Marihuana (1936)
Carefree Burma smokes marijuana at a party that ends in tragedy, then spirals through pregnancy, a boyfriend's death in a drug-smuggling deal, and her own descent into dealing and addiction, before a final twist reveals the child she has tried to kidnap for ransom is the daughter she gave up years before.
Directed by Dwain Esper from a script by his wife Hildagarde Stadie, Marihuana belongs to the same disreputable drug-scare-exploitation lineage as Reefer Madness (1936), using a lurid morality tale as cover to deliver the sex and violence mainstream studios couldn’t; it survives today chiefly as a curio of Poverty Row exploitation showmanship.
Background
Marihuana was directed by Dwain Esper and written by his wife, Hildegarde Stadie. It belongs to the 1930s drug-scare exploitation films that used moralizing stories as a pretext for sex and violence, and it is often compared with Reefer Madness (1936), which was made by a different company. Barry Norton stars. Esper’s roadshow exhibition style, which relied on lurid promotion, is typical of this group of films, now studied as curiosities of Poverty Row cinema.
What to watch for
The film follows a young woman through a sequence of events that begins at a party where marijuana is smoked and moves through pregnancy, a boyfriend’s death in a smuggling deal and her own descent into dealing and addiction. Watch for the final twist, in which a kidnapping plot is revealed to involve a child she had given up years earlier. The moral framing is heavy-handed, and the contrast between sensational melodrama and its warnings is the source of its curiosity value today. Viewers should be aware that the film presents drug use, violence and sexual content in a sensational way.
