, which featured major actors such as Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, and Ana Gasteyer.
The colorized version The DVD also included a short film called Grandpa's Marijuana Handbook, a new trailer for Reefer Madness, produced by Legend Films, and two audio commentaries, one discussing the color design and the other being a comedic commentary by Michael J. Nelson, formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Legend Films owns the copyright to the colorized version of Reefer Madness. While most have praised the new color version for its campy treatment of the cult film, some viewers claimed that the color choices would better suit a film about LSD than a film about cannabis. The colorized DVD was a major success.
In popular culture modified: 2007-12-12 19:22:03
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