Kino Lorber taps into the Something Weird Video vaults once again as they have released a pair of 1949 exploitation films on Blu-ray. She Should’a Said “No” aka Wild Weed and The Devils Sleep. These two films are what is included in Volume 6 of the Forbidden Fruit series. Both films are a throwback to the controversial morality-based pre-code films from the thirties.  Both films have to do with the use of illegal drugs and how it affects people’s lives.

In She Should’a Said “No” Anne Lester (Lila Leeds, Lady in the Lake) is a young orphan girl is trying to pay for her brother’s college education. After meeting drug-pusher Markey (Alan Baxter, Each Dawn I Die, Saboteur), Anne starts thinking that she must smoke pot in order to fit in with her friends. She then goes to a “tea party”, where she takes a puff of weed for the first time. Under the influence of marijuana, Anne loses her mind, her job, and her brother. She starts selling drugs, gets caught by a narcotics squad led by Captain Hayes (Lyle Talbot, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Fog Over Frisco). After she spends 50 days in jail, Anne, who had started to lose her sanity in prison, is freed, cleansed from the weed in her system, tells the authorities about Markey, and sets a trap for him and also other pushers.

She Should’a Said ‘No’” is a decent message film about the use of marijuana, although the effects of its use have changed over the decades. It does capture the spirit of similar films from the thirties. The cast does a fine job thanks to the pair of veteran actors Lyle Talbot and Alan Baxter. Fans of Jack Elam should take note as this was the second film in which he performed in. B-movie director Sam Newfield does a fine job, possibly some of his more thought-provoking work. An interesting tidbit is that She Should’a Said ‘No’ was filmed after both Lila Leeds and Robert Mitchum being arrested for possession of marijuana. Leeds’ career never recovered, but Robert Mitchum’s stardom did not falter.

Moving on to the second movie on this set, The Devil’s Sleep, another drug-related exploitation film that was directed by W. Merle Connell. This is more of a juvenile delinquent film, but narcotics do come into play late in the film.

At a women’s health club run by Umberto Scallina (Timothy Farrell, in the first of three films as the same exact character) is pushing narcotics, specifically Dinitrophenol tablets for the purpose of weight loss, which unfortunately has side-effects. Scallina is also selling another narcotic Benzedrine through a young teen to other teenagers at swing parties. Detective Sergeant Dave Kerrigan (William Thomason) and Judge Rosalind Ballentine (Charlie Chaplin’s former teen bride Lita Grey) are on the case to stop Scallina.

The film suffers from bad acting inconsistent direction and just overall moving at a sluggish pace. The movie is notable for having Robert Mitchum’s brother John having a part in it as does the 1948 Mr. America winner George Eiferman. Acting was not his strong point. This movie is like the exploitation films of Ed Wood, Jr. such as Jail Bait and The Sinister Urge. It is almost as if Wood was directing The Devil’s Sleep himself. In fact, Timothy Farrell was in a couple of Ed Wood classics. Farrell’s role as Mr. Scallina would appear in Racket Girls, which was used for a Mystery Science Theater Experiment during its sixth season and in a film entitled Dance Hall Racket.

Kino Lorber, under the Kino Classics umbrella unearthed both obscure exploitation films and transferred them to Blu-ray. The video quality is above average overall for She Should’a Said ‘No’. There were some vertical lines along the way but outside of that, the black and white transfer looks sharp, with a balanced grey scale, and bold, rich black levels. The interiors look fine with satisfactory details to the scenery.

The Devil’s Sleep, in addition to being a bad film, also suffers in the video department with print damages, vertical lines, softness among other issues appearing throughout. There is one part of the film that has some serious damage on both sides of the frame that disrupts; thankfully, it only lasts for a few seconds. The film obviously did not get a UCLA or Lobster Films type of restoration, which the film needs for a better viewing experience.  Yes it is watchable but the elements were far from being pristine.

English LPCM 2.0 track is used for both She Should’a Said ‘No’ and The Devil’s Sleep. The audio for She Should’a Said ‘No’, was decent overall, but there was a buzzing sound the occurs on occasion and at least one drop-off detected. Outside of that the dialog and noise quality is serviceable and crisp. The Devil’s Sleep does have some hissing sounds during the audio presentation, and a few drop-offs. This movie seemed to just be thrown on the disc without anything done to improve the audio or video quality. Maybe it is because the film is not exactly a household name, a minor film that probably cost too much to do any significant restoration work.

There are two supplements for this offer. We get an commentary for She Should’a Said ‘NO’ by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas who talks about the arrest of both Lita Leeds and Robert Mitchum, with some other insight about the cast and crew members.

Trailers for She Should’a Said ‘No’, The Devils Sleep, Test Tube Babies, Pin-Down Girl and Marihuana is the other supplement.

Overall, despite the two films not being up to the usual standard Kino Lorber releases in terms of audio and video quality, are must own films for fans of these fruity pictures. If it wasn’t for Kino, these movies may not have seen the light of day on Blu-ray, so kudos to them for continuing to release these films in conjunction with Something Weird Video!

She Should’a Said ‘No’ / The Devil’s Sleep

Director- Sam Newfield (as Sherman Scott) / W. Merle Connell

Cast- Lila Leeds, Alan Baxter, Lyle Talbot / Lita Grey, Will Charles, William Thomason

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date- 8/31/20