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Camp classic by exploitation master Dwain Esper. A clean cut bunch of obviously over-age "kids" become addicted to marijuana after one puff! They giggle uncontrollably, engage in nude skinny-dipping (mild female nudity), sex and it all leads to a drowning, alcoholism, heroin addiction, kidnapping, pregnancy and death.

This is a very silly movie--another one of those ones where the people making it had no idea what they were doing. Most of the acting is terrible and the story is downright ridiculous at times (and hard to follow--the surviving prints are in terrible shape). Still it's not worthless. It moves quickly (only 57 minutes), there were actually some pretty clever directorial touches and Harley Wood was pretty good in her lead role. So it's worth a look if you're curious. On par with "Reefer Madness".

I love these 30s exploitation flicks! This one definitely builds on the stereotypes of marihuana and its evil effects. Victims under the influence of this terrible narcotic wear menacing smiles and blank eyed stares. They gad about and jiggle in nightclubs while intoxicating themselves on copious amounts of alcohol as if mesmerized by the music. You will love how a couple of puffs/tokes/hits turn a group of young women into hysterical, sex crazed floozies! Man, that scene was funny.

On the down note, Burma (nice to be named after an aftershave) spirals downward into destruction and despair. Hey, don't blame the pot, it didn't make her become a heroin dealer! Very poor gateway drug reference they were trying to get across.

There seems to be a plot, but don't bother following. Dialogue is lame, muffled, and you'll be saying the phrase "who are you?" quite frequently throughout the film. I don't think that guy's spanish accent was authentic either. Doesn't top the all-time kampy 'Reefer Madness ', but it's a load of hoots.

This is a bad movie that purports to be an educational film designed to warn America about the menace of marijuana use. However, like almost all the so-called "educational" films of the 30s and 40s, it was really a shabby little film designed to be snuck past the censors of the Hays Office. In 1934, the major studios all agreed to abide by the dictates of a stronger Production Code--eliminating sex, nudity, cursing and "inappropriate" plots in films (these had actually been relatively common in films in the early 30s). However, in an effort to sneak in smut, small studios created films to shock adults when they learn about terrible social ills, though they were REALLY intended to titillate and slip adult themes past the censors! Such films as CHILD BRIDE, MAD YOUTH, REEFER MADNESS and SEX MADNESS were all schlocky trash that skirted past the boards because they were supposedly educational. Even though they were laughably bad, they also made money due to low production costs and because they offered nudity, violence and sordid story lines--all in the name of education!

Many will no doubt watch this film because they are hoping for a similar film to REEFER MADNESS (one of the most laughably bad anti-drug films of all time). While it isn't quite as dopey and unintentionally funny, MARIJUANA is probably a worse film when it comes to being exploitational all in the name of educating our parents. While on drugs, the characters don't madly play the piano or run amok quite as much as they do in REEFER MADNESS--but they DO run amok in the most ridiculous manner. Once they begin puffing this "wacky tobacky", all the characters begin laughing non-stop and acting like total idiots. In addition, the ladies respond by taking off all their clothes and running nude along the beach at night!! And, because of this, the film is very, very explicit--showing lots of "naughty bits" (A Monty Python term for nudity). This film would probably receive an R-rating today if shown in the theaters because of the nudity--and this must have been VERY shocking to audiences of the day. However, audiences today would also be a bit shocked at how extremely unattractive and unappealing these ladies were--I kept wanting to yell at the characters to "put it back on--PLEASE!!". If you are looking for a cheap thrill, this film won't provide it!

Now when they aren't showing people running amok, the film actually is much more watchable. Those who sell the drugs are indeed users, but they manage not to behave like morons, so they are more convincing. The story of one of them, Blondie, is somewhat compelling and mildly interesting--though not nearly enough to make up for the rottenness of the rest of the movie.

This film is so bad that I would recommend it for a bad movie festival you can stage with your friends. You know, the ones where you laugh at just how bad and stupid films can be. They didn't even bother trying to get decent music for much of the film--using classical tunes that were completely inappropriate just because they were in the public domain.

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.

A young woman slowly becomes a dope pusher.

Most people have heard of "Reefer Madness". But if you wanted to see another film that was anti-marijuana in 1936, look no further than "Marihuana", which (not surprisingly) was made by some of the same people.

This film is not the cult classic of its step-brother, and with good reason. It is far less humorous, with the only really notable thing about it being a nude swimming scene that never would have passed the censorship code. In fact, the film is not even really about marijuana so much as a drinking party gone wrong and the bad choices made after the fact.

An Innocent young woman is seduced into pot parties,a wedlock baby, and eventually, into pushing drugs for a professional ring.

