Holiday Blogging

Since Thanksgiving is over and the holiday season is now here, I'm going to spend my next 25 posts discussing some of the best classic holiday films. Some of these are films with a holiday themes, others are ones set around the holidays, but all of them embody that good spirit of family and peace on earth that the holidays. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and that the rest of the holidays will be very merry for you as well.

Decency, Censorship, and Will H. Hays

One phrase I absolutely hate is when people mention the "good old days of film" and how old films were so "clean" and "nice". These people have obviously never watched old films or just have a hard time picking up the subtle nuances of sex, vulgarity, crime, and other hidden messages in old films. In fact, the early days of Hollywood can be defined into two periods of time: the Pre-Code days when anything goes and the days of the Production or Hays Code, where everything still went, as long as you could sneak around the rules or put in some hidden subtexts. 

The name "Hays Code" comes from Will H. Hays, a man who's resume includes chairmen of the Republic National Committee, Post Master General, and most famously, the enforcer of the United States Motion Picture Code of 1930, which bears his name. It was Hay's job to clean up the movies, which many social and religious groups across the country thought were too filled with sex, violence, and other messages they didn't want their children to be exposed. To learn more about Hays, you can read this article. 

There are about three incidents one can cite that led to the implementation of the Code. One of the incidents was when comedian Fatty Arbuckle's career was decimated after the mysterious death of Virgina Rappe, which you can read about here.  When famed director William Desmond Taylor was murdered, believed to be by Mabel Normand, as well as the death of Wallace Reid, seemed to cement the Hays Code as needed in Hollywood to stop all of the immorality that was ventured off the screen and into real life.

The popular gangster movies of the era were a major subject of disgust among the Code supporters. Post-code, movies were not allowed to create sympathy for "the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin". "Brutal killings" and themes of "revenge" were also prohibited. Scenes of "sexual vulgarity", were also prohibited, including white slavery, seduction and rape, excessive and lustful kissing, and scenes of passion. In addition, ridicule of religion, respect for the Flag, suggestive dancing, and bedroom scenes that were not "tasteful" were not permitted. If you want to read the full rules and regulations of the code, you can read them here. Of course, all of these rules went against the envelops that Hollywood was trying to push, not to mention the groups who were Pro-Code were not the majority

 of Americans.

The Code went on to ruin, damage, or change the lives and careers of memorable Hollywood icons. Including those who's careers were ruined before the code, several others found themselves lacking in work after the code was implement. Mae West suffered under what was known as "Hays Fever" because of her raunchy routines and comedy, which you can read about here. Living performers weren't the limit either. Cartoons such as Betty Boop and even Porky Pig cartoons by Disney were censored for not fitting in with code requirements. You can read more about Betty Boop and the Code here. At the bottom of this post, you can watch the most controversial Betty Boop cartoon.

The Hays Code fell by the wayside in 1968 when it was replaced by the MPAA standards. There never really were "innocent days" in Hollywood, just like there never were innocent days in real life. Hollywood learned how to get around the code and that period is known as the "Golden Age of Film", not because of the morality rules imposed by the Hays Code but because Hollywood continued to push new ideas and content even with the rules placed on them.

It's Public Enemy Number One!

Now here it is, the one you've been waiting for, the exploitation and drug propaganda film to end all exploitation and drug propaganda films. The 1936 Reefer Madness, also known as Tell Your Children, is probably the most famous exploitation film ever made. The most famous film made by Dwain Esper, directed by Louis J. Gasnier, those of you who want can watch this public domain film here.

I'm going to assume most people have seen or at least heard of the film, and skip the plot outline. The low budget film was originally a morality tale funded by church groups with the intention to warn parents so they could Tell Their Children about the harmful affects of the drug, but once it fell into Esper's hands, it quickly became a full fledged exploitation flick. Bit actors provided the cast and a script full of jazz, sex, crime, misinformation, and marijuana are what once made the film scary and now makes it hilarious. For another brief history, you can try this article written for Entertainment Magazine. The site classcifilmssuite.com also has information on it here.

