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Marihuana, 1936
In this exploitation-pretending-to-be-educational film, teenager Burma (Harley Wood) and her boyfriend, Dick (Hugh McArthur) get mixed up with drug pusher Tony (Pat Carlyle), leading to multiple tragedies.
This is the kind of movie where you very much have to distinguish between watching it with any sort of sincerity, and watching it for laughs.
Taken at face value, it's pretty garbage. The things attributed to the use of marijuana are a joke and the characters are very silly.
Maybe one of my favorite things about the film is that the awful behavior on display---including Dick getting too aggressive with Burma as she tries to push him away, a young woman waving around a shotgun at a crowded party--happens before any of the characters even catch sight of any pot. These are things that they do when they are drunk, and the behaviors we see after they get high are, honestly, the kind of things that I more associate with people who have been drinking, such as going swimming while intoxicated.
Another layer of absurdity is that the characters are meant to be in high school, but not a one of them looks any younger than mid-20s, and the actor playing Dick was 31. Every time one of them talks about needing to do algebra homework it rings incredibly false. The movie also can't help but tip its exploitation agenda in an overly long sequence where several young women go skinny dipping. I would estimate that 5-10% of this movie consisted of giggling naked women scurrying around a dark beach. (Don't worry homophobes, the "high school" boys never remove a single article of clothing from their suits.)
In terms of ironic viewing, though, this is a winner. At a brisk 57 minutes, there's plenty to mock but without overstaying its welcome. The short runtime also adds to the ridiculousness on show, as a character goes from clean-cut high schooler to jaded heroin peddler in, like, 20 minutes of movie time.
"Recommended", with heavy air quotes.
Marihuana, 1936
In this exploitation-pretending-to-be-educational film, teenager Burma (Harley Wood) and her boyfriend, Dick (Hugh McArthur) get mixed up with drug pusher Tony (Pat Carlyle), leading to multiple tragedies.
This is the kind of movie where you very much have to distinguish between watching it with any sort of sincerity, and watching it for laughs.
Taken at face value, it's pretty garbage. The things attributed to the use of marijuana are a joke and the characters are very silly.
Maybe one of my favorite things about the film is that the awful behavior on display---including Dick getting too aggressive with Burma as she tries to push him away, a young woman waving around a shotgun at a crowded party--happens before any of the characters even catch sight of any pot. These are things that they do when they are drunk, and the behaviors we see after they get high are, honestly, the kind of things that I more associate with people who have been drinking, such as going swimming while intoxicated.
Another layer of absurdity is that the characters are meant to be in high school, but not a one of them looks any younger than mid-20s, and the actor playing Dick was 31. Every time one of them talks about needing to do algebra homework it rings incredibly false. The movie also can't help but tip its exploitation agenda in an overly long sequence where several young women go skinny dipping. I would estimate that 5-10% of this movie consisted of giggling naked women scurrying around a dark beach. (Don't worry homophobes, the "high school" boys never remove a single article of clothing from their suits.)
In terms of ironic viewing, though, this is a winner. At a brisk 57 minutes, there's plenty to mock but without overstaying its welcome. The short runtime also adds to the ridiculousness on show, as a character goes from clean-cut high schooler to jaded heroin peddler in, like, 20 minutes of movie time.
"Recommended", with heavy air quotes.