Wild Weed (1949) User Reviews

Lila Leeds puts her acting skills to good use

[kidboots · 5/10 · 28 November 2008]

Lila Leeds claim to fame should be as the beautiful blonde secretary that Robert Montgomery could not take his eyes off in "Lady in the Lake". Instead it was as a "starlet goes bad" warning to other young actresses of the time. She was "busted" along with Robert Mitchum in an infamous drugs raid and spent time in prison. Robert Mitchum bounced back and made being in prison "cool" - making him an "anti- hero". Poor Lila was persuaded to appear in this potboiler as part of her probation.

A slimy drug peddler "Marky" is selling his wares to high school kids - they are in a horrific car accident, one of the girls loses her legs!! He is also selling to chorus girls and is determined to get beautiful Ann Lester (Lila Leeds) hooked!!! - which he does quite easily!!! At the most boring party ever a stoned pianist (Rudolf Friml Jnr.) imagines that he is playing at the Hollywood Bowl. It is a good attempt to show the "delusions of grandeur" that is a side effect of the drug.

Ann and her friend Rita are sacked from their chorus jobs (they are too drugged up to dance) so Marky introduces Ann to selling the drug and "entertaining" the clients. When Bob (David Holt) comes home and finds how his sister Ann is really paying for his college fees, he hangs himself. Ann blames herself for his death and is then persuaded by Captain Hayes (Lyle Talbot) to go undercover, after viewing what an addict's life is really like and getting first hand experience of prison life.

It is a pity Leeds couldn't put it all behind her as she is so pretty and is a passable actress. I agree "Hollywood Stars" is an exaggeration but their names would be familiar to film devotees of the 1930s.

Lyle Talbot had been a star of pre-codes but this was in one of his down periods. David Holt was a child actor in the early 30s when studios were looking for the next Shirley Temple. Michael Qualen was a handsome leading man in a couple of Shirley Temple movies - "Poor Little Rich Girl" (1936) and "Wee Willie Winkie" (1937). "Wild Weed" was also one of Jack Elam's first films. Altogether the acting was of a higher level than most exploitation films. They might not have been Hollywood greats but they were professionals and it showed.

Starring Real Life Addict!

[sbibb1 · 3/10 · 17 April 2005]

This film was originally called "Wild Weed." The star of the film is Lila Leeds, a promising starlet who had very minor roles in earlier films, but achieved worldwide notoriety when she was arrested along with Robert Mitchum and other for smoking pot in 1948. She spent several months in jail, and when she was released this was one of the few film roles she was able to get. On the contrary, Robert Mitchum, who was also arrested, came back to resume a hotter then ever film career.

Leeds is beautiful, a sort of young Marilyn Monroe lookalike. The film is not one of the better "exploitation" films, but is notable for its cast of authentic Hollywood actors, though they were at this point well past their prime. Perennial B-movie actor Lyle Talbot, Alan Baxter and Michael Whalen, among other round out the cast.

"I could turn your life into a nice big beautiful sleigh ride."

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 10 April 2008]

This story of 'tea' and 'tomatoes' purports to boast an 'All Star Hollywood Cast', but even if you're a follower of films from the 1930's and '40's, I don't think you'll recognize a single name in the credits. Maybe Lyle Talbot, who's screen credits total nearly three hundred roles, but after that I think you'd be hard pressed to recognize another actor in the picture. Except for Jack Elam in one of his very first screen roles; he actually was a rather good looking guy back then. That might have been the single treat in the film for me.

It's curious how all of these exploitation films wind up with a handful of different titles. I saw this picture under the name "She Shoulda' Said No", and just like the classic cult film "Reefer Madness", it tells the story of youth run wild after falling victim to the evil terrors of marihuna (sometimes spelled marijuana as a closing segment informs us). It's hard to take seriously today of course, and I really wish there were some folks around from the era who could tell us first hand how these flicks were received back in the day.

I have to say, I was really distracted by Alan Baxter's portrayal of the local pusher Markey. He's a dead ringer for a young Jack Nicholson, and if I didn't know better, I would have been checking the credits to see if it was him or not. Another weird thing was the use of that eerie sci-fi/Twilight Zone type music whenever folks on screen were shown puffing on the dreaded weed. You know, I had to laugh when I saw the "I'm gonna die' guy under the influence. It reminded me of the very first and just about only time I tried pot myself. It was in an apartment that lost it's heat in the winter, and my best friend was convinced he was going to freeze to death. I wasn't as hysterical as Rita and her friends, but I thought it was all pretty funny at the time.

I had a curious thought about mid-way through the picture. Wouldn't it be great if the Coen Brothers took the idea of these exploitation flicks and made one of their own? You could really get some mileage out of characters portrayed by John Tuturro, Jon Polito, and Steve Buscemi. Jack Nicholson might be a little too old for this sort of stuff, but I think a cameo would be just the right touch. I think he would be up for it.

