“Scared Straight 4” Vintage Drug Scare Films January 1, 2011

Event: “Scared Straight 4”.  Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of mind-expanding, terror-intending and hilarity-inducing short films about the dangers of drugs. These classroom classics from the fear-provoked golden age of the late 1960s to the “enlightened” 1980s probably encouraged as many to experiment as it discouraged. Featured films include: the all-time classic Narcotics: Pit of Despair (1967), square kid has a puff and quickly ends up strung out on heroin; The Perfect Drug Film (1971), Beau “Stoner” Bridges gives you the straight dope; Stoned (1980), Scott “Chachi” Baio gets baked, hits his brother in the head with a boat paddle; Marijuana (1968), a gold lamé-suited Sonny Bono pot pow-wow!; Dragnet: Little Pusher (1969), so square it’s hip and back to square again; plus the amazing psychedelic animation Fantasy (1975) and a long trailer for the 1935 exploitation film “Marijuana: Assassin of Youth”.
Date: Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Web: http://www.oddballfilm.com/oddballftp/Scared_Straight_4_PR.pdf

“Scared Straight 4”
Vintage Drug Scare Films

On Saturday, January 1, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of vintage drug-scare films for your amusement. Aimed squarely (no pun intended) at junior-high and high-schoolers (no –pun intended) and designed to “educate” them about the perils of drug use, these films (like the drunk driving films that preceded them) were really meant to scare the hell out of the kids. Nonetheless, the laughable freak out scenes and the super-squares probably encouraged as much experimentation as it countered, and the scare tactics were usually effective for only about five minutes following the film!
Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Films Include:

Narcotics: Pit of Despair (Color, 1967)
The all-time classic of the genre, a real howler! Super-square kid is lured into the world of illicit drugs and other pleasures by the scheming drug dealer and his wanton woman. Sample voiceover: “Take a trip from Squaresville, get with the countdown, shake this square world and blast off to Kicksville!” Sounds good to me!!

The Perfect Drug Film (Color, 1971)
Hosted by obvious stoner Beau Bridges, this film has a very educational history of drug use (starting with- and illustrated by- cavemen!) and covers all the basic territory: freak outs, wrestling with lions, running into traffic and jumping off cliffs. Hilarious!

Stoned (Color, 1980)
ABC After School Special (ASS) starring that loveable rascal Scott Baio. Here he is lured into stonersville by a skateboard-riding dope dealer. The munchies and problems at school ensue, climaxing with the near death of his older brother when the stoned Biao clobbers him with a boat paddle. Lesson learned, nuff said.

Marijuana (Color, 1968)
Sonny Bono graces the silver screen in gold lamé to set the facts straight about grass; that he appears utterly stoned himself should not denigrate his message one bit. He systematically counters all the usual arguments in favor of the evil weed (hilariously rattled off one by one by a group of teenagers being arrested).
Words of wisdom in stoner monotone: “Unlike alcohol, when you take too much at one time, you don’t pass out. You more than likely run the risk of an unpredictable - and unpleasant - bummer”.

Dragnet: Little Pusher (Color, 1969)
Howlingly funny episode of the squarer than square TV show starring Jack Webb and Henry Morgan. Sgt. Friday and Officer Gannon investigate a juvenile pusher that leads them to a filthy hippy house. The scene is priceless as Friday discovers the dirty, neglected kids eating cold spaghetti out of a can, surveys the fetid kitchen, and arrests the clueless groovy and utterly ridiculous looking pusher parents. Sample dialogue: Filthy Hippie: “It’s the maid’s day off.” Officer Gannon: “How long you been blowin’ pot, son?” ER Doc: “From diapers to drugs. What’s next, pre-natal goofballs?”

Fantasy (Color, 1975)
A hallucinatory handmade animated film from San Francisco animation legend Vince Collins that evokes his particular brand of surrealist psychedelia. Mind-blowing!

Marijuana (1936, trailer)
Trailer for the 1936 film by the early exploitation master Dwain Esper.

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.  
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Official Website: http://mim.io/aa788