Reefer Madness

A crazy and catchy musical that is a parody on the classic propaganda and drugs film of the same title dating from 1936. The original film acquired cult status in the 1960s and 1970s among drug users for its extreme and paranoid approach to drug use. The occasionally unlikely prejudices and semi-scientific opinions about drugs are echoed lightly in this film filled with song and dance. The present film is situated in the time of the original film. It is set a small town in America in the 1930s. A travelling anti-drug preacher brings a hysterical black & white film to town and this leads to – and also forms the framework for – all kinds of events that the film was really intended to warn people against. The exemplary 16-year-old Jimmy Harper falls for the equally exemplary Mary Lane. During his dancing lessons, Jimmy is confronted with the great seducers sex and drugs, and then things really get out of hand in this film that turns into a high-speed fairground attraction. Reefer Madness is an adaptation of a successful musical. The original cast of the stage version also acts in the film. It is a major and complex production that it has been translated with verve to the medium of film. The stage version and the film version were both directed by Andy Fickman, but he has obviously tried to exploit all the possibilities of a different medium. (GjZ)