Naturally, no one expects artistry from these exploitation flicks. Instead, audiences expected more titillation than usually allowed under Hollywood's restrictive Production Code. Of course, the liberties were granted under the guise of educating the public on the menace of demon weed. However, I doubt anyone went to see this epic for its hyped-up pot warning. Instead, Dwain Esper's mid-1930's production has more peek-a-boo than usual, with a lot of nude scampering and uplifted skirts.

Surprisingly, however, it's a better movie than at least I expected. Except for the exaggerated pot party, it plays pretty much like a standard Hollywood cheapie of the time. Actress Wood does a good job going from innocent fun-loving teen to hardened drug pusher. At the same time, director Esper adds some nice unexpected touches, such as Burma's descent reflected in her choice of shoes, a bad guy joining the innocence of the little girl, plus the final symbolic shot of the door closing. Also, the script integrates its central twist effectively into the narrative.

Of course, these are minor virtues in an otherwise shoddy production. Still, they should not be overlooked. All in all, this cheapie plays more legitimately than most of its competitors from that campy category of sex, dope, and retribution.

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.

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.

Teenagers beware! It could happen to you!

Mix alcohol and the evil giggle weed and you could end up dead. Or even worse, you could become a hard-core drug pushing heroin addicted drug dealer!

So is the moral of the 1936 exploitation film "Marihuana". We even get to see a little bit of 1930's T&A!

Now what more could you ask for?? :)

I enjoyed watching Burma (Harlene Wood) go from happy go lucky teenager -to pregnant misfit- to "Blondie" the drug dealer, all in less than an hour!

A fun little film and certainly a time capsule of days long past! For fans of these types of movies, this film is a classic and a must see!

One of several anti-marijuana/drug propaganda films of the 1930's with over- reactive screen narratives, over-dramatized screen-writing and acting...that is completely inaccurate in the depiction of marijuana usage.

Over-excessive to the point, in light of what is known about marijuana today and effects upon the average marijuana user, it's almost comedic by today's standards and realistic knowledge of this drug.

Burma, an 'innocent' but unhappy youth clashes at home and hangs out with a 'wild' crowd..to the point the laughing makes my head ache with high- pitched, giggling, silly girls. Solely because of using marijuana, according to the film, she indulges in a series of immoral acts, becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and two friends are killed (as if one was not enough in a one- hour film). Her response is to become a hotshot dealer herself....leading to deeper crime (with an ironic twist to boot) & yes, another tragedy.

Way over-the-top, inaccurate, but entertaining to watch and thus what is known as a 'cult classic' in today's world. One of a series of anti-drug, specifically anti-marijuana films aimed to exaggerate & allegedly decry the horrors of marijuana usage.

This film is pure propaganda. It pretty much over exaggerates how marijuana (or marihuana) can ruin lives and cause kids to do all sorts of lewd things. Hogwash! This film came at a time when the federal government was looking for something else to blame the problems of the country on, so they picked marijuana. Also, this film plays like a bad version of Stella Dallas when Burma has to give up her daughter to give her a better life. This film also suffers from bad acting, a bad script and even bad jokes (check out the scene where the drunk spills his beer at the beginning).

Do you really think that they needed a bunch of anti-drug movies in the 1930s? All of the films are for adults only - I think it gave the adults something to watch and maybe even get curious enough to try, and I'm sure the kids saw this advertised somewhere and became more curious about the drugs - especially since the films were adult only (talk about peeking teen interest!).

I just watched Reefer Madness (1936) and The Pace That Kills (1935) earlier -- the last thing I wanted to watch or see was this movie... but hey it came in the same Mill Creek 50-pack, Midnight Movie Madness.

I am NOT interested in these types of films... I just skim through them quickly.

1/10

1st watched 1/7/2007 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Dwain Esper): Badly acted, slowly paced propaganda film on the horrors of marihuana and drugs and they're effect of life. This movie is not quite as over-the-top as "Reefer Madness" but the theme is basically the same -- don't get involved with marihuana, it will ruin your life. This movie adds heroin and alcohol use, skinny-dipping(which definitely puts this film under the Adult status for back then), kidnapping, drowning and gangster connections to the mix. Despite all this variety, the film is hard to get thru the mere 60 minutes because of it's boring and predictable outcomes. Definitely a cult film because of it's display of excesses rarely seen in American films but there's not much here as far as entertainment value, though.

You know a movie is going to be unusual when it opens with a guy sitting on a stool at a bar with his back to peeing on the floor fully clothed.

The opening looks more like an anti drinking prohibition movie than a drug film. In fact, there's party after party and it just appears that peopel are getting drunk not stoned.

Then, in a secret compartment about the fireplace the dreaded marihuana cigarettes are introduced surreptitiously to the group. The girls had the giggle water, now they get the giggle weed and all hell breaks loose.

Off with the clothes we go. And this is 1936. Shocking to see nudity!

