Story: When a young girl finds herself lured into sampling cannabis, also known as marijuana, she quickly finds her life turned upside down. She begins a party lifestyle and smokes more weed to ramp up the good times, which include nude beach romps with her friends. But while the naked swimming was a fun bonding exercise, it turns out not everyone survived the skinnydipping session. One of the friends was lost at sea, perhaps due to the weed for unknown reason, but the young girl refuses to quit even then, in fact she and her boyfriend decides to get into the business. But when the two venture into the weed dealer world, will they find success or just more drownings?

Entertainment Value: I can never get enough of these anti-drug propaganda movies like Marihuana, especially ones that try to warn folks about the dangers in the most ridiculous ways. The movie claims that if you partake, you’ll drop all your inhibitions and your clothes, then have a fantastic time with your friends. Not an effective approach in the least, so the film tries to balance that out with random bad things happening, none of which are due to the cannabis, of course. I can’t imagine a couple drags off a joint would render someone incapable of walking on the ocean shore without drowning, but maybe it was a nuclear strong strain. The scene is also memorable because it features quite a bit of naked flesh, including several women topless and with full frontal nudity, which had to have been an eye opener back in 1936.

The tone is outlandish to be sure, but generally presents weed as a social lubricant that makes people happy, at least until the inexplicable tragedies unfold. But laughing, dancing, harmless public nudity, and romance all seem like positives to me and the tone at the time in the scenes reflect that, it just when that morality hammer drops, that things take a dark turn. The cast is fine and does what they should, give over the top performances and if they weren’t really enjoying the green stuff, then some of these folks were indeed skilled thespians. The movie runs a brisk hour or so, with little wasted time and while the second half is a little slower, it is still an overall fun watch. If you like social scare cinema or weed cinema, give Marihuana a look.

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