Psychotronic Cinemavision: Reefer Madness

In a small town in middle America in 1936, a group of parents attend a meeting at the local high school to spread the word of the evils of marijuana. The Lecturer (Alan Cumming) warns the parents by showing them the tragic tale of a young high school boy who struggles with the “demon weed”.  Throughout the film, the Lecturer will stop to espouse political propaganda or chide a parent who questions the extreme film’s credibility.  In the movie, “Tell Your Children”, teens Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell) and Mary Lane (Kristen Bell) begin a romance together, but Jimmy is afraid that Mary won’t like him anymore when she finds out he can’t dance.  At the local Five and Dime, Jimmy meets Jack (Steven Weber) who offers to give him swing lessons and takes him back to Mae’s (Ana Gasteyer) house, which turns out to be a Reefer Den.  There college dropout Ralph (John Kassir) and neighborhood hussy Sally (Amy Spanger) convince Jimmy to smoke his first joint, which starts him down a road of debauchery.  Jimmy’s journey involves robbing a church, a hit and run where an old man dies, hallucinating Jesus (Robert Torti) and eventually being framed for murder.

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical aired on Showtime in April of 2005 and is based on the 1998 stage musical of the same name written by writing partners Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, which in turn is based on a 1936 exploitation film which also uses that title (along with several others). The original Los Angeles cast included Robert Torti, Christian Campbell and John Kassir (The Cryptkeeper Tales From The Crypt) who also starred in the original Off-Broadway New York production, which saw the addition of Kristin Bell as Mary Lane. These actors reprise their roles within the film (Robert Torti played both Jack and Jesus on stage, but the parts were split for the movie).

Although much of the iconic imagery from the original 1936 film is recreated within the musical and the basic storyline remains the same, there are several plot points and character differences.  The source material has two boys, high school student Bill Harper and college student Jimmy Lane getting tricked by Jack.  Mary is Jimmy’s sister and Bill’s girlfriend which in the musical combines the two boys. Bill is the one who is framed for murder and there is no presidential pardon in the source material instead, it is Blanche (Sally in the musical) that convinces the authorities that Bill is innocent.  The film was originally financed by a church group titled “Tell Your Children”. It was meant to be a morality tale to warn parents of the dangers of cannabis, but after the film was shot, it was purchased by Dwain Esper, who re-cut it for distribution as an exploitation piece.  The film was never correctly copywritten and in the 1970s reappeared as a satire for advocates of cannabis policy reform it has gained somewhat of a cult following.

This is one of my favorite movie musicals! It has wonderful songs, great performances and a witty script playing fully tongue in cheek on the absurdity of the story.  I have been lucky enough to also see a stage production of it which is just as good.  Christian Campbell makes the perfect Jimmy, with an all-American boyish charm that radiates a type of innocence and yet perfectly able to show the de-evolution into debauchery sprouting a devilish yet still charming smile.  Kristin Bell is the perfect match, embodying the same innocence yet quickly able to switch into sexual depravity as a dominatrix.  The amazing Alan Cumming is incredible as the Lecturer and Steven Weber, Amy Spanger, John Kassir and Ana Gasteyer all do fantastic in their parts. Robert Torti does a show-stopping turn as the “club singer” styled Jesus (probably my favorite number) and Neve Campbell (Christian’s sister) has a great dance number near the beginning.  The production value is high, the songs are catchy and fun and the performances superb.