Ironically, Reefer Madness seems to have become the clarion call of the pro-marijuana movement. They use the film to show the hilarity in the hysterics and falsehoods of the anti-marijuana groups and the term reefer madness has gone from being a pseudo-addiction/disease to being a term associated with making fun of those stiff collar anti-drug promoters, see the Urban Dictionary definition here. The Reefer Madness Museum online uses the film title to show how the sensationalist exploitation films clouded our judgment about drugs heavier than any smoke could. The Independent Film Channel often shows the film and does their own synopsis and provides area for discussion of the film here.

Reefer Madness is a contender for the title of biggest cult film of all time. However, the film now is more parody than preaching, with the satirial movie version that came out in 2005, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, which stars a plethora of famous actors, including Kristin Bell, as well as the stage incarnation of Reefer Madness as a musical that has appeared in theatres worldwide. The film has come along way from the original intent to educate, then to strike fear into the hearts of good people everywhere, and is now mainly used as a source of entertainment and ridicule among modern day viewers.

"The white dust from Hell!"

As we saw yesterday, early exploitation films weren't limited to the ridicule of marijuana in their films. The film Cocaine Fiends, also known as The Pace that Kills, was first made as a silent film in 1928 where a young farm boy goes to the city and is ruined by "dope". The film was remade with sound in 1935 under the same title with a new cast, though some footage from the old movie was used as well. At the time, it was billed as a "Public Information Film" with the intention to inform the American peoples of the dangers of cocaine. For those of you that want, the film can be found here to watch.

The plot follows along the basic exploitation film outline. In the film, small town girl Jane Bradford (Lois January) meets charming Nick (Noel Madison), who unbeknownst to her is a drug pusher, even though his official screen name is Nick the Pusher. Nick lures Jane with promises of a fast paced life in the city and some questionable white powder he says can cure her headaches. They go off to the big city and Jane becomes addicted to the cocaine, loosing all interest in her family. Jane's brother Eddie (Dean Benton) comes to the big city to look for her and while working as a car-hop, attractive customer Fanny (Shelia Manners) gets him hooked on the white stuff as well. Dorothy Farley (Lois Lindsay) comes into the lives of both Eddie and Jane. She is dating a detective named Dan (Charles Delaney), so things get tricky when Nick kidnaps Dorothy and tries to get her hooked on the drugs as well. Its another classic tale where innocence is lost then regained and the good are rewarded while the evildoers are punished.

The film has become a large cult classic at film festivals and there is even a band named after Jane Bratford. Of course, its easy to see why the film has such a cult following since it features a club called "The Dead Rat". Like most exploitation films, this is a b-movie with some bad acting, bad camera and lighting (mainly due to the film being made in 1935 on a low budget), and spread a lot of misinformation and implausible situations. It always astounds me how dumb and guillible a lot of the characters in these films are.

For those of you who want more information to explore about this film, I have a few things you might want to look at. First, The Spinning Image, a UK blog about various films, has done a synopsis, background, history, and review of the film, which can be read here. Again, our friends at 1000 Misspent Hours have done another review of the cult classic and why they find it unwatchable, which can be found here. For those of you who particularly like movie posters, you can check out this article from the Weird Poster blogspot about the particularly gruesome and yet hilarious posters made for this film The blog has a great collection of movie posters that just have to be seen to believe.

" Say, do you know what in means to get The Ding?"

Another Dwain Esper and Hildegarde Stadie collaboration and production, the 1933 film Narcotic explores various drugs, mainly opium, marijuana, and heroin. Like their film Maniac, sometimes styled as Sex Maniac, this film is also based on the short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe. This exploitation film has just about all the ingredients for an early b-movie: drugs, sex, a crazy husband/wife director/writer duo, less than stellar acting, stock footage that doesn't exactly fit in, bodysnatching, a mad scientist, silly Jazz Age lingo, very politically incorrect racial and ethinic stereotyping, as well as a lost of misinformation meant to scare the audience into good behavior. This, like is other film's, do not measure up to Esper's masterpiece of Reefer Madness, but it is films like Narcotic and Marihuana that earned him the title of "The Father of Exploitation Films". For those of you that want, a grainy but public domain version of Narcotic can be viewed here.

