Devil's Harvest

When the new and tougher Production Code was put into place in mid-1934, movies suddenly were sanitized of all potentially offensive material. Up until this time, sex, drugs, adultery, abortion and so many other taboo topics were anything but taboo. But starting in 1934, filmmakers were in a quandary...how could they appeal to the baser instincts of many folks? The answer were so-called 'educational films'....movies that purported to warn parents against various sins but were mostly just excuses to SHOW all this vice! And, since many theaters refused to show these films, folks often made the films and drove across the country showing them in special engagements in a wide variety of venues. At least 90% of these movies were garbage...with abysmal acting and writing. They also often gave false and confusing messages that either actually ENCOURAGED the sinful behavior or dispensed 'facts' that were completely ridiculous. Some of the worst of them were "Sex Madness", "Reefer Madness" and "She Shoulda Said No!"....but these are just a few of hundreds of terrible exploitation films of the era.

Is "Devil's Harvest" one of the terrible exploitation movies that strange people (like me) enjoy laughing at today because they are so inept and silly? Well, it's not good...nor is as laughably bad as some of the more egregious examples.

This film is about the evils of marijuana and a gang who have infiltrated a town and are corrupting the youth. At a local 'dance club' young people dance....and succumb to the evils of pot! In one scene, a huge fight breaks out...caused by pot. So the police investigate and send in an undercover agent to flush out the demons responsible for wacky tobacky.

As you'd expect, the acting looks unprofessional and is highly uneven. A few of the 'actors' aren't bad...but most obviously are NOT professionals and it shows. Additionally, the effects of marijuana are greatly overstated (not surprising) but don't sink to the level of the piano playing guy in "Reefer Madness"! Overall, a very bad film that is entertaining and funny in it's own way....provided you like watching craptastic movies.

Perfectly awful "anti-marijuana" film in the "Reefer Madness" mode. This is one of the worst in this genre, but it's not without its share of unintentional laughs: a "dealer" has a hot dog stand and puts joints in the bun before selling them; there's a night club in a storage building so threadbare that only Ed Wood Jr. could love it; and a cheap image of the devil is superimposed on the goings-on here and there. The acting is so bad one wonders if the cast was on -- as they say in the movie -- "loco weed" for real. Less than an hour long but feels a lot longer. A much better -- but still not good -- film of this type is "She Shoulda Said No," which is far more entertaining.