Silly, with a Couple Redeeming Features

[dougdoepke · 22 November 2011]

Naïve show girl gets involved with hard cases in a marijuana drug ring.

Seeing this pot-warning epic, you might confuse the devil weed with a shot of laughing gas. That's because after taking a puff, the smokers stand around and giggle for hours on end. I kept hoping for an orgy, but no luck, just a lot of pointless laughing. Looks like the director auditioned supporting players on how long and maniacally they could giggle.

Sure, the movie's a grade Z production that probably showed in a few all-night grind houses. Still, a couple less-than- terrible aspects manage to emerge. The montages are generally well done, especially the white piano dream at the Hollywood Bowl. Plus, the principal acting is not that bad. Whatever else, bad girl Leeds manages a pretty good performance, along with veteran stone face Alan Baxter.

Oddly, the narrative breaks into two parts—the first is the goofy drug part, while the second amounts to standard crime drama. Add 'em up and you've got a generally bad movie that doesn't rise to campy level, but still manages a few redeeming aspects.

(In passing-- The guy playing the orchestral piano is a legitimate long-hair, Rudolf Friml Jr., whose dad composed such well-known operettas as Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King. I guess this was meant to add a touch of class to an otherwise seedy production.)

Another Cautionary Yarn About Cannabis

[zardoz-13 · 5/10 · 18 November 2012]

"Wild Weed" is a polished but predictable potboiler about the consequences of marihuana abuse in America during the late 1940s. Prolific director Sam Newfield does a good job of making this pedestrian crime thriller palatable. The action concern a chorus girl who is putting her younger brother through college by working as a dancer. Actually, Richard H. Landau is based in part on the sensational event that occurred when actor Robert Mitchum was busted with starlet Lila Leeds in her apartment. Mitchum is neither shown nor depicted. This movie shows how our unfortunate heroine becomes addicted to pot. The filmmakers refer to marihuana as 'tea' and the pushers hide it in tomato cans. The first half of the action concerns Anne Lester's descent into the hell of pot. A thoroughly despicable pusher, Markey (Alan Baxter), gets Anne hooked. After she loses her job as a dancer, Anne winds up fronting for Markey. Sadly, when Anne's brother, Bob (David Holt), shows up at his older sister's house, he is surprised to find the house in ruins after a party. Later, he discovers that she is helping Markey sell cannabis and he commits suicide by hanging himself in the garage. The second part follows Anne on her downward spiral until she survives jail and leads the authorities to Markey.

Lila Leeds does a credible job, but her arrest doomed her career. She wasn't a bad actress. She is surrounded by a number of solid Hollywood actors. Indeed, Jack Elam made his film debut. Meantime, "Wild Weed" was her last film before she disappeared from the big-screen. Of course, the filmmakers were trading on Lila's celebrity status to give the film a modicum of credibility. The filmmakers' depiction of pot as a so-called 'gateway drug' makes this film funny. The scenes of people having a good time as they party with their pot are goofy. "Wild Weed" isn't as hilarious as "Reefer Madness" or "Marihuana." The fate of the lead actress gives "Wild Weed" a measure of poignancy. She suffered a worse fate than her screen character and the effect of the arrest on her cinematic aspirations is the flip side of what actually happened to Robert Mitchum. The marihuana arrest for Mitchum bolstered his career and he suffered no fall-out from it.

What happens when your life literally goes to pot?

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 3 November 2018]

There's only a few moments in this obvious exploitation film that get unintentional laughs or take the anti-marijuana film into areas of absurdity. It stars Lila Leeds as a young lady determined to send her brother (David Holt) to college, how she accidentally becomes involved with the wrong crowd and how she becomes addicted to the wacky weed. Holt is killed, either by suicide or murder (he ticked off some of her nightclub pals who might have been suspicious that he might turn them in), and her life spirals down from there, landing her in jail. After being released, she agrees to go undercover to expose the head of the pot selling racket (Michael Whalen), and leads the narcotics squad on a merry chase.

Leeds, with a hairstyle that Marilyn Monroe made famous, lacks in screen charisma, seems to have several different personas after her jail stint, hysterically morphing from young lady to haggard junkie, eventually seeing her brother in the mirror as her reflection. Another wild scene at a party has a guest becoming hysterical after smokin' a bowl and throwing his hands through the windows, a piano player all of a sudden fantasizing that he's at Carnagie Hall, and Leeds laughing hysterically after taking her first hit. She's recovering from a hangover the next day, made to appear that the pot was responsible. Veteran actor Lyle Talbot once again plays a police captain in an exploitation film, a sad fall from being a leading man in the 1930's. The second half is rather preachy. With legal battles over the legalization of pot in the courts, this is a curio, just not the freak fest of 1936's "Reefer Madness".

