Assassin of Youth (1937)

Ratare Uzant:

4.8/10   

Regizor:

Elmer Clifton

Writers:

Charles A. Browne (screenplay)
Elmer Clifton (story)

Genre:

Drama

Replica Esantion:

Puff--Party--Tragedy!

Plot:

A high-school girl gets involved with a ring of teenage marijuana smokers and starts down the road to ruin. A reporter poses as a soda jerk to infiltrate the gang of teen dope fiends.

Plot Keywords:

Marijuana | Reporter | Teen | Soda Jerk | Fiend

Comentarii uzant:

The high life as your grandmother knew it

Cast

Luana Walters	...	Joan Barry
Arthur Gardner	...	Art Brighton
Fay McKenzie	...	Linda Clayton
Michael Owen	...	Jack Howard
Dorothy Short	...	Marjorie 'Marge' Barry
Dorothy Vaughan	...	Mrs. Mary Barry
Earl Dwire	...	Henry 'Pop' Brady
Fern Emmett	...	Henrietta Frisbee
Henry Roquemore	...	Judge George Herbert
Hudson Faucett	...	Otto (as Hudson Faussett)
Gay Sheridan	...	Edith
Edwin Johnson	...	Charlie

Cunoscut si ca:

Marihuana (USA) (review title)
The Marijuana Menace (USA) (DVD title)

Lungime Film:

80 min

Tara:

USA

Limba:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Mixaj Sunet:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity System)

Certificare:

Canada:14A (Ontario)

Company:

BCM Roadshow Productions

Stiati ca:

The earlier title, "Marihuana" was changed to avoid confusion with the earlier, similar anti-drug pic Marihuana (1936/I).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: There are jump cuts in the rear-projection shots of a car sequence.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grass (1999)

The high life as your grandmother knew it

A mildly laughable anti-marijuana picture, ASSASSIN OF YOUTH has some things going for it. The cast of ASSASSIN OF YOUTH is solidly capable for a roadshow production, and several actors have opportunities to shine in comic roles (in particular, the judge, the old checker-playing codger and the Margaret Hamilton "wicked witch" look-alike). Luana Walters is an appealing heroine, and a talented actress. (Her biography at IMDb suggests that Luana might have been better off with marijuana as her drug of choice.)

Today the old drug-scare films are played for laughs, but ASSASSIN OF YOUTH is an exceptionally competent production. The irony here is that truly terrible dope-soaps like REEFER MADNESS and MARIHUANA are much more entertaining, because they don't waste time with dramatic niceties.

The most notorious anti-drug movies of the 1930s were made by private entrepreneurs like Dwain Esper and Elmer Clifton, not by the U.S. Government. These gentlemen capitalized on the Government's anti-drug publicity, but they were not bound by any political agenda of the day. Their aim was to supply the public what the Hollywood studios could not provide under the Production Code - flashes of T&A, and graphic depictions of vice.