The Terrible Truth is a 1951 American anti-drug documentary film created by Sid Davis Productions.
| The Terrible Truth | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Sid Davis |
| Starring | William B. McKesson |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Sidney Davis Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 10 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Summary
editThe film contained messages such as "marijuana has similar properties to amphetamines" and "the Soviet Union was pushing drugs in America".[1] The film follows William B. McKesson (to become Los Angeles County District Attorney in 1956) who interviews a young woman about her use of marijuana as a gateway drug to intravenous use of heroin.[2] McKesson states at the end of the film "Some say that the Reds are promoting drug traffic in the United States to undermine national morale."[2]
Reception and legacy
editThe film has been called "faux documentary ... ironic, naïve, campy",[3] and according to Edward Brunner in Postmodern Culture, one of the "scandalous examples of how thoroughly the media environment has been penetrated by schemes for social engineering".[4] It can be found alongside famously bad movies like Reefer Madness on popular film lists, for example those found at thefix.com as one of the five worst anti-drug works of the past century, and The Atlantic where it is described as "hysterical" and "cartoonish".[5][6]
The film is included in the Prelinger Archives, a scholarly collection of film related to U.S. history.[7]
References
edit- ^ "The Terrible Truth" – via filmow.com.
- ^ a b Roger M. Grace (June 9, 2008), "Supervisor's Lobbying of Colleagues Brings McKesson Unanimous Vote to Fill DA Vacancy", Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Los Angeles, PERSPECTIVES #63
- ^ Null 2009, p. 9.
- ^ Brunner, Edward (January 1998), "Ersatz Truths: Variations on the Faux Documentary", Postmodern Culture, 8 (2), doi:10.1353/pmc.1998.0001, S2CID 144984222 quoted in Null (2009)
- ^ Keri Blakinger (February 17, 2016), The 5 Worst Anti-Drug Ads in the Last 100 Years
- ^ Brian Resnick (April 20, 2015), "Four Vintage, (Unintentionally) Hysterical Anti-Marijuana Films: Movies about the dangers of marijuana have often depicted the drug in cartoonish terms", The Atlantic
- ^ Prelinger Archives. The Terrible Truth, OCLC 860691153
Book sources
edit- Null, J.W. (2009). American Educational History Journal: Volume 36 #1 & 2. Information Age Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60752-277-5.
External links
edit- The Terrible Truth at Internet Archive (public domain)
- The Terrible Truth at IMDb
- The Terrible Truth at AllMovie
- The Terrible Truth at the TCM Movie Database
- The Terrible Truth on Dailymotion