Il cinemaè vita

Read When Stoned presents

Il cinema
è vita.

Free films that somebody, somewhere, made and put out. Good, bad, very bad. They all deserve an audience. Take a seat.

What’s playing · always

Now showing

Reefer
Madness.

1936 · Louis J. Gasnier · B&W

 

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Walk in any time and pick a seat. The film is wherever it’s got to, and it starts again from the top as soon as it ends.

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Next on the bill

Coming soon.

Date to be announced

The Devil’s Weed

1949 · about 70 minutes · black and white

In 1948 the actress Lila Leeds was arrested in a raid alongside Robert Mitchum. Mitchum’s career survived. Hers didn’t, and the next year she was starring in this: a warning film about a chorus girl and a bad crowd, sold as her own story.

The road-show huckster Kroger Babb booked it at midnight under any title that would sell a ticket, which is why it has at least three. The New York Times wasn’t moved: “Never did vice seem so devoid of enchantment.”

Why it’s on our bill: the same cameraman as Reefer Madness, Jack Greenhalgh, and a story by the same writer, Arthur Hoerl. Thirteen years apart, same panic.

Directed by
Sam Newfield (as Sherman Scott)
Starring
Lila Leeds, Alan Baxter, Lyle Talbot
Photographed by
Jack Greenhalgh
  • Free. Every film here is one anybody is allowed to show.
  • No sign-up. Nothing to join, nothing to install. Just press play.
  • Late is fine. Walk in whenever. You’ll catch the start next time round.