Dwain Esper

A vaudeville impersonator is hired by a mad scientist to assist in his experiments, then kills him and takes his place, slowly losing his own mind as he poses as the doctor. Dwain Esper's lurid 1934 exploitation film splices in medical footage and cribbed text from a psychiatry textbook. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Horror

Dwain Esper's answer to Reefer Madness, billed on release as "Marihuana: The Weed with Roots in Hell." High schooler Burma Roberts (Harley Wood) falls in with a slick dealer whose beach-house parties lead to skinny-dipping, a drowning, a pregnancy, and eventually a kidnapping plot — all blamed on the demon weed. Like Esper's Maniac and Reefer Madness, it was an "adults only" roadshow picture sold on sensation rather than accuracy, and today it plays as a prime artifact of 1930s exploitation cinema. The film is in the public domain.

Drama · Crime

Dwain Esper's answer to Reefer Madness, billed on release as "Marihuana: The Weed with Roots in Hell." High schooler Burma Roberts (Harley Wood) falls in with a slick dealer whose beach-house parties lead to skinny-dipping, a drowning, a pregnancy, and eventually a kidnapping plot — all blamed on the demon weed. Like Esper's Maniac and Reefer Madness, it was an "adults only" roadshow picture sold on sensation rather than accuracy, and today it plays as a prime artifact of 1930s exploitation cinema. The film is in the public domain.

Drama · Crime