The acting is horrendous, but then I guess finding women to get naked on film back then meant taking what you could get.

The flick is about an hour long and feels like 3 hours. Once you're past the titillating nudity, you might as well shut it off.

**SPOILERS** One of the many exploitation movies made in the 1930's about weed pot or marijuana the film "Marihuana" is mostly about a sibling rivalry between two young sisters Berma and Eline who come from one of the towns most upright and blue blood families.

Eline is engaged and to be married to local rich well connected and also blue blood Morgan Stuart while Berma is in love with a local boy who's both poor and out of work Dick Collier. With Eline being her moms favorite Berma rebells by partying and going out with the wild crowd who drink and do pot and have naked sex parties at night.

One Saturday evening after having a wienie roast on the beach the roast turns deadly when one of the girls Joann, Berma's best friend, who was drunk and butt naked runs into the ocean and drowns. Meanwhile back at the beach house the rest of the girls at the party undress and run naked out on the beach skinny dipping into the cold waters with their boyfriends, fully dressed, chasing them. Alone and by themselves both Dick and Berma has a sexual tryst which later results in Berma getting pregnant.

With the news of Joann's tragic death the local pot dealer Tony Sentello tells the young people at the party, who looked like they were in their early twenties at the least, to keep their mouths shut if they don't want to be taken away from their parents and put into a local orphanage.

Dick wanting to get married to Berma and give their expecting child a proper name as well as a family gets a job working for Tony as a drug runner. On Dick's first day on the job he's shot and killed by the police as he picked up some pot from Tony's sidekick Nickie Romero, who's a dead ringer for actor Andy Garcia,on the waterfront. The very day that Dick was shot and killed Eline and Morgan were happily married at the town church.

Giving her baby up for adoption Berma went to work with Tony and Nickie in their pot selling racket and later even went into selling the hard stuff, heroin, which she herself soon got addicted to. Leaving an apartment house after selling some heroin to a desperate woman, who gave up her engagement ring for the dope, Berma sees her Sister Elaine with her husband Morgan and their little girl Gloria. Berma gets this idea to kidnap Gloria and hold her for a ransom of $50,000.00 from her rich parents knowing that both Eline and Morgan wouldn't want this to become public with the person responsible for the kidnapping being a close family member.

Going to get in touch with Morgan to get the ransom money Berma get the startling news from her brother-in-law that Gloria is not his and Eline's real child but she was adopted from an underground baby selling mill and she's really Berma's child that she gave up for adoption some three years ago.In a state of shock and emotionally destroyed Berma realizes that the one thing that she had over her hated sister Eline, a child of her own, she unwittingly gave away to her.

Going back to the apartment hideout where her partners in crime, Tony & Nickie, were holding her daughter Gloria hostage Berma gives herself a "hot Load" injection in her leg. As she enters the apartment Berma finds that the police raided it, and arrested both Tony and Nikie, and rescued Gloria. With the drugs taking affect Brma slowly goes into shock and collapses and overdoses from "the hit" that she just gave herself.

Much better than the more famous "Reefer Madness" - naive teenagers smoke marihuana, attend a beach party and take off their clothes. Naturally tragedy ensues; one girl drowns, another finds herself with child. Fine moral lesson for the whole family.

This film surprised me, the script, as far as literary prowess goes, is actually very well done. Amazingly, the more things change, the more some things stay the same...like the hellish descent into drug addiction. Pot is really not the focus here. The focus is on one woman's downward spiral as she slowly becomes consumed by drugs. It starts out as one big party, everyone having fun. They are skinny dipping, going to clubs, dancing...hanging out in lover's lane. Then it starts to fall apart. One girl drowns at a beach party and shorty afterwards the leading character discovers that she is pregnant...most likely having gotten that way at one of the pot parties her new "friends" (insert dope dealer here) have generously provided for one and all.

Her boyfriend vows to take care of her and get a job. Of course he goes to work for the drug dealer and gets himself killed. The girl puts the kid up for adoption and becomes a dealer and addict herself. Later, she conspires to kidnap her rich sister's kid only to discover that the child she nabs is her own biological daughter. The end is swift and ugly.

One thing that caught my attention right away is the portrayal of the characters. They aren't one dimensional bad guy/good guys. Everyone is portrayed as being a real person. The baddies have some redeeming qualities and the good guys make lots of bad decisions. This film has some depth to it...quite a bit actually. Its also a pretty accurate take on the drug culture...I know, I've been there.

Its really not a silly film at all but a pretty stark example of the hell that your life will become if the party doesn't end in a timely fashion. I liked this film quite a bit. The scene where the boyfriend got killed is still relevant today. Lots of young guys getting gunned down for the sake of people getting a buzz. Just a fact. That was a powerful couple minutes of film. An intelligent person can take more than he might expect from this movie.