Movie review – “Cocaine Fiends” (1935) *

Part of the 30s genre of exploitation films that dealt with a social problem eg Reefer Madness, Sex Madness, Child Bride. This one’s about a girl who becomes involved with a gangster and gets involved with cocaine (“the grandest headache medicine in the world”. There’s a great scene where the girl takes cocaine for the first time (we don’t see her snort it but we see her wipe her nose afterwards and say “that was great”) and an obligatory party scene with everyone having a good old time on cocaine in the same way they have a party in Reefer Madness. But that said this feels closer to a B gangster movie about innocents getting caught up with the mob, complete with lots of scenes in night clubs and a hero copper detective who goes undercover to save a girl. So in other words too sensible to be a classic or of much interest to watch. Mediocre acting, directing, etc.