What a great movie. I never got around to watching it until today–best 50 cents at Family Video I ever spent. The Better Half had never actually sat down and watched it, either.
We all sat there on the couch watching it together, all five Gooses. I tried to explain to the little Gooses, going in, what “camp” means. A difficult concept.
La Principessa was bored almost immediately, when the love story between Mary and Bill didn’t go the way her fifth-grade Barbie & Ken sensibilities dictated, so she went in the dining room and chatted with friends on the phone.
But Bonzo and The Cat Who Walks Alone hung in there and were amply rewarded. They especially enjoyed the bit about the reefer addict who went berserk and killed his entire family with an axe. They’ve led sheltered lives, true (The Cat was genuinely unaware that “marihuana” has a distinctive odor), but they’ve watched enough TV and movies to know that people who are stoned don’t usually laugh hysterically and dance around wildly and rip their clothes off and play the piano like maniacs.
I finally had to Pause it at one point and explain how the filmmakers were trying to present “the dread marihuana” as being like opium, and that May’s apartment was melodramatically being made out to be like an “opium den”. Everybody watching this movie in 1936 would have known what an opium den was. Then I had to explain what an opium den was. The Cat exclaimed in astonishment, “That was legal?!” No, no, no…
The Better Half’s favorite part was how none of the “addicts” portrayed on screen were even inhaling. He traveled with a fairly fast set during high school and thought this was a real hoot.
I love it when May is at the piano, and she’s got a joint dangling from her lips, and she’s just a-puffin’ away, while the freaky blond guy (can’t remember his name right off the bat) keeps telling her to play “faster! Play it faster!” Yeah, right. Get someone stoned, then tell them to do something faster? NOT!
I also like the other weird guy in the closet, puffing and laughing maniacally. The smoke is hardly entering his mouth, let alone his lungs!
I have a weakness for the drug/hygiene/exploitation films of that era. They’re a real hoot!
Heh, I really like exploitation films like that. Maniac, Marijuana: The Weed With Its Roots In Hell, and How to Undress in Front of Your Husband. Though Reefer Madness is one of the funnier ones.
What I love about those films is that when Hollywood was trying to censor everybody and even came out with a rules of “Do’s & Don’ts,” they just balked at them. Films made to titilate above all else and they couldn’t be shut down. You have to respect something like that.
No no no! See, I learned from watching this movie that there’s a difference between Marijuana and Marihuana! Marijuana makes you tired, lazy, and generally hungry for junk food. Mostly harmless. From what Reefer Madness claims, Marihuana (also known as Anti-Marijuana) makes you ax-murder your family, go insane, and jump out of windows. Stay away from this stuff!!! I learned my lesson!
