''She Shoulda Said No!'' (also known as ''Wild Weed''; ''The Devil's Weed''; ''Marijuana, the Devil's Weed''; and ''The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket'') is a 1949
exploitation film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
that follows in the spirit of
morality tales such as the 1936 films ''
Reefer Madness
''Reefer Madness'' (originally made as ''Tell Your Children'' and sometimes titled ''The Burning Question'', ''Dope Addict'', ''Doped Youth'', and ''Love Madness'') is a 1936 American propaganda film about drugs, revolving around the melodramat ...
'' and ''
Marihuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
''. Directed by
Sam Newfield
Sam Newfield, born Samuel Neufeld, (December 6, 1899 - November 10, 1964), also known as Sherman Scott or Peter Stewart, was an American B-movie Film director, director, one of the most prolific in American film history—he is credited with d ...
(using the pseudonym "Sherman Scott") and starring
Lila Leeds
Lila Leeds (born Lila Lee Wilkinson, January 28, 1928 – September 15, 1999) was an American film actress.
Early life and career
Born in Iola, Kansas, Leeds's mother located to Clovis, New Mexico where Lila lived during her teens. Lila wor ...
, it was originally produced to capitalize on the arrest of Leeds and
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
on a charge of
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
conspiracy.
The film was issued under many titles; it struggled to find a
distributor
A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark plugs ...
until film presenter
Kroger Babb
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906 – January 28, 1980) was an American film producer and showman. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine show tradition. Self-described as "America's ...
picked up the rights, reissuing it as ''The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket''. Its relative success came only after the promotional
posters
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. ...
were redone and a story fabricated that the film was being presented in conjunction with the
United States Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
.
Plot
Leeds' character is "Anne Lester", a young orphan trying to pay for her brother's college education. After meeting Markey, a drug dealer, Anne begins to believe that she must smoke marijuana to fit in with her friends. She then goes to a "tea party", where she tries the drug for the first time. She is unaffected by the initial experiment, and loses her fear of drugs as she continues to use it willingly.
[Schaefer, 243.]
Anne's drug use results in the loss of many of her inhibitions, and the film shows her actions under the influence, including scenes implying sexual promiscuity.
As the film progresses, she is fired from her job and begins selling drugs for Markey. Her brother hangs himself when he learns of her new job, and she is arrested and given a tour of the various
psychiatric wards and jails in which drug users end up. Finally, after 50 days in jail, she is released,
cleaned up and ready to cooperate with the authorities regarding Markey.
Cast
![She Shoulda Said No! (1949) - Title Card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/She_Shoulda_Said_No%21_%281949%29_-_Title_Card.jpg)
*
Alan Baxter as Markey
*
Lyle Talbot
Lyle Florenz Talbot (born Lisle Henderson, also credited Lysle Talbot; February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American stage, screen and television actor. His career in films spanned three decades, from 1931 to 1960, and he performed on ...
as Captain Hayes
*
Lila Leeds
Lila Leeds (born Lila Lee Wilkinson, January 28, 1928 – September 15, 1999) was an American film actress.
Early life and career
Born in Iola, Kansas, Leeds's mother located to Clovis, New Mexico where Lila lived during her teens. Lila wor ...
as Anne Lester
* Michael Whelan as Treanor
* Mary Ellen Popel as Rita
* Doug Blackley as Lieutenant Mason
*
David Holt as Bob Lester
*
Don Harvey as Lieutenant Tyne
*
David Gorcey
David Gorcey (February 6, 1921 – October 23, 1984) was an American actor and the younger brother of actor Leo Gorcey. Gorcey is best known for portraying "Chuck Anderson" in Monogram Pictures' film series The Bowery Boys, and "Pee Wee" in i ...
as Ricky
*
Jack Elam
William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 – October 20, 2003) was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villainou ...
as Raymond
* Dick Cogan as Edmunds
*
Knox Manning
Charles Knox Manning (January 17, 1904 – August 26, 1980) was an American film actor. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. He and Annette North Manning are interred at Ivy Lawn Cemete ...
as Narrator
Production and marketing
![She Shoulda Said No!](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/She_Shoulda_Said_No%21.jpg)
The film itself is semi-
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
, its story following what Leeds herself experienced. The film was inspired by the highly publicized arrest of movie stars
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
and Leeds for marijuana possession. On September 1, 1948, the actors, along with two others, were arrested after being caught smoking marijuana at the home of Leeds in the early morning, and were charged with the felony of narcotics possession. Leeds was sentenced to sixty days in prison and placed on probation for five years.
Upon her release, Leeds struggled to find work in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
, and signed on to star in ''Wild Weed''. During publicity for the film in 1949, Leeds, who had been 20 at the time of the arrest, said that appearing in the picture would keep other people her age from trying drugs,
[Unknown 1948–1949 magazine.] but in 1952 she confided in ''
Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
'' that she "only had one offer… which was an obvious attempt to capitalize on the Mitchum case notoriety. I took it. I was broke." The film gained approval from the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930, consolidating the functions of the Federal Narcotics Control Board a ...
to use the drug references, a standard practice at the time even though the Bureau had no power to
censor the films. The film used its plot to push many of the beliefs of the time: that drug-using youth would turn to crime and the theory of "marijuana as a
gateway drug
The gateway drug effect (alternatively, stepping-stone theory, escalation hypothesis, or progression hypothesis) is a comprehensive catchphrase for the often observed effect that the use of a psychoactive substance is coupled to an increased probab ...
