After The Man With The Golden Arm dared to break the Hollywood taboo about depicting drug use and users, surely other films followed shortly after. Can anyone name some other 50's movies about drugs?
I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die
"A Hatful of Rain," with Don Murray and Eva Marie Saint. I haven't seen it in 30 years, but I remember it as a fine movie.
shareThe Days of Wine and Roses starring Jack Lemon and Lee Remick (both were nominted for Best Actor/Actress at the Academy Awards) was about alcohol abuse was released in 1962. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055895/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055895/
shareHIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (1958). B&W, about drug trades in high school. Russ Tamblyn as an undercover Narc fronting as a student.
cmvgor
"A man does what he has to do-if he can't get out of it. - Bret Maverick's Pappy
Congratulations to the OP on expanding my knowledge of cinema. I will add all of these to my list on lovefilm.com.
No man will marry a bilakoro
Hatful of Rain was just on yesterday.
First time I ever saw it and it was great.
Psych Out is dated, but it's really great. LSD
Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Susan Strasberg, Adam Rourke.
Acid trips and hippie propaganda. Really a lot of fun.
The Lost Weekend is brilliant. Way ahead of it's time. Alcoholism.
Go Ask Alice (TV movie) drugs.
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Hysterical, pot.
Panic in Needle Park
a young Al Pacino, heroin.
Blow. Coke.
Rush. Heroin.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Ether scene very funny.
Requiem for a Dream.
Drugstore Cowboy.
It's much older than this movie, but Heroes For Sale (1933): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024115/
The main character is a WWI vet who gets addicted to morphine. It's not completely about drugs, but the addiction does play a fairly major role in the story.
It's a LOT older but check out "Mystery of the Leaping Fish" starring Douglas Fairbanks. It's a silent comedy with the main character named "Coke Anyday".
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...........There is the infamous anti marijuana movie "Reefer Madness" from the thirties. It got around the Motion Picture Code, prohibiting the serious discussion of drug addiction in films, by being an "educational" film. Today it is thought of as something of a joke.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
LOL, I was about to think that nobody was going to mention REEFER MADNESS. Truly infamous.
I run a movie group at my apartment complex and am planning on showing this tomorrow night. The group is mainly seniors and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes over after all these years.
We must know how this went!
shareY'all gonna smoke a little doobie while watching that. It's the only way I could probably make it through. I never did watch the whole thing.
Seniors are the fastest growing group of people starting to use pot.
'Monkey On My Back' from I believe '57 is a great film.
and as someone said above, 'Heroes For Sale' is an excellent film.
The 1932 film 3 on a Match, the character played by Ann Dvorak becomes a cocaine addict.
In 1957, Kim Novak played the title role in Jeanne Eagels and there's a scene where she takes a hit of heroin on the opening night of her new play and suffers a breakdown on stage.
The Gene Krupa Story ~ It's been awhile since I've seen it, so I don't recall how deeply it gets into addiction.
later...
Lady Sings the Blues ~ one VERY brutal scene!
very recent...
Requiem for a Dream ~ I watched it once. I don't know if I can ever watch it again.
*** The trouble with reality is there is no background music. ***
Don't know if it's on home video, but look for LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH, a sequel to KNOCK ON ANY DOOR. The singer Ella Fitzgerald does a pretty good job as a junkie and Ricardo Montalban is the sleazy dealer.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"
Back to the late 20's, Charlie Chaplin flick where he finds himself in jail and accidentally snorts coke that some other convicts quickly hid in a salt shaker. Of course it's just a scene with Charlie coked up and his same wonderful antics
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