From Something Weird Video: During the Great White Suburban Drug Scare of the late sixties / early seventies, parents, educators, and corporate sponsors banded together in an effort to scare American teens away from getting high. It might be argued that the weird and often hysterical propoganda films that emerged from this era created more drug abuse than they prevented. Nevertheless, here’s a handful of Classroom Scare Films from a groovy by-gone era that will fascinate and entertain you from beginning to end... Featuring Featuring Weed, Ups / Downs, and more.

To celebrate 20 years of Something Weird bringing the world the very best in subversive, disreputable, and cult cinema, SWV made available four exceedingly rare, never-before-released jewels that will make any cinephile’s head light up and spin. Rosie (b&w) is a failed 19-minute pilot for a TV sitcom about a talking dog named Rosie. It is absolutely horrifying. Why? Because the dog is not played by a real canine (or a puppet or a cartoon) but by a large adult in a mangy dog suit with a creepy dog face, clumsily walking around on his hands and knees. The Weird World of Weird (1970, color) is a loony 47-minute never-aired TV special in which host RALPH STORY explores psychic phenomena, astrology, witchcraft and “all those mysterious secrets hidden in the mystical world of the occult.” with detours to a psychic “balloon reader” and a spook-filled séance at the Magic Castle. It's got a groovy, late-60s psychedelic feel to it all that makes it a wonderfully bizarre time capsule. Follow That Skirt (1964, color) is a nasty little 26-minute short that was probably intended to be America’s second gore film. Though not released until 1965 when, according to Dave Friedman, it played a single theater in San Francisco, there’s little doubt that Blood Feast was its influence. Based on the popularity of its trailer, The Smut Peddler (1965, b&w) is among a handful of currently “lost” films that Something Weird (as well as the rest of the world) has been actively searching for. So we were thrilled when we at least found this much in excellent condition. And, yeah, it’s good stuff. A crude oyster-eating publisher, a lesbian secretary, and a French photographer all love mauling and exploiting their lovely nude models while W.B. PARKER (Olga’s House of Shame) is shocked and appalled. - Frank Henenlotter

POLLY POCKETS, an un-aired pilot for a 1960’s kiddie TV show that has absolutely nothing to do with the tiny plastic dolls, and is best viewed under the influence of a mind-altering substance. It features a cheerfully toothy brunette who wears a gaudy patchwork skirt with magical pockets filled with all sorts of goodies. She is accompanied by Dandy Andy, a middle-aged man dressed like Abe Lincoln. After gliding upon a magical trunk, they reach a world of whimsy, complete with kooky contraptions, calliope music, rope tricks, and stories which are told with hand-drawn cartoon illustrations. (Apparently, there was no budget for actual animation.) When Polly pulls an onion out of her pocket, she’s reminded of an adventure at the Castle of Gloom, where character actor Percy Helton is a henchman, and she’s arrested for being happy and sent to the onion dungeon.

Beatniks? What beatniks? Two-bit punks, a closet rock-&-roll star, and an out-of-his-mind psycho: yes. Beatniks: no. Though The Beatniks was probably a last-minute title change to replace a less exploitable moniker, it didn’t make much of a difference to the audiences of 1960. After all, to a world emerging from the Eisenhower era, bohemian artists and beat-generation poets were seen as little more than socially maladjusted misfits in the same category as junkies, Commies, and teenage hoodlums — or the petty-crime crackpots running loose in this fast, fun, and naively hilarious saga of an overage delinquent who becomes an overnight sensation.

A rebellious punk (Jack Nicholson) of the beat generation spends his days as an amateur dirt track driver in between partying and troublemaking. He eventually kidnaps his buddy's girlfriend, kills a few police officers, and finally sees his own life end in tragedy.

During the golden age of the roadshow, no exploiteer returned to the drug theme more often that DWAIN ESPER. After the infamous short Sinister Menace and the feature-length Narcotic (both 1933), Esper and his screenwriter wife, HILDAGARDE STADIE, unleashed Marihuana, the first of the famous trilogy of anti-pot films of the 1930's which included Reefer and Assassin of Youth. Esper delivered on his promise to show "weird orgies, wild parties, and unleashed passions." "High spirited" Burma Roberts (HARLEY WOOD) is not only cursed with a dippy name, but a mother who doesn't pay her any attention. Since Mom is too busy making sure Burma's sister, Elaine, has her hooks into wealthy Morgan Stewart, Burma starts hanging with a fast crown. At a roadhouse where the debauchery includes balloon popping), she and her friends meet Tony Santello, the local pusher: "Where they're that age, they're not suspicious and easily hooked!" Tony invites the gang to his beach house where they drink, dance and sample his "giggle weed."" The shot of Burma taking her first puff of pot is alone enough reason to make Marihuana a must-see. But it's followed by one of the famous scenes in roadshow history: as a cackling Burma makes love to her boyfriend Dick, the girls peel out of the dresses and streak down the beach to skinny-dip in the surf, complete with shocking-for-its-time nudity!