The film begins with a Frankenstein-esque opening scene where Dr. William G. Davis (Harry Cording) ordering his assistant to get the necessary ingredients to help create his life serum. Davis was once a promising medical student, but a life of drugs and sordid dealings led him into the snake oil business. His downfall begins after a heroic act leads him to crave opium. He goes to an opium den in, where else, Chinatown, which is run by Gee Wu (played by the not Asian J. Stuart Blackton Jr.) and ends up hooked for life after one night. Davis's wife (Joan Dix) tries to help him, but to no avail. Slowly, Davis's fast, drug-addicted friends and their hard partying ways lead him to become a shadow of his former self and a victim of drug addiction.

I've compiled a list of resources for those of you who want more information, insight, and analysis of this movie. First and foremost, you can explore the various categories about the movie on the page created for it by Turner Classic Movies, which you can find here. Allmovie.com does a brief synopsis and background of the movie, which can be read here. Mondodigital.com goes more in depth into the background and analysis as written here. Just like Esper's other films, this one provides a lot of misinformation, laughs, and self-parody.

Murderous Marijuana

The 1937 film Marijuana, Assassin of Youth follows in the tradition of the previous exploitation films we have talked about, including the "good girl gone bad" plotline and the rip-off of the Reefer Madness plot and themes. In fact, Reefer Madness actress Dorothy Short appears in this film was well. The film was written and directed by Elmer Clifton, who also wrote and directed westerns and worked with famous early directed D.W. Griffith and even appeared in Griffith's infamous Birth of a Nation.

The story begins when matron Elizabeth Barry is killed in a car crash by a driver who is smoking marijuana. Reporter Artie Brighton (Arthur Gardner) goes undercover as a soda jerk to get the scoop on who is running the marijuana ring in the small town. In a parallel storyline, good Joan Barry (Luana Walters) and her sister Marjorie (Dorothy Short) stand to inherit their aunt Elizabeth's fortune if they can fulfill a "morality clause" in the will. This leads their cousin, Linda Clayton (Fay McKenzie) and her husband Jack Howard (Michael Owen) to conspire to prove that Joan and Marjorie aren't moral girls at all. While Jack and Linda try to corrupt Joan and Marjorie with drugs and alcohol, it is up to Art to get the story and save the day before the marijuana problem in town gets even more out of hand.

Naturally, the pot in this movie leads to all sorts of implausible behaviors that don't really exists, such as pot being addictive, leading to murder, sexually promiscuous behavior, and causing smokers to call into comas and die. Of course, the propaganda in this film as widely believed at the time, due to the hysteria created in order to pass the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, and is still believed today by those who do not know better.

There are several rescources I have found that can help educate you about the film, exploitation films, the Marijuana Tax Act, and all of the hyseria and hubbub surrounding this area of time, leading us to treat drugs the way we do. A typical propanda story with the same name as the film can be found here, thanks to Redhouse Books, which was originally published in American Magazine in 1937. Cannabis.net has the famous drug tsar Henry J. Anslinger's article entitled, what else, Marijuana, Assassin of Youth, which can be read here and a simliar article can be found here, thanks to cannabisuk.com.

Here is a preview of the film that you can watch to further get what its all about

Good Girl Gone Bad

Another good girl gone bad story, is the one told in the 1936 exploitation film Marihuana, directed by legendary exploitation director Dwain Esper. Esper is widely considered the father of the exploitation film, doing several early 30s films such Narcotic, Maniac, Modern Motherhood, and Sex Madness, just to name a few titles. Marihuana was written by Hildegarde Stadie, Esper's wife and the writers for many of his films. For those of you who want to watch the film, the first of several parts is posted here on YouTube and you can watch the rest in sequence.