At times, like an updated version of REEFER MADNESS

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 25 September 2007]

This film's structure, at least for the first half is very similar to the classic bad film, REEFER MADNESS. Both had preachy prologues and both showed wild pot parties where the guests behaved as if they were on LSD, not marijuana. While I think pot use is very stupid, I can't see how this film in any way could discourage it, as the way people act on this drug is so silly that any child would laugh at the ineptitude of the film and the central message would be lost.

Oddly, at about the middle of the film, the movie became much less silly in its portrayal of drug use and became a somewhat standard (though very poorly made) cop film. While this improved the film a bit, it was a case of just too little too late. The bottom line is that the film suffers from a horrible script and production values. About the only interesting things about it were how silly it all became and to see both a down-and-out Lyle Talbot as well as Jack Elam in his first film. It's all just a very silly mess.

Over-the-top marijuana educational film...

[dwpollar · 2/10 · 20 February 2007]

1st watched 2/19/2007 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Sherman Scott): Over-the-top marijuana educational film goes way beyond it's earlier predecessor's with an obvious bigger budget but having the same results. Please -- get a life people!! Stop making these silly movies and bust the offenders instead!! I absolutely hate these government funded opportunities to make bad movies. In this one, a dancer is turned onto the drug at a party as she's trying to get her brother thru college. She's promised lots more money from the seller and is enticed into his world where only heartbreak occurs instead. Her brother kills himself and she blames herself, and her reason for staying in the business is now more self-induced. She is eventually picked up by the cops with the rest of her friends, spends some time in jail where she freaks out but doesn't reveal the seller and his whereabouts. The rest of the movie I won't reveal in case you want to see it. There are some special effects thrown in on this movie but otherwise it's very similar to it's earlier exploitation movies about the horrors of the drug. Too bad the money to make this movie wasn't spent on something more useful, like rehab for users etc

Dope-y flick is pure exploitation

[melvelvit-1 · 6/10 · 15 July 2007]

"How Bad Can a Good Girl Get Without Losing her Virtue and Self Respect? The Film That's Scorchin' The Nation's Screens! The Screen's Newest Blonde Bomb!"

When Ann Lester (Lila Leeds), a pretty young nightclub dancer, catches the eye of slick L.A. pusher Markey (Alan Baxter), he seduces her at a "tea" party he'd arranged for that very purpose. Ann's stoner ways soon get her fired and she goes to work full-time as a hostess for Markey. When Bob, the younger brother she's been putting through college, comes home and finds out what she's become, he hangs himself. Ann's former boss turns her in and she's given a harrowing tour of prisons, psychopathic wards and the morgue before being sentenced to 60 days in jail. Remorse-ridden, Ann goes undercover for Police Captain Hayes (Lyle Talbot) to nail Markey's supplier, drug czar Jonathan Treanor (Michael Whalen)...

Sexy starlet Lila Leeds made headlines around the world when she was busted for smoking pot with married movie star Robert Mitchum on September 1, 1948 and the publicity surrounding the high-profile case (long thought to be a set-up) off-set mounting charges of police corruption within the L.A.P.D. Lila became a victim of Hollywood (and the nation's) double-standard at the time: Mitchum skyrocketed to stardom as a "Hollywood bad boy" while Leeds became a pariah after they both served time in the county jail. Bob's first film post-scandal was THE BIG STEAL (1948), filmed in the heart of Mexico's marijuana country, but the only work Lila could get was this roadshow exploitation quickie capitalizing on her notoriety. Kroger Babb, "America's Fearless Showman," promoted WILD WEED as "The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Expose of the Marijuana Racket!" and in one scene Leeds even wears the same suit she wore to court. Purporting to be made in the name of education, moviegoers got to vicariously view Lila smoke dope, misbehave, and eventually pay for her sins behind bars. There's ridiculous moments galore, including a reckless teenage car crash, "tea" party hysterics, Ann's "police tour/prevention cure" (right out of the previous year's THE SNAKE PIT) with ravaged inmates in advanced stages of drug-induced insanity and Lila transforming into an emaciated hag in a prison mirror as she drives herself mad with the taunt "Baby-Killer!" The movie loves its many montages and concert pianist Rudolf Friml, Jr. tickles the ivories in the pot-induced hallucinations of a musical doper. Getting high is called "cutting up a touch" and "tea" (or "tomatoes") are $2 a stick -or you can have the "special": three for $5. The lissome Miss Leeds is out of her league histrionically as she goes from good kid to hardened moll and although WILD WEED boasts an "All-Star Hollywood Cast!", only Alan Baxter, Lyle Talbot and Michael Whalen show up. Look for a young Jack Elam as a crime kingpin's killer "butler".

