Aphrodisiac!: The Sexual Secret of Marijuana (1971)

*Get a physical copy of "Wonderland" on Amazon here*
*Get a copy of John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches by Jennifer Sugar & Jill C. Nelson on Amazon here*
*Get a physical copy of "Boogie Nights" on Amazon here*
*Get a copy of The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes by Dawn Schiller on Amazon here*

This quasi-documentary shows the viewer that hey, pot ain't as bad as booze, man...oh, and here's some nudity. Did you know that marijuana is an aphrodisiac? Really? Well, thanks to "documentary dramatization," we get three situations where pot loosened up some frigid men and women, and turned them into love machines.

The first story involves a virgin and her husband on their wedding night. For two years, the husband and wife make love in the dark, and hate every moment of it. Finally, in a strip club, with the world's worst exotic dancer bouncing in the background, a psychiatrist advises the husband to use pot to thaw out his wife. It works and everyone is happy. The second story had an uncredited John Holmes playing a businessman who releases stress by smoking a joint and giving his secretary "dictation" right there on his desk. The third story has a female hippie protesting war who sleeps with a stranger who is protesting smog. As she narrates a stream of consciousness speech equating sex to candy, the couple make love just off some campus quad after sharing a joint. Interspersed among the sex scenes is actual documentary footage shot on Hollywood Boulevard as normal folk are stopped and asked about marijuana. We also get a history lesson about marijuana, and plenty of speechifying about how pot is not as bad as liquor, tobacco, or coffee, and the film makers somehow manage to work in footage of the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald.

The film I saw ran only forty-two minutes, but there is a full version that runs seventy-seven minutes, complete with hardcore sex inserts. I doubt all the sex would have made the film much better. This is pretty funny. Its earnestness about the benefits of marijuana, and how no one has ever died or graduated to harder drugs or caught cancer from pot is naive now, considering what is known about it. I laughed out loud when John Holmes showed up. His drug abuse and involvement in the Wonderland murders is as legendary as his "onscreen talent," and he doesn't make a credible spokesperson singing the praises of pot. I don't care whether you light up a bowl or not (I don't), but I do know of people under the influence of pot killing the innocent, harder drugs being taken up when pot was not enough, and that marijuana smoke does contain carcinogens. This film pretends none of this could ever happen, boldly wearing its ignorance like a badge. I guarantee it's one documentary they didn't show you in high school health class. Known by a ton of alternate names.

Stats:
(1971) 42 min. (*) out of five stars
-Written and Directed by Dennis Van Zak
-Cast: John Holmes, Andy Bellamy, Billy Curtis, Starlyn Simone, Maria Arnold, Sunny Boyd, George E. Carey, Sandy Dempsey, Jon Evans, Lynn Holmes, Billy Lane, Patti Lee, Sheldon Lee, Levi Richards
(Unrated)