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Movie Source: Internet Archive (archive.org)
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She Shoulda Said 'No'!

1949

A chorus girl's (Lila Leeds) career is ruined and her brother (David Holt) is driven to suicide when she starts smoking marijuana.


"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" (also known as Wild Weed; Marijuana, the Devil's Weed; The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket; and The Devil's Weed) is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of Morality play such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana (film). Directed by Sam Newfield (using the pseudonym "Sherman Scott") and starring Lila Leeds, it was originally produced to capitalize on the arrest of Leeds and Robert Mitchum on a charge of Cannabis (drug) conspiracy. The film was issued under many titles; it struggled to find a distributor until film presenter Kroger Babb picked up the rights, reissuing it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket. Its relative success came only after the promotional posters were redone and a story fabricated that the film was being presented in conjunction with the United States Department of the Treasury.

Plot

Leeds' character is "Anne Lester", a young orphan who is trying to pay for her brother's college education. After meeting Markey, a drug dealer, Anne begins to believe that she must smoke marijuana to fit in with her friends. She then goes to a "tea party", where she tries the drug for the first time. She is unaffected by the initial experiment, and loses her fear of drugs as she continues to smoke.

Cast

  • Alan Baxter (actor) – Markey
  • Lyle Talbot – Captain Hayes
  • Lila Leeds – Ann
  • Michael Whelan (actor) – Treanor
  • Mary Ellen Popel – Rita
  • Doug Blackley – Lieutenant Mason
  • David Holt (actor) – Bob Lester
  • Don Carlos Harvey – Lieutenant Tyne
  • David Gorcey – Ricky
  • Jack Elam – Raymond
  • Dick Cogan (actor) – Edmunds
  • Knox Manning – Narrator

See also

  • List of films in the public domain
  • Notes


    Printed matter
    <!--
    • A letter to Harry Anslinger from George H. White, who served as a district supervisor in Los Angeles, circa June 1949. -->
    • The New York Times: "Sex and Vice 'Star' in Central's Double Bill." January 31, 1957.
    • Pressbook from Hallmark Productions, circa 1959.
    • Collier's: "Narcotics Ruined Me." July 26, 1952.
    • Booth, Martin: Cannabis: A History (Picador, 2004; ISBN 0-312-42494-9)
    • Friedman, David F. A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X).
    • Quarles, Mike, Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2001; ISBN 0-7864-1142-2).
    • Eric Schaefer, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-8223-2374-5).
    • Shapiro, Harry, Shooting Stars: Drugs, Hollywood and the Movies (Serpent's Tail, 2004; ISBN 1-85242-651-9).
    • Variety (magazine): "Wild Weed." August 31, 1949.
    Websites


    Category:1940s crime drama films
    Category:1949 films
    Category:American crime drama films
    Category:Black-and-white films
    Category:English-language films
    Category:Exploitation films
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    Richard Kay

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