". The latter was a leading argument for
drug prohibition
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate the ...
during the era, and an argument that Leeds herself made, based on her own history with marijuana and
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
.
![Image The Devil s Weed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Image_The_Devil_s_Weed.jpg)
Via Franklin Productions, Kay filmed the production in six days, a common occurrence given that most films of the era were shot with a quick turnaround. Eureka Productions initially distributed the film, but it struggled to find an audience until Kroger Babb's Hallmark Productions acquired the rights for distribution. Babb initially marketed the film under the title ''The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket'', but failed to achieve success with that title and eventually changed it to ''"She Shoulda Said 'No'!"''. He pushed the sensuality of Leeds with new promotional photographs and a new
tagline
In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...
: "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get... without losing her virtue or respect???", while sending letters to local communities falsely claiming that the United States Treasury Department implored Hallmark to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service.
[Schaefer, 125.] The
square-up misleadingly stated that the producers wished to "publicly acknowledge the splendid cooperation of the Nation's narcotic experts and Government departments, who aided in various ways the success of this production…. If its presentation saves but one young girl or boy from becoming a 'dope fiend' – then its story has been well told."
Babb, who gained notoriety for his various marketing gimmicks, occasionally had Leeds make appearances and give lectures at showings of the film. Babb often booked the movie as a midnight presentation twice a week in the same town;
David F. Friedman
David Frank Friedman (December 24, 1923 – February 14, 2011) was an American filmmaker and film producer best known for his B movies, exploitation films, Nudity in film#Nudie-cuties, nudie cuties, and sexploitation films.
Life and career
Fri ...
, who would later use the film in his own double-billings, attributed the distribution plan to a film that was so low in quality that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible.
Reception
According to Friedman, Babb's presentations of the film made more money than any other film the same theater would showcase over a typical film's full booking. While actual dollar figures are not available because of the nature of the genre (which was known for poor record keeping and unconventional distribution practices), the general financial success of ''"She Shoulda Said 'No'!"'' prompted producers, in 1951, to import a similar film from Argentina titled ''
The Marihuana Story
''The Marihuana Story'' ( es, Marihuana) is a 1950 Argentine film directed by León Klimovsky. It was entered into the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.
Cast
* Pedro López Lagar – Dr. Pablo Urioste
* Fanny Navarro – Marga Quiroga
* Golde Flami – ...
''. That film, about a doctor who goes undercover into the world of drug addicts to learn about his wife's death only to become addicted to marijuana himself, was not as successful as other exploitation-style efforts as the public was more concerned about drug use by younger people.
''"She Shoulda Said 'No'!"'' was not well-received critically upon its initial release, with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' saying, "Never did vice seem so devoid of enchantment." Production and distribution of drug films slowed considerably following the film's run until
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
's ''
The Man with the Golden Arm
''The Man with the Golden Arm'' is a 1955 American drama film with elements of film noir directed by Otto Preminger, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren. Starring Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak, Arnold Stang and Darre ...
'' forced changes to the
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
, which was a
studio
A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
-based system which regulated various aspects of objectionable content in films.
The film achieved some attention due to its
B movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
status over the years, being featured in a number of film compilations while continuing to focus on the salacious material as a selling point. In 1993, a
VHS version was released as part of "David Friedman's Roadshow Rarities", the twenty-ninth volume in the
Something Weird video series. Alpha Video Distributors released the film on DVD in 2006.
[Amazon.com listing for ''"She Shoulda Said 'No'!"''.]
See also
*
List of films in the public domain in the United States
Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property ...
Notes
References
Printed matter
* ''The New York Times'': "Sex and Vice 'Star' in Central's Double Bill." January 31, 1957.
* Pressbook from Hallmark Productions, c. 1959.
* ''Collier's'': "Narcotics Ruined Me". July 26, 1952.
* Booth, Martin: ''Cannabis: A History'' (Picador, 2004; )
* Friedman, David F. ''A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King'' (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ).
* Quarles, Mike, ''Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies'' (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2001; ).
*
Schaefer, Eric, ''Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959'' (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ).
* Shapiro, Harry, ''Shooting Stars: Drugs, Hollywood and the Movies'' (Serpent's Tail, 2004; ).
* ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'': "Wild Weed." August 31, 1949.
Websites
* Amazon.com:
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!"'. Retrieved November 29, 2006.
* Joe Bob Briggs,
''Joe Bob's Ultimate B Movie Guide'' (2000). Archived fro
on June 13, 2007.
* An unknown magazine article c. 1948–1949 promoting the film as ''Wild Weed''. A scanned copy is available at the web page for ''
Reefer Madness: The Musical'' under thei
propagandasection. Retrieved May 11, 2007
* Something Weird Video:
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!"'. Retrieved November 29, 2006.
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:She Shoulda Said 'No'!
1940s educational films
1940s exploitation films
1949 crime drama films
1949 films
1949 in cannabis
American black-and-white films
American crime drama films
American films about cannabis
American social guidance and drug education films
Anti-cannabis media
Articles containing video clips
1940s English-language films
Films about drugs
Films directed by Sam Newfield
1940s American films
American educational films