Worth watching for fans of 90024, 90025, 90049, and vintage steam. The high school is University High on Texas Ave in WLA with a close up shot that uses Royce Hall at UCLA. Shot of Bundy Drive near Pico with historic gas station in background. Westwood village apartments, St. Alban's Episcopal on Hilgard Ave, tracking shots of Venice, CA. Nice close-up action shots of Southern Pacific steam locomotive with (now) vintage rolling stock. This student film is a brave project if a bit dated and extremely hard-boiled. Seventy years later, we should acknowledge that the filmmaker was eerily accurate in predicting the persistent narcotics epidemic of later decades.

It is obvious from the start that this movie deals with a subject matter that the creators of the movie had no facts on-hand. All the old wheezes about the "dangers of marijuana" are here. It's like a poorly executed parody of "Dragnet" when that show entertained the same subject matter. "All drug addicts started with MARIJUANA !!!" They also drank milk at some time in their lives. I suppose you could connect drug addiction to milk drinking in the same sense. Keep in-mind that ALL of the bug-a-boos about marijuana are here. This film would be funny if it weren't so out-of-line and filled with nonsense. I gave it 2-stars instead of 1-star for the humor it generated while watching it.

The motorcycle gang at the beginning of the movie looks more like Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica.
Back when this was made, any male on a motorcycle was considered BAD news for the parents of girls.
And, that is too bad, because the guys on motorcycles were probably safer for their daughters to date than the captain of the football team. More fun, too!
Most of the people who rode motorcycles back then were the same as today, just decent, law abiding people who never took any drug except for an aspirin.
This is definitely one of the "so bad it is good" movies.
Bamlet L. Price, Jr. was married to Anne Francis at the time he made this movie. She wisely decided to save her talents for other ventures.
His father, Bamlet L. Price, Sr. deserves a beat down for passing that burden of a name to his son!
But, he paid his son back by playing the step father in this miasma of a movie.
Mercifully, no one who had anything to do with this movie ever did anything in movies again.

At the 26:29 mark, the announcer tells us; "At 4:54 on November 31st, the apartment house ...".

This was Dragnetish---- just not into it.

Remarkable. This film was made in 1952 for $14,000 (about $123,000 in 2013). The film was the masters thesis of film student Bamlet L. Price, Jr. while he was attending UCLA's film school. After finding a distributor, it was released in 1955.

Film locations were:
Street scenes: Los Angeles, California
Apartment scenes: Westwood, California
Desert scenes: Mohave Desert, California

The drug bust scene, where the police order all of the teenage kids out of the apartment, was the Westwood home of the film's writer, producer, and director, Bamlet L. Price, Jr. and his wife, MGM contract actress Anne Francis (Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, Forbidden Planet, Funny Girl, Honey West TV series).

Price certainly did his homework as writer of the film script. The development, trials and tribulations of a drug addict, including earlier emotional abuse at home, was hardly common knowledge in 1952. This case profile could easily read the same today.

The one weakness in the story, as stated repeatedly below, is that a junkie never forgets "for a moment that they (are) slaves to a needle" and leave the drugs behind. But it is a minor flaw. Considering the year this film was made and the fact that it is a student film, it is excellent and would pass muster today in any masters film program. Price's shots and editing are expert. The device of using a narrative voiceover throughout is not only economical in that he could use fellow students and friends as actors to pantomime their parts, but it is also very effective and predates shows such as Dragnet. He really makes this thing work. He also appears at the end of the film in the role of Miguel 'Cholo' Martinez. He even got his dad to play Cassandra's stepfather.

This film is a fine cultural document depicting what would become a major societal problem in the future. Price's choice to send the protagonist to a federal treatment facility (there were only two at the time, one in Lexington, Kentucky and the other in Fort Worth, Texas, and they were nearly considered a state secret) instead of jail is quite progressive, especially considering the conservative social and political climate of the early '50s. Private facilities, few and far between in 1952, were extremely expensive and way out of the price range of the average junkie or even middle class parents. The two federal facilities had few open beds and waiting lists were extremely long. Knowledge concerning substance abuse and public sympathy for addicts was nearly non-existent. Narcotics abuse was seen as a criminal offense, not an illness, and repeated incarceration was most often considered the only solution. In most locales, jail or the work farm were the only options. During the prohibition period of 1918-1932, generally unknown to the public even today, there were more people under incarceration for narcotics related crimes than alcohol related crimes. Attitudes hadn't changed much by the time this film was made.

