ASSASSIN OF YOUTH (1938) Luana Walters & Arthur Gardener | Crime, Drama, Exploitation | B&W

Assassin of Youth is a 1937 exploitation film directed by Elmer Clifton.[1] It is a pre-WWII film about the supposed ill effects of cannabis. The film is often considered a clone of the much more famous Reefer Madness (sharing cast member Dorothy Short). The thriller reflects the antidrug propaganda of its time.

SYNOPSIS
A high-school girl gets involved with a ring of teenage marijuana smokers and starts down the road to ruin. A reporter poses as a soda jerk to infiltrate the gang of teen dope fiends.

The journalist Art Brighton goes undercover to investigate the granddaughter of a recently deceased rich woman, killed in a drug-related car crash. The girl, Joan Barrie, will inherit the fortune of her grandmother if she is able to fulfill a morals clause in the will. Joan's cousin Linda Clayton and her husband Jack will try to frame Joan to acquire the fortune themselves.

The journalist tries to save Joan and dismantle the criminal gang of marijuana-dealing youths to which Linda belongs. While the newspaper tries to show the horrible dangers of marijuana to the general public, violence scales in the town in the form of obscene all-night drug parties where anything can happen.

CAST & CREW
Luana Walters as Joan Barry
Arthur Gardner as Art Brighton
Dorothy Short as Marjorie 'Marge' Barry
Earl Dwire as Henry 'Pop' Brady
Fern Emmett as Henrietta Frisbee
Henry Roquemore as Judge George Herbert
Fay McKenzie as Linda Clayton
Michael Owen as Jack Howard

Directed by Elmer Clifton
Written by Charles A. Browne, Elmer Clifton
Produced by Charles A. Browne, Leo J. McCarthy
Edited by Rose Loewinger
Distributed by BCM Roadshow Productions
Release date 1937
Running time 80 minutes
Language English

NOTES
The film's title refers to an article of the same year by U.S. "drug czar" Harry J. Anslinger that appeared in The American Magazine and was reprinted in Reader's Digest in 1938. That article briefly mentions several stories from his "Gore file" of tragedies allegedly caused by marijuana. The movie's tone echoes those of Anslinger's cautionary tales.