Marihuana (1936)

One of my all time favorites.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Not badly made for a low budget film of 1936. This is not propaganda, as others have termed it, but it actually has a plot and even a bit of a twist. Somewhat "shocking" for a film of this era, it has sex, nudity, unwanted pregnancy, and alcohol/drug abuse. Interestingly, this film is not about substance abuse in the ghetto but in more affluent households.The plot follows a purported teenager (although she is the oldest looking teenager I have ever seen in film) as she progresses from drinking to marijuana use, to heroin use. The symptoms of narcotic use are either exaggerated or ignored (with marijuana use people giggle non-stop while with heroin use there is no depressant effect) but the process of progressing from alcohol and marijuana to serious drug use and even drug dealing is accurate to this day.Contrary to the title, don't expect it to be about marijuana, but about drug use in general and you will enjoy it.

I know some of you may hate this movie because it is so badly made. Or because the theme is so strikingly nonsensical. But believe me, it is a real hoot. It's a mid '30s version of "Just say no". It's fantastic in its ignorance.Back in the '70's I could still buy a five finger dime bag full of seeds and stems. The lid was horrid "paraquat weed", but you could still get it for ten bucks. This movie takes it back a whole new way. Absolute nonsense front to back, this baby has a big new meaning today. It's a laugh riot. Guaranteed to make you giggle, provided you're high on weed (yes, I see the irony).The Cheesedick that made this monster obviously never smoked any weed himself, or he'd have known better than to produce this dreck of a movie. It's funny as hell though, seen through modern eyes.Watch it under the influence of some "giggle water", or "giggle weed". Trust me, it's great.

Based on the script and technical aspects of this film, I should have rated it "one star." But I'm giving it a five because it's so campy that it's worth a few laughs. And I am not a doper...I've never even inhaled! This is definitely the poor relation of "Reefer Madness," which has higher technical quality and is more entertaining overall. "Marihuana" is just jaw-droppingly awful, with weed blamed for virtually all vices, many of which are shown on screen (including...gasp...spraying a woman's backside with soda!). The budget was so low that the producers used classical music clips instead of a real soundtrack, so the dangers of dope are underscored by Strauss, Liszt, and others.This is just a nasty little low-budget exploitation film, using the dope scare as an excuse to titillate the audience.

Beating the more famous "Reefer Madness" into the theaters by all of about 15 minutes, "Marihuana" is yet another morality play whose producer tries to pass off a warning about the evils of marijuana use as an excuse for the picture's real reason for being: a nude swim scene (shot so darkly that the participants can barely even be seen). A group of the oldest-looking teenagers you've ever seen (and don't you just love movies with teenagers being played by actors old enough to be the PARENTS of teenagers) fall in with the wrong crowd, and soon there's a drowning, a shooting, an unwanted pregnancy, a kidnapping (of a child you just know was supposed to be the next Shirley Temple, at least in the minds of her parents), and an ending that has to be seen to be disbelieved. All in all, a truly mind-bending experience that would rival any that could come from the actual use of marijuana.