The plot is simple, as most exploitation films usually are. Burma "Blondie" Roberts (Harley Wood) is a good girl who goes to a party and smokes some pot. With Burma at his party is her dumb boyfriend Dick Collier (Hugh McArthur) and is being thrown by peddlers Tony Santello (Paul Ellis) and Nicki Romero (Pat Carlyle). Don't you just love the Italian stereotyping? One of her friends drowns when the marijuana leads them to a frenzy of skinny-dipping, and the drug dealers help cover up the body. When Burma's boyfriend gets her pregnant, they work for the dope pushers to get married. Her boyfriend is murdered and Burma becomes a dealer, giving her baby up for adoption. Everything spirals out of control in a drug induced spiral from there.

Every review about this movie bills is as a bad-quality Reefer Madness, with its use of unfactual "facts" and scare tactics to make drugs appear as evil as possible. The sort of fake documentary style of the movie doesn't really make it that more convincing. The misinformation of the film is abetted by some not so stellar acting. A good review of the film can be read here, thanks to 1000misspenthours.com. This is one of those films that never would have been big if it weren't for the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act and the hubbub surrounding it. For those of you that want, you can get a second opinion here at the Cine Classics blog. 

Just Say 'No'?

How does an actress deal with being convicted of marijuana possession? She uses the story of being set up, exaggerates it, and turns it into a B-film of course! Such is the movie know by many names: She Shoulda Said 'No'!, Wild Weed, Marijuana The Devil's Weed, The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket and The Devil's Weed. For the sake of space, I will refer to his film by its most popular name She Shoulda Said 'No'! The 1949 film followed in the trend of marijuana exploitation films such as Marihuana and Reefer Madness.

The story was loosely based on lead actress Lila Leeds and Robert Mitchum's arrest for possession as part of a Hollywood wide sting. Most were tipped off before the cops came, but such wasn't the case for Leeds and Mitchum. In fact, Leeds was cast in the film because of her widely known arrest for being involved with drugs and it was suggested the film could be a way for her to tell "her side" of the story.

The story is of Anne Lester (Leeds) who goes to work for a drug dealer named Markey in order to help pay her brother's college tuition. Lester gets sucked into the world of drugs very quickly and then unbelievable and unrealistic portrays of marijuana addicts and drug users ending up in psych wards after a few puffs cause her to reform her ways and help the police. Its your basic story of good girl goes bad and then gets redemption at the last second.

This movie is the reason why marijuana is refered to as the "gateway drug", since the movie introduces the theory, though little of the "facts" in the movie are actually correct. The film was shot in eight days and the producer Kroger Babb knew the quality was so bad that he tried to cash in on it as quickly as possible and then distance himself from the film.

If you want to know more about the film, you can check out a few of these sources. The Cult Movie Review blog has an entry about the film, which can be read here. The homepage for the cult hit Reefer Madness talks about this film and others used for drug propaganda on the propaganda section of its site and the article about She Shoulda Said 'No'! is here. Also, the site somethingweird.com has done a nice piece on She Shoulda Said 'No'! and has the trailer for the film, which those of you who want can watch below:

"If you're trying to create an impression, I'm unimpressed."

Titled after the song by Jerry Lee Lewis and featuring a cameo of him singing the song, 1958's High School Confidential! is a campy teen drug exploitation film where any good intentions are completely skewed by the film itself. The film is pretty horrible, using teen slang that was dated even when the movie came out, naivete about drug use, bad beat poetry, and a camptastic morality play only the Fifties could produce.

