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.