by Joy Cooke

Created on: August 22, 2009   Last Updated: August 23, 2009

I was at a loose end a few nights ago and decided to have a look at some of the old films which are now in the public domain and can now be viewed legally online, one which stood out was Reefer Madness which I remember half watching many years ago and after reading a positive review on here about it I decided to switch it on and have a giggle at the remembered over the top assumptions made in the 1930's regarding the use of cannabis.

The film was made as a public information broadcast back in 1936 although it's highly disputed as to just who authorised and created it, the most probable explanation being that a church group was behind the making of the film although it could well have been government driven as Reefer Madness followed the period of alcohol prohibition which ended in 1933 in the US.

The plot is very simple. At the beginning of the film we are introduced to Dr Carroll, a professor who is lecturing the parents of his students on the dangers of marijuana. Dr Carroll then becomes the narrator as the film moves along to follow the downward spiral of a group of youngsters who are pulled into a life of deceit and crime after meeting evil adults who corrupt them with drink and free 'reefers'.

Mae and Jack play the drug pushers of the time, Jack entices many 'kids' (as he calls them) into Mae's apartment where they hold parties along with two of their friends, Blanche and Ralph. It's during these parties that the kids become hopelessly hooked on cannabis, throughout this tale we are lead to believe that teenagers are regularly brought for these parties in batches although Reefer Madness features on just one group who are personally known by Dr Carroll.

The evil marijuana eventually causes a hit and run car accident, the murder of a young girl, suicide and the committal of one of the pushers to a mental asylum as the drug takes over his mind and fills him with guilt at how he has treated these young people.

The acting in Reefer Madness is as appalling as you would expect from a film made 73 years ago; I found it wooden, inconsistent and downright comical in places but then actors appearing in films of this era rarely exhibit the polished performances of modern day actors. As Mae I thought Thelma White gave the best performance of the film, her character is a brooding one who knows that what she is doing in wrong - she has no qualms about selling marijuana to adults but is swept along with what Jack wants and it for this reason alone that she

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