At 19:34 next to the telephone is the book USA by John Dos Pasos

CAST:
Barbara Marks as Cassandra Leigh
Kurt Martell as Lt. David Jason, Narrator
Robert A. Sherry as Lieutenant David Jason on film
Bamlet Lawrence Price, Jr. as Miguel 'Cholo' Martinez
Lucille Price as Cassandra's Mother
Bamlet Lawrence Price, Sr. as Cassandra's Current Step-Father
William Kendell as Russell Packard
Robert Norman as Johnny Adams
Elaine Lindenbaum as Margo Rossi
Joel Climenhaga as Sven Bergman
Joe Popavich as Al Stutzman
Anthony Gorsline as Jimmy Sanchez
Victor Schwartz as Sergeant Schwartz

Yeah it's a silent movie with sound added later. Yeah at times it goes hilariously over the top. Nevertheless, for a helping of '50s exploitation junk food it features surprisingly good low-budget production values including good camera direction, good cinematography, competent editing and a well-executed narration, if it does get a bit silly at times.

Good video and audio. Complete print.

...not true like in "true story", but generally speaking, that's about how addiction happens, and how it goes (been there done that). Yes, it's rather silly at times, but the meat of it is still worth hearing. "Gather round kids!!"

And yes, no self-disrespecting junky would leave the dope in the car and wander into the desert!!
(and after a few hours of kicking in a 107 degree cave, I sure as S#!t would have gone BACK for the drugs!!

It's both funny and sad that addiction is STILL being treated as if it were a mental illness, though its recognition as a (self-inflicted medical condition is gaining more favor.

This was really quite entertaining though delivered in that simlple, low budget, Dragnetty style. They eliminated the possibility of any bad acting by telling the whole story through the "Joe Friday narration method"- most clever!

I really wanted to believe it was shot in L.A. but I couln't quite nail any landmarks down (anyone???)and the desert sure looked to me like Joshua Tree or Palm Desert, which would jive with the California statistics the show at the end.

Great 50's "c" movie, but if you're a junkie, you ain't gonna run off into the desert & leave your stash in the glove box. Other than a few idiocies like that, most enjoyable for what it is.

Okay guys, when we go through the desert, trying to cover a large area, atempting to find someone whose probably going to succumb to dehydration, lets make sure we a) Travel together 18 inches apart in one tight group and b) make sure none of us carries any water. I don't have any idea where we can find any of them canteen thingies...

The film's original title was ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL, but it was retitled TEENAGE DEVIL DOLLS for VHS release in the late 80s or early 90s. TEENAGE DEVIL DOLLS is therefore a phony title apparently made-up by Johnny Legend. The film is now also available on DVD from Legend.

ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL was made in 1955 by the then-husband of actress Anne Francis, probably around the same time she was in front of the cameras for FORBIDDEN PLANET. One of the more interesting things about this film is the MOS shooting style and voiceover narration, which I like quite a bit.

IMDB LINK HERE: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045223/

I actually enjoyed this movie. I agree pretty much with what creepylibrarian has to say. Very Dragnety. Especially liked the psycho-social analysis by the narrator in the first act. Very much like what we here today, and just as useless.

I downloaded the DivX file, which is actually an AVI. Video was adequate. Audio was good.

sound was very 'scratchy' in the beginning, but seemed to clear up after a bit. Good movie!

Yessss!!!just my cup of tea!Great 50's tale of a nice married teen girl fast gone to the skids.When Cassandra gets a taste of motorcycles,pot and the fast lane her young innocence goes down the "the route"toward junkiedom!All told Dragnet style!
See:A young girl whacked out on goofballs!
See:A "nice girl"in the throes of dope addiction!
Watch:A young gang of cycle hoods take her for the ride of her life!
Watch:Two addicts on the run in a desert cave as they suffer in the arms of dope withdrawal!
GOOD STUFF!!!

jut watch it !!!!!