I must admit that I got quickly hooked, like heroine abuser Barbara Marks does here, on the way this docudrama is told as Marks goes from troubled young school girl hanging out with a motorcycle gang and on occasion smoking pot to a full fledged gangster's moll on the run, desperately searching for her next fix. Bamlet Lawrence Price Jr. is the young man responsible for this film, having written and directed and co-starred in it, casting his parents, and trying to sell the evils of the drug counter culture as he attempted to break into the world of movie making. As his film resume shows, that never came to pass, but what results here is a noble attempt to tell a story, documentary style, and send a message of the evils of the world of drugs. Other than a few screeches or gasps, the actors here never speak, and only Kurt Martell's voice is heard as a narcotics cop involved in the case of the young woman he follows throughout the film to bring both to justice and to sobriety.
As the film starts, Marks and her parents (played by Price's parents) are being escorted by Martell to Union Station in L.A., either to be taken to a dry out ward or to go to court. Price Jr. is seen in the background as a Mexican thug who only shows up in the last half, with the first half showing Marks going from the motorcycle gang to unhappy wife to drug seller as a car hop waitress. This does not seem to have been meant for theatrical release, but somebody who saw it must have thought it important in the world of teenage angst of the 1950's to be shown in theaters. It is cheaply done and some of the situations are presented in rather ridiculous ways, but something about it does command your attention. Elaine Lindenbaum, as an aging heroine addict, reminded me of Anna Magnani, and her footage is unforgettable. There's no comparing this to the 1930's anti-marijuana films "Marijuana" or "Reefer Madness", as this never shows the wacky trips of those using the drugs, but there are some elements that bring on unintentional laughter such as the abundance of drug users going through withdrawal when the supply of the various drugs they are addicted to runs out or is unavailable due to the absence of the pushers. This goes both into the bowels of the L.A. drug counter culture and deep into the wastelands of Baja California north of the Mexican border. Even if you excuse the cheapness of the film, there is just far too much going on with far too many characters, but that does go to show the complexity of an ugly world where sometimes the only way to get off is death.