Tell Your Children

My review refers to the new, colorized version of REEFER MADNESS (released in April, 2004.) Originally called TELL YOUR CHILDREN, this 1938 movie's been known as REEFER MADNESS since at least the seventies. There are three very good reasons to watch this DVD: The colorization makes the bland visuals of this propaganda film bearable; the commentary track by members of the colorization team is informative and witty; and the other commentary track (by Mike Nelson of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000) allows the lone viewer to feel something of the effect of sitting in a room with a friend goofing on a movie. I have not watched the two other extra features, which are a new trailer for REEFER MADNESS and a new short called GRANDPA'S MARIJUANA HANDBOOK. I'll check out the new trailer, but the brief few seconds I saw of GRANDPA looked like pro-marijuana propaganda, which bores me. REEFER MADNESS is also presented in the original black and white version, so this is a truly complete DVD package. When the DVD menu is on the screen, marvelous recordings from the jazz-age play in the background. (The songs, of course, are related to marijuana, and they provide counterpoint to the put-your-blinders-on tenor of the movie. I wish there were a separate track consisting of such songs and that they were listed so as to be selected and played. For film buffs, the commentary on the colorization is the best part of this DVD after the colorization itself. Of course, the movie is unintentionally funny, and Bob Nelson's wisecracks are fun, but I loved learning the WHYs and WHEREFOREs of the restoration of this movie. The colorization is superb. Each character blows smoke of a hue to match his or her personality. Location shots show the garish colors of the depression-era billboards in the background. This restoration is vibrant. REEFER MADNESS is, as I've said, unintentionally funny, but it is also deeply dishonest, made, as it was, by people bent on bullying the young into behaving. Have the restorers painted a mustache on this monsterpiece? No. What has been painted on it is a warm smile. And that makes it worth watching, finally.

Thelma White is the actress who really makes this anti-drug flick memorable. She portrays "Mae", who runs a drug den out of her late 30s apartment. Most of her scenes are shallow and brief but at the end she redeems herself in a memorable confession scene. The camera moves up close to catch her emotions and she really delivers when she says she didn't mean to hurt anybody to the DA. I don't know what happened to Thelma White before or after but she and the rest of the cast try valiantly to make this low-budget exploitation film work. "Reefer Madness" has become a joke movie--one everyone is expected to howl at and parody. That's unfortunate but understandable. I love to watch these roadshow exploitation movies from the 30s and early 40s and wonder about the fate of the cast and the crew, wonder about where they got their wardrobes and how were they hired? Was their a "Want Ad" in the Hollywood Reporter or did the film makers use their own friends, neighbors?

"Reefer Madness" (originally "Tell Your Children") was created to teach parents that it's never too early to scare the holy crap out of your kids. Through this film we learn that the soul-destroying effects of Marihuana (Mike Nelson explains in the commentary that this film was made before the invention of the letter J) far surpass those of cocaine or heroin. We see firsthand that even teens who can quote Shakespeare like nobody's business cannot escape its evils.

Here are some of the symptoms of casual Marihuana use:

• laughing maniacally while running people down in the street

• playing the piano too fast

• having sexual relations with people you don't really like that much

• accidentally shooting people you do like pretty well

• having no recollection of being framed for murder

If your child has experienced any of these symptoms, he or she is a Marihuana addict. The solution is simple: force them to watch "Reefer Madness" because if we don't heed its warning, "Reefer Madness 2" will be coming to a theater near you or you... OR YOU!

Of the many scholastic films Ive seen in my time, this has to be the most hilarious piece of tripe ive ever seen. The setting is a small urban town, in the mid thirties. Everyones all happy, and everyone seems normal, that is, everyone BUT the shifty, shady, marijuana dealers who look just like *Gasp* you and me! They look so normal, lure your children into their home, and sell them exotic herbs from far away places! All whilst turning your children into sex maniacs, one puff hookers, and violent terrorists high on life (and that's not all!) Fun for the whole family (well...it all depends on your family...), this is a great flick, worth the watch! - "Two Green Thumbs Up!" Joe & Jay

Oh my gosh, my post-war generation was still under the influence of this tripe and believed one puff would ruin a lifetime. No wonder the 60's generation talked about a credibility gap as they puffed away. This is a bad movie highlighted by the ridiculous, and no one in front of the camera or behind seems to care. Do the producers really believe this burlesque. Or maybe they're shilling for the liquor lobby then regaining its post-Prohibition popularity, or maybe the plastics lobby worried about the manufacturing possibilities of hemp oil.

In a way, it's too bad the movie comes across now as a joke. Pot may not be the Devil's brew, but it does dull awareness, and in that sense remains a risk. So hyping the effects has had a reverse effect that also needs to be considered. Nonetheless, the movie's smug authorities from school principal to courtroom judge to official narrator are enough to get me to light up and puff away. Plus they're not even good for a laugh.