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<title>She Shoulda Said No!</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>Featured articles</category>
<section id="40826" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" (also known as Wild Weed; Marijuana, the Devil's Weed; The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket; and The Devil's Weed) is a 1949 exploitation film in the spirit of morality tales such as Reefer Madness and Marihuana.  Directed by Sherman Scott and starring Lila Leeds, it was originally produced to capitalize on the arrest of Leeds and Robert Mitchum on a charge of marijuana conspiracy. The film was issued under many titles; it struggled to find a distributor until film presenter Kroger Babb picked up the s, reissuing it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket.  Its relative success came only after the promotional posters were redone and a story fabricated that the film was being presented in conjunction with the United States Treasury.
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<section id="40827" fatherid="0" title="Plot" lv="" priority="-2" level="1">
Leeds' character is "Anne Lester", a young orphan who is 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 smoke.Schaefer, 243.Reefer Madness reprint.
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 that drug users end up in.  Finally, after 50 days in jail, she is released, cleaned up and ready to cooperate with the authorities regarding Markey.

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<section id="40828" fatherid="0" title="Production and marketing" lv="" priority="3" level="1">
The film itself is semi-biographical, its story following what Leeds herself experienced.  The film was inspired by the highly-publicized arrest of movie stars Robert Mitchum 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. Public empathy for Mitchum resulted in the charge being downgraded to the lesser one of conspiracy to possess marijuana, and his sentence of sixty days in jail was set aside in 1951. Leeds, however, was sentenced to sixty days in prison and placed on probation for five years.Schaefer, 241–242.
Upon her release, Leeds struggled to find work in Hollywood, and signed on to star in Wild Weed,Schaefer, 242. a film that was, according to producer Richard Kay, "based on the circumstances of the arrest of Lila Leeds and Robert Mitchum."Anslinger. During publicity for the film in 1949, Leeds, who had been 21 at the time of the arrest, said that appearing in the picture would keep other people her age from trying drugs,Unknown 1948–49 magazine. but in 1952 she confided in Collier's that she "only had one offer . . . which was an obvious attempt to capitalize on the Mitchum case notoriety. I took it. I was broke."Colliers. The film gained approval from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to use the drug references, a standard practice at the time even though the Bureau had no power to censor the films.Booth, 212.  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 latter was a leading argument for drug prohibition during the era, and an argument that Leeds herself made, based on her own history with marijuana and heroin.Schaefer, 243–244.
Babb, who gained notoriety for his various marketing gimmicks, occasionally had Leeds make appearances and give lectures at showings of the film.Quarles, 56. Babb often booked the movie as a midnight presentation twice a week in the same town; David F. Friedman, 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.

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<section id="40829" fatherid="0" title="Reception" lv="" priority="-4" level="1">
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.Friedman, 52. 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 Marijuana Story. 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.Schaefer, 244–245.
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" was not well-received critically upon its initial release, with The New York Times saying "never did vice seem so devoid of enchantment."New York Times.  Production and distribution of drug films slowed considerably following the film's run until Frank Sinatra's The Man with the Golden Arm forced changes to the Production Code, which was a studio-based system which regulated various aspects of objectionable content in films.Shapiro, 93.
The film achieved some attention due to its B movie status over the years,Briggs. 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.Something Weird Video.  In 2001, it was featured in the Sam Harrison-directed Sex and Buttered Popcorn documentary series,Amazon.com listing for Sex and Buttered Popcorn. and, in 2006, Alpha Video Distributors produced the first stand-alone DVD release of the film, which continued to include exploitation-style advertising.Amazon.com listing for "She Shoulda Said 'No'!".

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<section id="40830" fatherid="0" title="Cast" lv="" priority="-5" level="1">
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<section id="40831" fatherid="0" title="See also" lv="" priority="-6" level="1">
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<section id="40832" fatherid="0" title="Notes" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
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<section id="40833" fatherid="0" title="References" lv="" priority="-8" level="1">
Printed matter
Websites

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<section id="40834" fatherid="0" title="External links" lv="" priority="-9" level="1">
Category:1949 films
Category:American drama films
Category:English-language films
Category:1940s drama films
Category:Crime drama films
Category:Exploitation films
Category:Black and white films

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