NEW YORK, April 12 (UPI) -- The remake of the 1936 propaganda film "Reefer Madness" has modern, post-Sept. 11 relevance to mass paranoia, cast member Alan Cumming says.
Cumming plays a mysterious stranger who comes to a town to educate PTA members about the deadly craze of marijuana permeating society.
He agrees with director Andy Fickman, who adapted his stage version for television that the theme is similar to the culture of fear embodied by the government's color-coded terror advisories after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the New York Daily News said.
The original film was released at a time when the Nazis were on the path that would lead to World War II. The United States was in isolationist mode, but "Reefer Madness" manufactured a menace for them to worry about.
"What made the original film so funny," said Cumming, "was the ridiculousness of it, this authority figure pontificating on the so-called dangers around us. Now we're actually living that."
"Reefer Madness" premiers Saturday night on Showtime.
