I have seen an Italian poster for this film carrying the title "Marijuana - la droga infernale". Upon reading the synposis at IMDB I thought I had the wrong film given that synopsis makes no reference to 'the infernal drug'. However, the poster clearly states that the film is directed by Edward Ludwig and headlines John Wayne and Nancy Olsen. Also says 1952. Explanations please.
sharePresumably this has something to do with Communism not being as widely hated outside of the United States. That's my guess, anyway.
"Some men will say we are traitors. Some will say we're patriots. Both will be wrong."
Apparently it's out on DVD in Italy by this name also:
http://www.collegehumor.com/picture:1909264
I'll bet they changed the basic theme of the film from Communism to drug smuggling in Italy. As the second poster above says, they weren't as worked up about Communism in Italy in 1952 as we were here. Also, many cities and provinces in Italy were governed by Communists, and the party had the largest single bloc in the Italian Parliament, so the distributor probably didn't want to excite public feelings against the movie. If they dubbed all the dialogue to make this a drug-smuggling ring instead of a Communist cell, and cut some problematic scenes, they could get away with it. Such things have happened before.
Add-on: I was just looking at the film's Trivia page and read that in West Germany the film was also changed to a tale about busting marijuana smugglers, and was called "Marijuana" (in German). Obviously the same concerns operated in West Germany as in Italy. (An Axis of Evil, 1952-style?) But I wonder if this happened in other countries as well. Probably.