REEFER MADNESS August 4th at Schlafly Bottleworks – “Weed from the Devil’s Garden!”

“The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Marihuana!”

REEFER MADNESS screens Thursday August 4th at 7:00pm at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue Maplewood, MO 63143). $6  for the screening.

In 1932, Harry Anslinger was named head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The position was not much more than a figurehead because all the bureau was involved in was the amount of morphine etc. that were in medicine like cough syrup. Anslinger wanted more power and the best way to get power was to put more “narcotics” under his control. So he set his sights on marijuana. He met and became friends with Charles Randolph Hearst (the Citizen Kane guy!) and they talked about their shared dislike of cannabis. During this time, there was a real movement to make paper out of hemp. Hearst didn’t like this notion because he owned so many timber yards and such, so he and Anslinger agreed to work together to get hemp criminalized.First Hearst started publishing false and sensational stories about the effects of marijuana, then Anslinger hooked up with a film producer and the end result was REEFER MADNESS.Crazy as it sounds, the scheme worked. The year after REEFER MADNESS was released, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act which made possession and/or use of marijuana a criminal offense. Mission accomplished!

Now 80 years later, we can look back at REEFER MADNESS and have a good laugh. It might be one of the worst ever made but it’s also one of the most entertaining thanks in large part to its way too serious look at marijuana. If you’re watching REEFER MADNESS it’s almost hard to believe that there was a time when people took this film serious and thought it spoke the truth about the little green plant. I guess it’s scary that people still think that one puff can turn you into a sex-craved maniac.

REEFER MADNESS, on a technical level, is quite awful as the performances, the direction, the editing and just about everything else is pretty bad. Where the entertainment level comes from is just how laughable its views on smoking marijuana is including some hilarious scenes where the actors take a couple hits and turn into Mr. Hyde in regards to their sinister behavior. The party scenes in the film are certainly the highlight because of how crazy and funny they are. So show up Thursday August 4^th at Schlafly Bottleworks and if you have the munchies,  there’s a yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen (and plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds.)

A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

“Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together(http://www.helpingkidstogether.com/) a St. Louis based social enterprise dedicated to building cultural diversity and social awareness among young people through the arts and active living.

The films featured for “Culture Shock” demonstrate an artistic representation of culture shock materialized through mixed genre and budgets spanning music, film and theater. Through ‘A Film Series’ working relationship with Schlafly Bottleworks, they seek to provide film lovers with an offbeat mix of dinner and a movie opportunities.