Sensational 1951 Anti-Drug Film: “The Terrible Truth” – Early (and sensational) film on marijuana use as a route to heroin addiction. An old juvenile court judge named McKesson, who keeps referring to himself as “we” and “us,” decides he wants to find out about drugs. The judge says this to the camera, but the words he mouths bear absolutely no relation to the words on the soundtrack. He drives to a house where he meets “Phyllis,” a teenager who tells us (also out-of-sync) that when you smoke pot (that’s jive talk for marijuana, folks) “everything speeds up to 100 miles an hour!” She meets “Chuck” (who is a “hype” and a “peddler”) and starts wearing lipstick, becomes a junkie, loses her looks, goes through withdrawal (some good histrionics here) and reforms. Judge McKesson then tells us that the Russians are promoting drug traffic in the United States to “undermine national morale,” and that the only way we can stop the spread of drug use is by using “good sense.” The film concludes with a newspaper headline — “America’s Teen Age Dope ‘Fad’ Ending!” Another unique view into the eternally pessimistic Sid Davis universe. Producer: Davis (Sid) Productions

The other Marseilles

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There followed the tragedy of the heroine-Aids connection that went unmentioned. “Drugs shattered that generation,” …. There has been a withdrawal into religion, but it is manipulative to claim that this is a fundamentalist tide. Most quartiers nord …
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