Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical
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The film version of the musical Reefer Madness premiered on April 16, 2005, on the Showtime cable network. It is a television movie version of the 2004 musical, and stars Alan Cumming as the Lecturer and Kristen Bell as Mary. The movie also stars siblings Christian and Neve Campbell as Jimmy Harper and Miss Poppy. Bell, Christian Campbell, and John Kassir reprise their roles from the stage; Robert Torti, who played both Jack and Jesus on the stage, portrays only the latter in the movie version (Steven Weber plays Jack in the movie).
On the night of April 20th, 2005, Showtime aired the musical back-to-back with the 1936 exploitation film that inspired it.
Basis
Most of the satirical basis of the movie was focused on censorship of the government, not reefer madness. It is an extremely comical and witty piece with many instances involving tongue-in-cheek humour.
Quotes
- Lecturer- "Do your children enjoy jazz music? For I am here to tell you that Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and the whole weed-blowing, ginger-colored lot are merely masquerading as musicians and are in fact agents of evil. (nods) Reefer slows down the smokers' sense of time, allowing them to squeeze in unnecessary "grace notes", giving this voodoo music the power to hypnotize white women into indulging in unspeakable acts of degradation."
- "Marijuana is the most addictive of all drugs. It is many times more addictive than heroin."
- Roosevelt-"I for one would like to hear what this blood-spattered young lady has to say!"
- Mary Lane- "Jimmy! What are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 p.m.!"
- Sally- "What a night! I was in more laps than a napkin!"
- Roosevelt- "A little orphan girl once told me that the sun would come out tomorrow. Her adopted father was a powerful billionaire so I suppressed the urge to laugh in her face, but now, by gum, I think she may have been on to something!"
- Jimmy (During "Loved by Mary Lane")- "Mary Jane, Mary Jane, you conquered me like Charlemagne."
- "You melt resistance down like hot Velveeta!"
Synopsis
Template:Spoiler In a high school classroom, The Lecturer tells the assembly of anxious parents about the evil of marijuana ("Reefer Madness"). With the help of his assistants, he then launches into the tragic tale of one boy's struggles with the demon weed.
Jimmy Harper is a fine upstanding youth, blessed with the love of the fair Mary Lane. The two are sure they will live happily ever after ("Romeo and Juliet"). However, across town, the weed-pusher Jack and his croonies, Sally and Ralph, are living in the depths of depravity. Jack's moll, Mae, explains how she came to live in such a state ('"The Stuff.")
Meanwhile, Jack goes out to recruit new addicts at Miss Poppy's soda counter ("The Ol' Five and Dime"). There, he meets Jimmy, whom he lures back to the house and offers a stick of reefer. After one puff, Jack becomes an addict ("Jimmy Takes a Hit/The Orgy"). He forgets about Mary Lane, who sits alone in church for weeks and weeks ("Lonely Pew").
One night, Jimmy and Ralph break into the church in order to steal from the collection plate for drug money. Jesus comes down from the cross and, in a musical revue hosted by Joan of Arc, exhorts Jimmy to kick the habit ("Listen to Jesus, Jimmy"). But Jimmy's too deep into his habit to be saved; he has a new god now. He goes back to the Reefer Den, and to Sally.
One dark night, Jimmy and Sally are driving back to the house, stoned, when their car hits and kills an old man. Sally runs away. Jimmy, scared straight, drives in a panic to Mary's house, where he tells her he still loves her, and that they must go far, far away. Mary happily accepts him back, and everything seems right with the worlds ("Mary Jane/Mary Lane").
But Jack knows that if the police catch Jimmy, his 'reefer empire' will be shattered. He waits for Jimmy at Mary's house and offers him an innocent looking chocolate brownie. Jimmy eats the brownie and immediately forgets about Mary Lane ("The Brownie Song").
Jimmy goes back to the Reefer Den. But this time, Mary follows him, planning to rescue him. Instead, Ralph ensnares her with his fraternity jacket and a puff of reefer ("Little Mary Sunshine").
Jimmy comes downstairs to find Mary making out with Ralph. He angrily attacks Ralph and the two begin wrestling. Jack comes in and attempts to break up the fight, while Mae reproaches them for corrupting someone as innocent as Mary. During the scuffle, Jack's gun goes off and Mary is shot through the heart ("Mary's Death"). Jimmy holds her but it is too late; she dies in his arms.
The police appear, summoned by the gunshot, and Jack fingers Jimmy as the killer. He is taken away. The radio reveals that he has been sent to death row.
Upon hearing this news, Ralph goes insane, thinking that Jimmy, Mary and the rest of the youths whose lives have been ruined by marijuana, are stalking him from beyond the grave ("Murder"). Spooked, Jack and Mae go out for food while Sally stays behind to look after the raving Ralph.
When they return, the find that Ralph, in the throes of reefer-induced hunger pangs, has murdered Sally and eaten her body. Jack shoots and kills him. But now Mae is having visions of Jimmy, Mary, Sally and Ralph, all accusing. To regain her sanity the only way she knows, she hacks Jack to death and kicks the habit once and for all ("The Stuff (Reprise)").
When she reads in the daily paper that the president will be coming to town to judge a dance contest, she determines to talk to him and gain a Presidential pardon for Jimmy. They burst into the electrocution chamber at the last second and free the doomed boy, who joins them in their crusade to tell the world about the evils of marijuana ("Tell 'em the Truth").
The Lecturer's presentation ends. The entire audience joins in to explain how they will join the fight against things they don't understand ("Reefer Madness (Reprise)").
Side Notes
- The high school that Jimmy and Mary attend is named after Harry J. Anslinger, the United States' first "drug czar".
- The Lecturer refers several times to a newspaper written by William Randolph Hearst, whose real life newspapers featured exaggerated stories and anti-marijuana propaganda.
- The number 420 which is a euphemism for the consumption of cannabis and elements of its associated culture appears several times throughout the film. Jack's house address is 420, and the church's hymnal listing lists 420 several times. Many more examples exist.