Not even the big names of the cast could save this movie. A drug epidemic has hit Santa Bellow High just as troublemaker transfer student Tony Baker (Russ Tamblyn) after being kicked out of his last school. English teacher Arlene Williams (Jan Sterling) hopes to be the positive influence that will calm Baker’s wild ways. Tony becomes a member of local the local teenage drug ring, known as the Wheeler-Dealers, making friends such as J.I. Coleridge (John Drew Barrymore) and marijuana addict – yes addict – Joan Staples (Diane Jergens) who he ends up stealing from J.I. Baker lives with his nymphomaniac aunt (Mamie Van Doren) who wants him badly. Tony gradually works his way up to the top of the drug supply chain, but his true intentions aren’t revealed until the supposed to be climactic end of the film. Michael Landon and Charlie Chaplin, Jr. also have roles in this film.

The idiocy and naivete that went in to making this film is entirely apparent. Drugs and drug dealers are the ultimate villains, worse than any murderer or rapist, while as the DEA agents are the ultimate heroes. Parents are completely stupid when it comes to drugs and the message that even good kids can get into drugs misses its mark. The overall message though is that if "you flake around with the weed and you're gonna end up using the harder stuff". The "teenagers" are in their mid-twenties at the earliest and the plot is not only unrealistic but completely implausible.

For more on this film, if you really want to know more, I have two sites for you to check out. The first is a series of reviews and opinions other viewers have about the film which you can find here, courtesy of filmfanatic.org. Also, the blog Desukomoviespot has further exploration and does an amazing job of poking fun at the film here, for those of you who want to check it out. As it is, High School Confidential probably should have remained that way.

Propaganda, Exploitation, and Cult Classics

Over the next week or so, I want to do a short series focusing on a genre of film that has always interested me: the anti-drug propaganda film. The films in this genre are one of two types: educational videos intended to be used in health classrooms that get out of hand with their scare tactics or exploitation films falling into the b-movie category that also use scare tactics to make a horror-type film. Usually, the serious intentions of both types of film belie hilarity to modern audiences, who know better than believe that one puff of pot addicts you to heroin or makes you believe all of your friends have turned into giant spiders that need to be shot with your dad's rifle. It is the humor modern audiences find in these films that have made them rise to cult status.

What is an exploitation film exactly? Well, it is a film designed to exploit a subject, usually something lurid such as sex, drugs, or sociocultural fears (i.e. race, gender roles, etc.). Most of these films are poorly made, sensationalized with advertising and in plot, low budget, have suggestive or explicit subject matter. Though they have been made since the early days of film, the Sixties was the height of exploitation film and pushing boundaries. There are various sub-genres within the exploitation genre itself. Some films are designed to teach or scare the audience into behavior whereas others are just graphic (such as those in the grindhouse or splatter genres).

Exploitation film is a widely explored subject and has gained a considerable cult following, especially as these films became very easy to access on the internet. For a list of some of the most popular exploitation films, you can find this list on Amazon.com. The website brightlightsfilm.com offers various articles on exploitation film, which can be found here, and another focusing especially on drug exploitation films here. More information and interviews with directors and others involved with the making of these films can be found here, by imagesjournal.com. Two great references and guides to what exploitation is and its history can be found here, by filmreference.com, and here, by allmovie.com. Finally, there is even a blog devoted to the exploration and analysis of exploitation film which can be found here at the Exploitation Film blog.

I'm going to profile several films I have seen over the next several days, talking about why they were made, what their message is, and how sometimes the message doesn't always get across to the audience. Since these films started being made, they still remain culturally relevant, propagating and encouraging drug myths, spreading false education and fears, and overall contributing to our current culture and the American War on Drugs. So sit back, chill out, and try to ignore the fact that most of the highschoolers in these movies look to be about thirty.

