Undescribable Perfection

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Can anybody identify the dance they were doing in the opening scene? The film opens with some brief but beautiful cinematic dance moments. It's not nearly as well-shot or dynamic as some of the Lindy Hop footage that turns up later in the 20th Century. But it is some of the best dancing done by such staid characters Iv'e seen in an American movie. The American men danced like Europeans or South Americans.It's all for naught though. That little two-step marijuana mania ultimately leads to lies, cheating, stealing, fighting, death and ironic tragedy. I appreciate the plot devices employed by early directors who could not rely on CG and explosions every act. There is a nice bit of storytelling going on here in spite of the moralizing and slut-shaming.

Notorious exploitation film producer Dwain Esper of "Sex Madness" infamy helmed this anti-marihuana propaganda epic with a modicum of finesse. The Hildegarde Stadie screenplay chronicles a clueless young girl's downward spiral into a vortex of crime and narcotics trafficking because she inhaled the wicked demon weed. Indeed, grass emerges as a gateway drug in "Marihuana," but this low-budget melodrama lacks the campy quality of "Reefer Madness." Although both films pontificate about the perils of getting high, "Marihuana" adopts a more straightforward approach, and the consequences of abusing this drug proves far more dangerous for our heroine. Furthermore, the drug dealers here are more sinister individuals. "Marihuana" boasts better than average production values, particularly in its opening bar sequence. Mind you, nothing here which was reportedly based on police files has a puff of credibility. The teenagers who succumb to the scourge of marihuana are led down a path of deception by natty, well-heeled mobsters who resemble Italians. Once these objectionable individuals latch their tentacles onto somebody like our impressionable leading lady, the end is a foregone conclusion. What sets "Marihuana" apart from other drugs-ploitation drivel is one scene where a group of delirious dames disrobe after toking, scramble down to the beach at night, and go for a swim. Esper treats us to some nudity, something almost unheard of in mainstream 1930s cinema. Predictably, our unfortunate heroine lowers her guard among other things with her boyfriend in his convertible and winds up pregnant. Just to exacerbate matters, the boyfriend dies when the authorities catch him toting a bag of marihuana. The gangsters convince our heroine to have her child and then give it up for adoption. Throughout the action, she is jealous of her other sister and eventually, she persuades the two mobsters to kidnap her sister's little girl and hold her for ransom. Our heroine receives the shock of her life when she learns more about his sister's child."Marihuana" opens with this cautionary preamble. "Foreword. For centuries the world has been aware of the narcotic menace. We have complacently watched Asiatic countries attempt to rid themselves of DRUGS CURSE, and attributed their failure to lack of education. We consider ourselves enlightened and think that never could we succumb to such a fare. But--did you know that--the use of marihuana is steadily increasing among the youth of this country? Did you know that--the youthful criminal is our greatest problem today? And that--Marihuana gives the user false courage, and destroys conscience thereby making crime alluring, smart? That is the price we are paying for our lack of interest in the narcotic situation. This story is drawn from an actual case history on file in the police records of one of our large cities. Note: MARIHUANA, Hashish of the Orient, is commonly distributed as a doped cigarette. Its most terrifying effect is that it fires the user to extreme cruelty and license."Burma Roberts (Harley Wood of "Valley of Terror") is jealous of her older sister Elaine (Dorothy Dehn of "Madame Satan") because her mother lavishes more attention on Elaine. Consequently, Burma prefers to party with her boyfriend Dick Collier (Hugh McArthur of "Panama Patrol") and sometimes they park and make out. Eventually, Burma encounters two shady but suave strangers, Tony (Paul Ellis of "Ninotchka") and Nick (Pat Carlyle of "The Irish Gringo"), in a night club. Tony invites Burma and her friends over to his place for drinks next Saturday night. After the party at the nightclub, Dick and Burma park on a hillside overlooking the city in his Ford Model A Roadster,and Dick gets fresh with Burma. She storms off on foot, but doesn't get far before Dick picks up and takes her home. She gets in at 11 PM and asks her mother why she cannot have an evening gown like all the other girls. "Everything that I have is Elaine's," Burma complains. "Why can't I have one of my very own." Her mom asks about her homework and Burma lies that she has finished it.Later, at the party, the guys guzzle alcohol while the gals fire up some marijuana cigarettes. They laugh uproariously and then go skinny-dipping in the surf. As it turns out, one of the girls who went skinny-dipping party--Joan Marsh--swims out too far and dies. When Burma informs her boyfriend about her pregnancy, she bugs him to marry her. Dick assures her everything will be okay and Tony and Nick give him a job. Unfortunately, Dick is helping unload smuggled marihuana when the authorities strike. He dies in his alacrity to escape their clutches. When Burma hears about this news, she leaves home, gives birth to the child and then puts it up for adoption. Burma plunges into harder drugs) and uses needles to inject heroin into herself. During the film's finale, Burma concocts a scheme to abduct her sister's adopted daughter for $50,000. Imagine Burma's surprise later when she finds out that the child is, in fact, her own.

