Cultpix Radio

Cultpix Radio Ep.9 - Drugsploitation Vol. 1 and Cultpix open to everyone

June 08, 2021 Django Nudo & the Smut Peddler Season 1 Episode 9
Cultpix Radio
Cultpix Radio Ep.9 - Drugsploitation Vol. 1 and Cultpix open to everyone
Show Notes

Episode 9 of of Cultpix Radio WCPX 66.6 sees (hears?) Django Nudo and a nude-o Smut Peddler discuss dope cult films about drugs and celebrate the site now being open to everyone.

After two months of being invitation-only Culpix.com is now open to anyone over the age of 18 with a credit card and a burning desire to see the world's greatest selection of streaming classic cult films and TV shows. We discuss how we got here and give a shout out to our amazing early members who helped us along the way.

When we started discussing doing a Theme Week about drug warning and exploitation films we quickly realised that we had more films than we could ever cram into one week. Thus the idea was born to split it into two. This week we look at drug warning films from the 1930s and the post-war period, while next week we move into the era from the hippies to the War on Drugs.

Reefer Madness (1936) is the cultiest of all drugsploitation films, but it was an earnest anti-drug film called Tell Your Children before it had sleazy bits cut in, suffered multiple name changes and gratuitous posters printed up.  It was one of many films around the same time that include Marijuana - Weed With Roots in Hell (1936), Assassin of Youth (1935) and  The Cocaine Fiends (1935). We uncover their secret patterns:

*Middle-class A students kids seduced into the seedy drug world;

* Often a blonde, "fallen" girl luring the kids.

* Drug dealer is always sleazy, a bit older and has backslick and a pencil-thin black moustache. Sometimes with a suspicious (hispanic?) accent;

* There is always one or a few upstanding citizens: a father, a mother, a teacher, a judge;

* There is always a comic relief: an older lady on a silly moped, an old man with bad teeth, a fat matron, a servant;

* There is a lot of slinky, silky underwear and too much being exposed, garter belts, stockings, etc. The Hays Code was very strict, but these were "educational" films;

* There are always big parties in the drug dealers home, so both drugs and tons of booze;

* All the drugs have an effect that is counter-indicative of the drug's effect in real-life; when a drug normally gets you mellow, you get extatic, happy, sometimes violent. When a drug normally makes you energetic, you get slow and tired;

* There is always jazz music! (The Devil's music, of course!)

And why does the same devil appear on posters for two different anti-drug films a decade apart?

Two films from the mid-50s are poles apart in tackling the menace of substance addiction. Quasi documentary Teenage Devil Dolls (1955) could only afford a preachy voice-over about a 'good girl' falling in with a druggy biker gang. Meanwhile The Man With The Golden Arm (1955) is probably Frank Sinatra's best role ever as a jazz (!) drummer trying to go straight with the help of Kim Novak's stripper joint madam, but led astray, featuring Elmer Bernstein's sublime score and Saul Bass' iconic design. Finally Smoke and Flesh (1968) gives us a glimpse of next week's hippie druggie films continuation.