About Reefer Madness (1936)
The story behind the film
Reefer Madness began life in 1936 as Tell Your Children, a low-budget morality tale produced by George Hirliman and directed by Louis J. Gasnier, a veteran of the silent era. It was financed by a church group and meant to warn parents about the supposed dangers of marijuana. Exploitation producer Dwain Esper later bought the film, added more lurid shots, and sent it around the "roadshow" circuit under several titles — Reefer Madness, The Burning Question, Doped Youth — where sensational subjects could be sold as moral instruction.
The plot is framed as a lecture by a high-school principal to a parents' meeting. A pair of dealers lure teenagers to their apartment, and a single puff leads, in quick succession, to a hit-and-run, a fatal shooting, a wrongful conviction, madness and suicide. The film ends with the principal pointing at the audience and warning that the next tragedy may be "yours!"
Cast & crew
- Directed by Louis J. Gasnier; produced by George Hirliman
- Dorothy Short as Mary Lane
- Kenneth Craig as Bill Harper
- Dave O'Brien as Ralph Wiley
- Thelma White as Mae Coleman
- Carleton Young as Jack Perry
- Lillian Miles as Blanche
- Josef Forte as Dr. Alfred Carroll
Why it's worth watching
Few films have aged so spectacularly badly. The overheated acting, frantic piano-playing and wildly exaggerated claims made it a favourite of 1970s midnight screenings, and Leonard Maltin called it "the granddaddy of all 'Worst' movies." It is also a genuine historical document of 1930s drug panic and of the exploitation-film business that sidestepped Hollywood's Production Code.
Fun facts
- In 1972 the founder of NORML, Keith Stroup, found a copy in the Library of Congress and screened it on college campuses to raise money for a marijuana-legalisation campaign.
- Robert Shaye of New Line Cinema noticed its improper copyright notice and distributed it nationally, helping fund his young company.
- It inspired a 1998 stage musical, adapted as a 2005 TV movie starring Kristen Bell and Alan Cumming.
Public-domain status
The film carried an improper copyright notice, so it is in the U.S. public domain. We show the original black-and-white version; the 2004 colorized release is a separate copyrighted work and is not used. See "Rights & source" below.