RainDogJr 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.

Michael_Elliott Marihuana (1936) BOMB (out of 4) Silly exploitation film in the same boat as Reefer Madness. A sweet little girl turns evil after smoking a joint. If you've seen any of these early exploitation flicks then you certainly know what to expect. Director Esper is the same man who previously brought up Maniac and he would go on to do Sex Madness so he was an expert at this type of film but this movie is pretty much awful from start to finish and sadly it doesn't deliver too many laughs. Just about every film in this genre is downright horrid and that's the case here but most of them manage to be good for laughs but this film here doesn't have too many. The highlight would be the skinny dipping scene, which has plenty of nudity, which certainly wasn't the norm back in the day. Everything from the performances to the production are bad but the film is so slow moving that it's hard to get involved in it. This genre has delivered many cult classics but this one here isn't nearly as good as most.

Jay Raskin Based on a true newspaper account, this movie is a riveting near- documentary which tells the truth about the drug menace that is destroying our country today. I advise all concerned citizens to watch it twice and show it to their friends and teen-age children.A delightful film, the nude midnight bathing scene is worth the price of admission You really have to feel sorry for the lead character, Burma. Her friend dies drowning, her boyfriend gets shot, she gives up the baby she wants to keep (I'm not sure why), and when she kidnaps her sister's kid for ransom, it turns out to be her own child. Her life makes Britney Spears seem like Donna Reed.It really appears that the filmmakers experimented with marihuana to get the experience down correctly. I would not be surprised if they were continuing their experiments throughout the film-making process.

Kieran Kenney 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.