Assassin of Youth

     This movie is one of a group of about five or six drug-related propaganda films released between 1932 and 1938. The most commonly known of this group is the classic "Reefer Madness", which has been restored, colorized, and re-released on its own special edition DVD, and even made into a musical with some rather big stars in it. Few people know about the other companion films, such as "Cocaine Fiends", "The Marijuana Menace AKA Assassin of Youth", "Sex Madness" and "Marihuana". In fact, most of these films have many of the same actors. This particular group of movies isn't hard to find anymore, most of them can now be found on YouTube. We'll get to all of them, but today we are gonna discuss Assassin of Youth AKA The Marijuana Menace. 

      Much like Reefer Madness, this cheap-ass film was made with honest intentions about warning kids about "the dreaded devil weed call Marijuana!". Also like Reefer Madness, its "true facts" of marijuana consumption are completely absent and are replaced with unbelievable scenarios including total insanity and extremely violent behavior. Anyone who has ever smoked pot or knows someone who smokes pot can agree that it doesn't cause violent behavior, with the exception of being mugged and robbed of your Visine and cookie dough. 

      Anyway, like Reefer Madness, this movie begins with a written message against that terrible scourge that is annihilating America's youth... the dreaded Marijuana!!! A young girl named Joan Barry stands to inherit the family fortune, much to the dismay of her cousin Linda and younger sister Marjorie. This inheritance has an unfortunate clause in it. Joan must prove herself to be a proper respectable person in order to receive her inheritance. Linda is a reefer dealer and supplies almost everyone in town. Marjorie is a regular customer of Linda's. Linda and her accomplice Jack decide that they are gonna make Joan look like shit so that the inheritance will go to Linda instead of Joan. Their plan begins at an innocent beach party where everyone but Joan is getting stoned and going swimming. Linda pushes Joan into the water and tries to dry her clothes over a fire and ends up burning them, leaving poor Joan with no clothes. This doesn't settle well when she arrives home in just an overcoat.  

     Rumors begin to fly and all sorts of stories are spread all over town. My favorite was that she got naked and danced the hula!" YOU FILTHY WHORE!! It was 1937, I guess today's equivalent of that would have to be if she screwed the entire attendance of the party in front of small children while blowing fart bubbles or something. 

      A funny side note is that whenever you see any of these people driving, it's beyond crazy. The worst of drunks would be considered outstanding drivers in comparison. A new bartender named Art shows up in town and becomes employed at an after-school hangout. He's also a reporter, doing research on dope dealing and the insanity that follows. It's soon made obvious that Linda and Jack are conspiring to make Joan look as scandalous as possible so that Linda can have the inheritance. When trying to get her to smoke some reefer fails, they eventually just drug her drink. She passes out in the bedroom and some weirdo from the party crawls in bed with her. Nothing happened, but the incident has made Joan look like an absolute slut. Scandalous rumors are now all over town about how despicable Joan is and how inheriting money would be like giving money to a total delinquent to be free to act out completely despicable acts, just with a much larger budget. 

      Meanwhile, Joan's younger sister Marjorie has become a total dope fiend as well and has to be treated by a doctor who gives a diagnosis of insanity by self-intoxication. It's so funny, she's just coming down off being a little stoned and they make her look like she's dying of The Plague! The doctor actually requests putting her in a mental hospital for the criminally insane. Linda tries again to drug Joan and finally succeeds. Once doped up, Joan acts totally spaced. Acid heads aren't this damn spacey. Jack decides to take advantage of Joan in her drunken state and whisks her off to the nearest motel. Linda sees this and follows with a less-than-happy look on her face. From the motel lounge, Linda calls the police and pretends to be Joan's mother and requests that they come and pick up her daughter at the motel. Jack and Joan are henceforth arrested on a morals charge (!!!). Linda bails Jack out of jail but leaves Joan there. 

      By now it's all over town that Joan Barry is in jail, this pretty much finishes off the goody-two-shoes image that she had before all of this inheritance crap came about. At her trial, Joan is painted as a dirty floozie with the morals of an alley cat. And even though her mother stands up for her daughter in the most heartfelt way, the court still thinks she's disgraceful and is about to award the inheritance to Linda.  

     Soon, the bartender/reporter bursts into the courtroom with today's newspaper (featuring his article on reefer delinquents) declaring that Joan was only helping him in uncovering this scourge of the menacing marijuana. He also exposes Linda as a dope dealer, she is henceforth taken away in handcuffs.  

     The next and thankfully final scene is of a very rich Joan sharing ice cream with Art (the reporter/bartender). An announcement of their engagement can be heard outside by the old town gossip queen who has been totally enjoying making Joan look like a complete tramp but is now joyfully on her side now that she's rich.