Old-School Holiday Flix: Assassin of Youth (1937)

Beware the evil of Pot!  Just to be clear, I don't even drink, so I certainly don't partake.  That said, this kind of thing is still silly!  Today's Film is Assassin of Youth, a 1937 Propaganda Film about how Pot makes you a criminal.  That Willie Nelson- always robbing Banks!  Cheech Marin- always going around and fighting people.  You can't keep Snoop Dogg from...actually, he did serve time in Jail.  You win this round, 79-year-old Film!  The whole angle on these things has always confused me.  Pot does alot of things to the human body if taken in strong doses, but almost never what they claim.  It doesn't make you get hyper.  It doesn't make you start dancing frantically.  It certainly doesn't make you hallucinate and jump out a window!  The real danger- those Caffeine Pills from Saved by the Bell!  Let's not even get into the fact that Cocaine was recently (at the time) still being used as Medicine and the way to give you that real Coke flavor!  To make up for everyone being on Opioids for a few Decades, suddenly Pot is evil!  The Story of this Film- some good kids are turning bad due to Pot and a young Jimmy Olsen is sent to go undercover.  Okay, he's just some Reporter- spoil my joke.  Will this Film teach me that Pot is worse than Interracial Marriage?  To find out, read on...

An old woman is killed and Pot is to blame.

Naturally, people smoke Pot and then drive erratically at high speeds.  Pot!

Our Hero (above) is sent undercover in the nearby Town after an issue of the dead woman's will.  I'm no Lawyer, but this can't be legal, right?  Right?

After seeing kids act funny on Pot and our Hero inexplicably get a job at a Soda Shop, the Reporter is shown a Film Reel by his boss.

Geez, it took Mom & Dad an hour to do this!  Oh and it tries to connect Pot to Arab Assassins back in the 14th Century.  Come again?!?

That whole inheritance things comes into play when it is clear that the other likely recipient besides our Heroine is dealing Pot.

Ah, the 1930s- before all Drug Dealers became Black.

Our Heroine is hooked on the stuff and her Mother eventually gets a diagnosis- Pot is driving her insane!  Dun dun dun!

To be fair to this Film, insanity related to smoking Pot would explain Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers.

Will the scheming woman get her way?  Will her plan to set up our Heroine work?

Thanks to the Comedy Relief Soda Shop Owner, our Hero arrives in time to lie to the Court and save our Heroine from 'Morals Charges.'  Hurray for morals!  The End.

Wow.  This one is an odd one.  Reefer Madness is a pretty straight-forward 'indictment' of that evil weed.  Marijuana: The Devil's Weed (one of many Titles) is as well.  This one definitely lays it on thick, but throws in alot of random filler.  I should note that the Film is still only 73 minutes long.  Of course, the other Film I watched today was barely 86 minutes long- it was made in 2016.  My point- there's not much to this Film as a whole.  There are many little things happening- including a Subplot involving Soda Shop Owner and the Judge playing Checkers- and this was clearly done to compensate.  The fact that they go to the Film Reel- albeit a short one- less than 20 minutes in says alot.  The preachy nature is hard to get past, but at least there are spurts of silliness throughout.  Besides the Comedy Relief parts, you also have the Finale.  It involves the Reporter getting into a fist fight with Drug Dealers at a Hotel.  He even hits one with a breakaway chair.  There's also the bizarrely-funny part where the Doctor tries to explain the pseudo-science of Pot making you turn into a crazy murderer.  I'm pretty sure Doug Benson would have tried to crash a Blimp into a Football Stadium by now if your logic had anything to it!  As people have noted, the false and silly ways that Pot is demonized did nothing to help their cause and mostly just made it a joke.  Am I saying that you should smoke Pot?  That's not my call.  I am willing to tell people not to make insulting Newspaper Headlines- especially about the dead!

Damn preachy stuff.  It is also chock full of melodrama, so it is all sorts of dated and silly.