Attention die-hard GEORGE ROMERO fans: this is the one you've been waiting for! Believed forever lost, this Latent Image take on The Graduate is the red-headed stepson of Romero and company's output which bridges the thematic gap between the feminist concerns of Season of the Witch (1972) and no-holds-barred horror of The Crazies (1973). The plot concerns Chris, a troubled youth who can't commit himself to family or friends until he meets Lynn (JUDITH STREINER), who tries to help him gather all the disparate strands of his life and bind them into some kind of shape. Romero's signature machine-gun editing technique takes this standard boy-meets-girl-in-the-early-seventies story and turns it into a kaleidoscopic barrage that's full of surprising life.

Tensions between Achilles and Agamemnon after ten years of the Trojan War cause divisions between different factions within the Greek camp.

There’s no way around it. DWAIN ESPER’s Maniac can justifiably be called one of the greatest exploitation films ever made. Not content to crank out another sex hygiene or dope film, Esper and his wife, HILDAGARDE STADIE (who wrote the screenplay), concocted a uniquely delirious mix of horror film, discourse on mental illness, and whacked-out girly show. The plot – if you can call it that – pulls elements from Frankenstein, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and Poe’s “The Black Cat,” as well as the spicy spectacle of exploitation epics of the day.

From director Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Brain Damage) and co-producer Mike Vraney (the late founder of Something Weird Video) comes the epic documentary critics call "fascinating" (Video Watchdog), "titillating" (Time Out Los Angeles) and "jaw-dropping" (Seattle Weekly): Henenlotter and legendary exploitation monarch David F. Friedman - in his final film appearance - are your hosts for this eye-popping expedition through the world of pre-code peekaboos, stags, sex-hygiene films, goona-goonas, nudie-cuties, roughies, druggies, white-coaters and more, featuring thousands of spicy, steamy and downright sleazy clips from the SWV archives.

Teenagers pack a van full of beer and go on the road in search of sexual adventures.

"The people you are about to meet may shock you. They may frighten you. But we hope that by this factual exposition, we can broaden your view toward this kind of individual." Yes, kiddies, there's nothing that says you've stepped off the polite path of mainstream filmmaking better than plunging headfirst into the cult quicksand of transvestite cinema. And She-Man ,a cross dressing mini-classick subtitled A Story of Fixation, proudly belongs in every gender-bending library alongside Glen or Glenda, The Christine Jorgensen Story, Dinah East, and Let Me Die a Woman. Woman.

Hercules is summoned to oppose the evil Queen Samara, who has allied herself with aliens and is sacrificing her own people in a bid to awaken a moon goddess.

A star-studded cavalcade of burlesque. Clowning! Dancing! Teasing! 15 all time greats of the burlesque stage.

Barton's mine foreman is receiving gold bullion from gangsters in the East, putting it through the mine's smelter, and then shipping it out. When Barton finds out, Murdocks men make him a prisoner. Arriving at the same time, Alamo hears the story of the Masked Phantom and then becomes that Phantom fighting Murdock and his men and attempting to find Barton.

The son of a murdered truck driver starts driving his own 18-wheeler to infiltrate the world of suspects who may have committed the crime.

While strongman Goliath is busy battling a fire-spewing three-headed doggie and a giant bat-monster in the "Cave of Horrors," his brother, lllus, has made the mistake of falling in love with the bride-to-be of evil King Eurystheus (played by Broderick Crawford, who walks around barking orders like a Hollywood gangster). Responsible for the death of Goliath’s parents, Eurystheus scores bonus points by capturing Illus and sentencing him to be crushed beneath the massive feet of a prisoner-squashing elephant. Worse, a centaur - half-man, half-horse - kidnaps Goliath’s wife and delivers her to the temperamental tyrant. Naturally, Goliath goes ballistic, flexes his muscles, and clobbers all the king’s men. But when his wife is shackled in the Horror Cave, Goliath must come face to face with Eurystheus’ pet dragon...