A bona fide B-Movie curio. Way to go, Lila! WILD WEED would make the ideal second feature for Robert Mitchum's THE BIG STEAL.

Great fun

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 27 August 2015]

The IMDb ratings for WILD WEED (which I saw in a version entitled SHE SHOULDA SAID 'NO!') might be low, but this is actually a pretty fun movie that's a lot better than the other sensationalist dramas I've been watching recently (like GAMBLING WITH SOULS and THE WILD AND WICKED for example). The handling of the material is just so over the top that it makes for a highly entertaining viewing experience.

The central character (played with relish by Lila Leeds, who in real life was busted for possession of marijuana alongside Robert Mitchum) is the usual innocent type who falls in with the wrong crowd and ends up finding herself in prison as a result. However, there's a twist, and in the second half of the production things really pick up as this turns into a low budget crime thriller with police, bad guys, and the like.

Compared to leading Hollywood productions of the era, like the ever-popular film noir genre, SHE SHOULDA SAID 'NO!' is pretty tame and silly, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The heavy-handed preachiness of the anti-drug message is always fun to watch, and the cast are certainly game; we get the ever-dependable Lyle Talbot in support, alongside Jack Elam in his film debut.

Fun

[Michael_Elliott · 29 February 2008]

She Shoulda Said No (1949)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Government "warning" film in the same vein as Reefer Madness works on the same camp level and has a somewhat historic Hollywood twist. Anne Lester (Lila Leeds) is a hard working good girl until she takes a hit of marijuana and soon she turns into a mental slut. Can she be saved before ending up in a mental hospital? Like all of these "warning" exploitation films, this one here is very poorly made and the facts the film presents are so incredibly stupid you can't help but laugh at them. Weed is referred to here as tomatoes and tea, which are two terms I haven't heard the stuff called. The film also claims that, in 1949, there were over 200 million pot users, which seems a tad bit high (no pun intended). I guess the most interesting thing is the true Hollywood story of lead actress Lila Leeds who was busted with Robert Mitchum during his infamous marijuana bust. As part of her probation she had to appear in this film. I think she should have just done jail time like Mitchum. Lyle Talbot co-stars.

She's only working here because she needs the dough

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 21 March 2013]

****SPOILERS*** Working as a dancer at the Saint Perrier nightclub pretty blond Anne Lester, Lila Leeds,wants to earn enough money to pay her kid brother Bob's, David Holt, collage tuition. It when local drug dealer Markey, Alan Baxter, checks out the joint for new talent, or future drug addicts, he spots Anne and starts to work on her. That's by telling her that she can make far more money as a party thrower for him and his boss Johnathan Treanor, Michael Whalen, then as a dancing girl at the club. Both Markey and Treanor have been laying low of late in that a number of teenagers whom they supplied with pot ended up dead and severely injured in a drug induced car accident.

Becoming part of the Treanor drug gang at first things are very peachy for Anne who's making big bucks in attracting new clients,or junkies, for them until her kid brother Bob shows up unexpectedly at the house and finds her strung out on pot. From then on everything goes down hill for Anne with Bob later committing suicide, by hanging himself, in his shock of seeing his big sister ending up as a pot head as well as drug dealer. It's not that long that Anne herself ends up convicted of drug possession and is sent to a drug rehabilitation center to both dry out as well as see the light in how she's not only destroying herself but those abound her.

***SPOILERS*** Getting out ten days earlier for good behavior Anne is now given a chance by the kindly and understanding vice squad Captain Hayes, Lyle Tolbot, to work undercover and get the goods on her employers Markey & Treanor as well as big mob boss Romaro and put then out of commission and behind bars for good. But by agreeing in doing that Anne is also putting her life on the line as well.

P.S Actress Lila Leeds was very well suited in her role in the movie as pot smoker Lila Lester in that just a year before she was busted together with actor Robert Mitchum among others in a midnight raid by the L.A vice squad during a an all night pot smoking party.

Not that much fun

[Wizard-8 · 6 November 2013]

I must confess that although I do enjoy movies that are so bad they are funny, when it comes to anti-drug movies from the golden age of Hollywood, I haven't found them to be all that funny. Sure, it may be amusing at first to see marijuana smokers to be addicts and doing things like giggling like crazy with the first puff of a joint, that stuff gets old real fast. That's one reason why I didn't find "Wild Weed" (a.k.a. "She Shoulda Said No") all that amusing. Another reason was that this particular anti-drug movie was somewhat more competently made than other films on the subject. The production values, though cheap, are somewhat better than usual. So is the acting and the writing. Don't get me wrong, the movie is generally dumb and low budget, but it doesn't get to be so incompetent to be really bad or unintentionally hilarious. The only audience I see for this movie are film scholars who are writing about forbidden Hollywood movies and/or the history of movies concerning drugs.