Wild Weed

1949 "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get... Without Losing Her Virtue and Self-Respect?"
4.4| 1h10m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 20 July 1949 Released
Producted By: Roadshow Attractions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A chorus girl's career is ruined and her brother is driven to suicide when she starts smoking marijuana.

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Wizard-8 I must confess that although I do enjoy movies that are so bad they are funny, when it comes to anti-drug movies from the golden age of Hollywood, I haven't found them to be all that funny. Sure, it may be amusing at first to see marijuana smokers to be addicts and doing things like giggling like crazy with the first puff of a joint, that stuff gets old real fast. That's one reason why I didn't find "Wild Weed" (a.k.a. "She Shoulda Said No") all that amusing. Another reason was that this particular anti-drug movie was somewhat more competently made than other films on the subject. The production values, though cheap, are somewhat better than usual. So is the acting and the writing. Don't get me wrong, the movie is generally dumb and low budget, but it doesn't get to be so incompetent to be really bad or unintentionally hilarious. The only audience I see for this movie are film scholars who are writing about forbidden Hollywood movies and/or the history of movies concerning drugs.
zardoz-13 "Wild Weed" is a polished but predictable potboiler about the consequences of marihuana abuse in America during the late 1940s. Prolific director Sam Newfield does a good job of making this pedestrian crime thriller palatable. The action concern a chorus girl who is putting her younger brother through college by working as a dancer. Actually, Richard H. Landau is based in part on the sensational event that occurred when actor Robert Mitchum was busted with starlet Lila Leeds in her apartment. Mitchum is neither shown nor depicted. This movie shows how our unfortunate heroine becomes addicted to pot. The filmmakers refer to marihuana as 'tea' and the pushers hide it in tomato cans. The first half of the action concerns Anne Lester's descent into the hell of pot. A thoroughly despicable pusher, Markey (Alan Baxter), gets Anne hooked. After she loses her job as a dancer, Anne winds up fronting for Markey. Sadly, when Anne's brother, Bob (David Holt), shows up at his older sister's house, he is surprised to find the house in ruins after a party. Later, he discovers that she is helping Markey sell cannabis and he commits suicide by hanging himself in the garage. The second part follows Anne on her downward spiral until she survives jail and leads the authorities to Markey.Lila Leeds does a credible job, but her arrest doomed her career. She wasn't a bad actress. She is surrounded by a number of solid Hollywood actors. Indeed, Jack Elam made his film debut. Meantime, "Wild Weed" was her last film before she disappeared from the big-screen. Of course, the filmmakers were trading on Lila's celebrity status to give the film a modicum of credibility. The filmmakers' depiction of pot as a so-called 'gateway drug' makes this film funny. The scenes of people having a good time as they party with their pot are goofy. "Wild Weed" isn't as hilarious as "Reefer Madness" or "Marihuana." The fate of the lead actress gives "Wild Weed" a measure of poignancy. She suffered a worse fate than her screen character and the effect of the arrest on her cinematic aspirations is the flip side of what actually happened to Robert Mitchum. The marihuana arrest for Mitchum bolstered his career and he suffered no fall-out from it.
melvelvit-1 "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get Without Losing her Virtue and Self Respect? The Film That's Scorchin' The Nation's Screens! The Screen's Newest Blonde Bomb!" When Ann Lester (Lila Leeds), a pretty young nightclub dancer, catches the eye of slick L.A. pusher Markey (Alan Baxter), he seduces her at a "tea" party he'd arranged for that very purpose. Ann's stoner ways soon get her fired and she goes to work full-time as a hostess for Markey. When Bob, the younger brother she's been putting through college, comes home and finds out what she's become, he hangs himself. Ann's former boss turns her in and she's given a harrowing tour of prisons, psychopathic wards and the morgue before being sentenced to 60 days in jail. Remorse-ridden, Ann goes undercover for Police Captain Hayes (Lyle Talbot) to nail Markey's supplier, drug czar Jonathan Treanor (Michael Whalen)... Sexy starlet Lila Leeds made headlines around the world when she was busted for smoking pot with married movie star Robert Mitchum on September 1, 1948 and the publicity surrounding the high-profile case (long thought to be a set-up) off-set mounting charges of police corruption within the L.A.P.D. Lila became a victim of Hollywood (and the nation's) double-standard at the time: Mitchum skyrocketed to stardom as a "Hollywood bad boy" while Leeds became a pariah after they both served time in the county jail. Bob's first film post-scandal was THE BIG STEAL (1948), filmed in the heart of Mexico's marijuana country, but the only work Lila could get was this roadshow exploitation quickie capitalizing on her notoriety. Kroger Babb, "America's Fearless Showman," promoted WILD WEED as "The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Expose of the Marijuana Racket!" and in one scene Leeds even wears the same suit she wore to court. Purporting to be made in the name of education, moviegoers got to vicariously view Lila smoke dope, misbehave, and eventually pay for her sins behind bars. There's ridiculous moments galore, including a reckless teenage car crash, "tea" party hysterics, Ann's "police tour/prevention cure" (right out of the previous year's THE SNAKE PIT) with ravaged inmates in advanced stages of drug-induced insanity and Lila transforming into an emaciated hag in a prison mirror as she drives herself mad with the taunt "Baby-Killer!" The movie loves its many montages and concert pianist Rudolf Friml, Jr. tickles the ivories in the pot-induced hallucinations of a musical doper. Getting high is called "cutting up a touch" and "tea" (or "tomatoes") are $2 a stick -or you can have the "special": three for $5. The lissome Miss Leeds is out of her league histrionically as she goes from good kid to hardened moll and although WILD WEED boasts an "All-Star Hollywood Cast!", only Alan Baxter, Lyle Talbot and Michael Whalen show up. Look for a young Jack Elam as a crime kingpin's killer "butler".A bona fide B-Movie curio. Way to go, Lila! WILD WEED would make the ideal second feature for Robert Mitchum's THE BIG STEAL.
sbibb1 This film was originally called "Wild Weed." The star of the film is Lila Leeds, a promising starlet who had very minor roles in earlier films, but achieved worldwide notoriety when she was arrested along with Robert Mitchum and other for smoking pot in 1948. She spent several months in jail, and when she was released this was one of the few film roles she was able to get. On the contrary, Robert Mitchum, who was also arrested, came back to resume a hotter then ever film career.Leeds is beautiful, a sort of young Marilyn Monroe lookalike. The film is not one of the better "exploitation" films, but is notable for its cast of authentic Hollywood actors, though they were at this point well past their prime. Perennial B-movie actor Lyle Talbot, Alan Baxter and Michael Whalen, among other round out the cast.