Tell Your Children (1938)
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier
High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens: a drug supplier entices several restless teens, Mary and Jimmy Lane, sister and brother, and Bill, Mary's boyfriend, into frequenting a reefer house. Gradually, Bill and Jimmy are drawn into smoking dope, which affects their family lives.
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What critics compared Tell Your Children to
Granted, some of those come off as just plain goofy, such as the 1936 anti marijuana film, "Reefer Madness," while others can be a bit grisly, especially if they fall into the slasher sub-genre of the horror film world (typically where teens get a graphic comeuppance for drinking, casual sex and so on).
Plus, indie stalwart Green and longtime cinematographer Tim Orr inject their dusty visual style, in counterpoint to a prologue that simultaneously parodies, complete with black-and-white and theremin, '50s sci-fi horror and Reefer Madness.
Filmmakers have used moral posturing to get prurient interests on screen since the days of Reefer Madness, and even if that wasn’t the filmmakers’ intention in this case, it’s the level I choose to take it on.
In some other universe, a screenwriter would choose to lean into the toxic absurdities of E.L. James’ story, turning a faux-risque romance novel into a camp classic and cautionary tale — Reefer Madness , but with Ben Wa balls.
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Because let's be honest: We're not covering any new ground here; sleeper agents have appeared in movies since The Manchurian Candidate, and stoners have a rich cinematic tradition dating back to Reefer Madness (fine, Easy Rider).
But the teenager in me has kept up with the liberating trend of unisex locker-room humor - as in "American Pie," the female leads talk dirty, too - and this hormonal answer to "Reefer Madness" is good, wacked-out fun.