It Happened on Wimpole Street

If you like poetry, the Victorian period, or romance, I have found a movie for you to watch. The original 1934 film, The Barrett's of Wimpole Street, is a truly classic film made from the play of the same name by Rudolph Besier. The story follows along with the real life romance of Victorian poets, Robert Browning and his later wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

This film verison, directed by Sidney Franklin, stars Norma Shearer in the role the invalid Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who, along with her siblings, is forbidden to marry by their opressive father, played by Charles Laughton. Despite her stern father, Elizabeth falls in love with the dashing poet Robert Browning, played by Frederic March, and the two conspire to marry with the help of Elizabeth's sister Henriette, played by Maureen O'Sullivan. Through the course of the film, Robert's love helps Elizabeth recover from her mysterious illness and stand up to her opressive father. Always at Elizabeth's side is her loving dog Flush, who played himself.

This film truly is a great love story with an amazing cast who portray their characters so well. Whereas a film can never truly recreate the events of history, this film comes pretty close to echoing what really transpired during Brown and Barrett's courtship.The acting and cast work wonderfully as indiviuals and together. In fact, the film was so good it was nominated for Best Picture.

Sidney Franklin later remade the film in 1957, a remake that was nearly identical, word for word and scene by scene. Shearer's husband, Irving Thalberg, was the producer and cast her in the role, angering William Randolph Hearst, who wanted the part to go to his actress mistress, Marion Davies. This action caused a fall-out between Hearst and MGM, as well as Shearer. Marion then went to work for Warner Brothers.

For those of you who want more information, you can go here and get some review and analysis by classicfilmguide.com. The blog Colet and Company also discusses the various stage and film versions of the film, which can be read here. So, for any of you looking for a good romance, I would say The Barretts of Wimpole Street is an excellent pick.

Elections, Politics, and Three Classic Films

In the spirit of election day, and for all of you who want something else to watch besides the twenty-four hour election coverage, I have a few political themed movies that might be of interest. Politics and movies go way back, whether we are thinking of the Hays Production Code, the McCarthy Trials, films that create World War patriotism or just dabbled in political themes. I have three politically minded movies today that stop and make you think as well as are relevant to modern American history.

The first is the 1949 film All The King's Men, stars Broderick Crawford as corrupt politican Willie Stark who has to do a little mudslinging, scratching others backs and keeps his friends rolling in the dough as he rises into the political foreground. Sound familiar? The original version of the story was a novel of the same name written by Robert Penn Warren, based loosely on the real-life personality of Louisianna governer, Huey Pierce Long. Again, Filmsite.org provides a great analysis and synopsis of this film, which those interested can read here. The tale of Willie Stark really embodies the rise and fall of politicians and is an early look at how political campaigns were corruptly run, even back in the earlier days.

The second film is 1952's Suddenly, which stars Frank Sinatra as John Baron, a hired assasain who comes to the small town of Suddenly, bent on the murder of the president. He hides and plots in the house of pacifist and widow, Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates), who is unsuccessfully being courted by the Suddenly town sheriff, Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden). The town of Suddenly is caught up in stopping the assassain before he does his job. Eleven years before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this film has several parallels the story of JFK's fateful day in Dallas. It is even rumored that Lee Harvey Oswald watched this film a matter of days before the assassination.

Again with Old Blue Eyes, the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate echoes a somewhat different sentiment than Suddenly. When Korean POW Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) returns to the US, he is greeted as a hero, but he can't remember what he did that was heroic. He and his friend Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) begin experiencing similar nightmares about the war. Marco's dreams lead him to believe that Shaw is not the war hero everyone thinks him to be and there is something much darker. Shaw also has to deal with a domineering, politically minded mother (Angela Lansbury), the wife of a US Senator, and Marco deals with a blooming love interest (Janet Leigh). When Marco discovers what his buddy Shaw is being set up to do, he and his other army buddies have to get together to not only save Shaw but the fate of the country.

If you want to know more about how film and politics connect, you can check out these two websites. The first is an article by the Harvard Political Review online, which can be read here. The second is on the political website donklephant.com, which has a host of blogs under the topic of politics and film, which can be found here. Also, at a classic film review site on About.com that has a list of the Top Ten Classic Political Films. Finally, I would urge you wherever you are, if you haven't already, go out and vote!