The first time I came across this film was at my local CD/DVD store and it gained my attention just for the "very direct" title however just that. Later I bought the book "Film Posters: Exploitation", a very recommended series of books by the way, and the poster of Marihuana not only appears inside it, with the information and stuff, but also illustrates the back cover of it. Upon that this film was more interesting to me, as many others that are mentioned in that book, but that DVD disappeared from my local store (the space for R1 DVDs has been reduced to introduce the Blu-ray format and obviously there are mainly blockbusters and TV series on that format). I just came across with Marihuana again a few days ago at a bookstore and definitely I had to get it just for that curiosity. I knew what kind of film I was going to watch (to me is odd to see a 1936 film with the following stuff as advertisement: WEIRD ORGIES. WILD PARTIES. UNLEASHED PASSIONS!) and you can imagine just by reading the little synopsis from the DVD. "With a central message that using marihuana incites the user to extreme cruelty ad license", is something from that synopsis. And the way the film begins says everything; it begins with a sort of advertisement that indicates that in America the narcotic problem is growing and that the following real story shows that problem.The story begins showing the typical stereotype of young boys and young girls who spend their Saturdays in hanging out and drinking some beers. So we see the classic mother worrying about the behaviour of her daughter and stuff. And we have the adults who see these young people perfect for their business. When the protagonist girl smokes marihuana and after that she laughs to the camera a couple of times is when the beginning of the end is. We watch the consequences and I'm pretty much agreed with user planktonrules about the things that happen once on drugs, about the naked ladies running in the beach. Coming back to those consequences in short, that girl ends as a drug dealer after her boyfriend gets killed during his first job for the same man who gave the drugs to his friends and girlfriend and who will be the boss of his girlfriend. So everything moves quite fast to end with what the creator thought was kind of the strongest message against the use of drugs. A film that goes straight to its point, during only one hour we watch many consequences of the use of drugs like some deaths. A drug dealer, kidnaps, etc. A film that took advantage of the times and wanted to give its damn message, and with a title like that, is a film to make us laugh. We really can have fun with this cult film and in its own craziness (ridiculousness) I wanted more crazy (ridiculous) stuff like that scene of the pay of the kidnapping. Picture this, the drug dealers, including our protagonist, kidnapped a little girl so there's the meeting to interchange the money for the little girl. The father says that they are not going to pay because after all, the little girl who lives with them and who they supposedly love is not their biological daughter!!!!!!! So is like they don't f****** care about the little girl who lives with them and who thinks they are her parents!!!!! And that mentioned "strong" message ends with the fact that our drug dealer protagonist kidnapped the little girl who was the daughter of her sister but actually the little girl was her daughter. Damn, Marihuana could have been so much more fun however it was worth to watch it just for that curiosity.

Dwain Esper, the man who makes Ed Wood look like Orson Wells, came out with this movie around 1935 or so. (Judging by the clothing, I'd say it was filmed about a year earlier.) Films like this were made perporting to show the evils of the world but instead showcased rough acting, stilted writing, sparce sets, bad lighting, static camerawork and starlets lifting their skirts and disrobing in doctors offices. More money was spent and more creative energy invested into hyping the films when they played in rural towns with a public eager to see any film that would show them skin and insanity to take the edge off their boring lives.Harlene Wood gives an uneaven proformance as Burma Roberts, the central character. The other actors, all complete unknowns both then and now, lend even worse acting to their roles as cops, drug addicts, gangsters and teenage girls who look like thirty-five-year-old stag film actresses. The script is also badly written, clearly having been scratched out in a few days time. There are some interesting sets, like the interior of the villains cabin with the stone fireplace and balcony, and some nice camera set-ups, but the filmmakers' megre budget and lack of technical ability is pretty easily discernable throughout.Personally, I like this film. It's amusing, fairly inventive at times (that scene with the drunk spilling his beer at the beginning), and the scene with the girls stripping down and running around on the beach is still hard to beleave (it's certainly not arousing in the least bit, though). Overall, it's a better film than Tell Your Children (1938), more enjoyable and way more misguided.