Movie Review: Assassin of Youth (1938) directed by Elmer Clifton
Cub reporter Art Brighton (Arthur Gardner) is given his first big assignment. An elderly woman was mowed down by a drug-crazed teenager who’d lost control of his car. As it happens, the woman was quite wealthy, and her fortune is slated to go to her granddaughter Joan Barry (Luana Walters) if that young woman can stay “morally clean” until she’s 21 in a few months. The editor suspects there’s a marihuana ring operating in that small town near Chicago, and wants Art to uncover it and/or get the goods on Joan’s behavior.
In aid of this investigation, Art goes undercover as a soda jerk at the ice cream parlor of Henry “Pop” Brady (Earl Dwire). This is where all the cool kids hang out during the day, giving him access to their movements.
Joan has her own problems. Since her father died, her family has been in straitened circumstances. Her slightly younger sister Marjorie ‘Marge’ Barry (Dorothy Short) is becoming rebellious and tired of being in Joan’s shadow. And her cousin Linda (Fay McKenzie), the primary dope dealer in town, is next in line for Grandma’s money if she can somehow get Joan disqualified. Linda and her secret husband Jack Howard (Michael Owen) scheme to get Joan hooked on the devil weed, or at least make it look like she has been.
Things are not helped by Henrietta Frisbee (Fern Emmett), a scooter-riding gossip who loves to spread the latest juicy tidbits, the more lurid the better.
This, like the more infamous Reefer Madness, is an “exploitation” film. It takes a controversial subject, purporting to warn the public about the dangers of illegal drugs, but also uses that as an opportunity for salacious images audiences couldn’t get under the Hays Code. These movies avoided the Production Code and to some extent local censors by not going through the normal theater distribution channels, but booking showplaces individually. The advertising would emphasize the important moral message while also promising a look at the seedy side of life.
By modern standards. this is pretty mild stuff. The “wild teenage parties” are no worse than most American kids had in their own youth (and it’s pointed out by “Pop” that the older folks did much the same in their time.) There’s a point at which Joan is seen in what’s supposed to be a naked silhouette, and later is supposed to be nude under a coat, but it’s not because she was doing anything bad, as such. There’s a teeny amount of violence and threatened violence.
There’s a particularly clunky moment in which the editor shows Art a short film within the film about how “Marihuana is bad.” I suspect this was the reel local morals committees were shown to convince them to allow the movie to be shown in their community.
While the cinematography is at best serviceable, and the script hokey, the acting is actually decent. Dwyer and Emmett are particularly good as comical old folks, and Mrs. Frisbee is a delight whenever she’s on her scooter.
Content note: The afore-mentioned “nudity”, references to extramarital sex and some attempts at getting some, a touch of attempted murder, drug abuse. (Linda sells both marijuana and an unidentified “something stronger.”) Early teens on up should be fine.
Not a good movie, but an enjoyable one for the fan of oddball cinema who’s okay with some preachiness. Perhaps best if coupled with a Nineties action film about evil drug dealers.
