Reefer Madness

This 1930s public information film, an extraordinary combination of paranoia and naivety, was later embraced as an underground classic.

  • Director

    Louis J. Gasnier

  • With

    Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles

  • USA 1936. 68min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    15

Reckless teenagers from seemingly respectable families find their lives turned upside down when they are introduced to the horrors of ’the reefer’ by local dealers. This cult classic is a cinematic Trojan horse – a public information film subverted to become a camp exploitation romp with the moral catch line ‘Tell Your Children’.

+ It Never Happened (Tomato’s Another Day)

USA 1934. Director James Sibley Watson. 7min. Digital

Shot on a small, claustrophobic set and featuring deliberately nonsensical dialogue and weird, obtuse, deadpan acting, this Lynchian short was considered a failure by its director. We disagree.

Also available on BFI Player