(Cheech & Chong's) Up in Smoke (1978)

In co-directors Lou Adler and Tommy Chong's successful low-budget effort - it was a pro-cannabis anarchic buddy comedy. The classic 'drug humor flick' was filled with funny drug-related stoner dialogue between potheads Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Man Stoner (Tommy Chong), two wayward, mostly-unemployed rock musicians. It was the comedy duo Cheech & Chong's first feature-length movie, with a script written by the two comedians who were also the film's principal stars.

The cult classic (the best of the stoner comedies) was made on a budget of $2 million (with mostly on-location shoots in Los Angeles and at the border), and grossed $44.4 million (although some sources quoted that it made $104 million). It was an off-shoot of the comedy act of Cheech Marin and Thomas 'Tommy' Chong, who were managed by Lou Adler, the film's producer and co-director. The counter-cultural duo had been discovered performing in various LA nightclubs, and had already amassed loyal followers with the release of five comedy albums. The film was originally greeted with skepticism and doubt for its juvenile, toilet-humor and non-stop drug jokes, but after initial test screenings, it was obvious that the film would be a major hit.

However, the film ran into censorship and ratings problems for its rampant humorous drug-use and apparent promotion of getting high (its original tagline was "Don't go straight to see this movie"), was deemed "morally objectionable" by Catholic groups, and was banned and/or censored in various countries.

It was followed-up by a number of sequels, including: Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980), Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams (1981), and Still Smokin' (1983).

• in the opening sequences, the two main characters were introduced: in a poor dwelling, Hispanic (Chicano) family-man Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) was attempting to sleep on his living room couch as his three children (one in smelly diapers) were watching a short Merry Melodies cartoon (A Hick a Slick and a Chick (1948)); he found himself in the bathroom peeing into an overflowing laundry basket instead of the toilet

Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin)

Anthony "Man" Stoner (Tommy Chong)

• in a luxurious mansion while blending a banana smoothie and acting deaf and mute, hippie stoner and rock band drummer Anthony "Man" Stoner (Tommy Chong) was confronted and berated by his frustrated parents: southern-accented white-coated Mr. Stoner (Strother Martin) and his wife Tempest Stoner (Edie Adams) for not finding legitimate work: ("When are you going to get your act together?"); Stoner was threatened with being sent to military school if he didn't get a job before sundown; he was ejected from his house, and drove off in a cream-colored, black-topped, modified 1967 VW Convertible with a Rolls-Royce grill (with his drums parked in the back seat), as the home's Japanese chauffeur (Harold Fong) shouted after him; the film's theme song played: "Up in Smoke" with lyrics:
  • "Up in smoke That's where my money goes In my lungs Sometimes up my nose, When troubled times Begin to bother me I take a toke And all my cares go up in smoke"
• Stoner ended up with the broken-down car (up in smoke) on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH); he was forced to spend the night at a nearby Malibu beach in a dirty sleeping bag
• the next morning, Pedro left his dilapidated home in Venice, CA, to cruise around and pick up females in his chick-mobile 'Love-Machine' - a 1964 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport Coupe low-rider (with an odd paint-job and California plates: MUF DVR); before leaving, the title credits played to the tune of War's "Low Rider" as Pedro buffed up the car with a rag, with the lyrics:
  • "All my things in the low rider The low rider is a little higher Low rider drives a little slower Low rider is a real goer, Low rider knows every street yeah, Low rider is the one to meet yeah, Low rider don't use no gas now, Low rider don't drive too fast Take a little trip Take a little trip... "

Pedro Offered a Ride to "Jail Bait" Sitting By the Side of the Road

Pedro Noticing a "Double-Bubble" Hitch-hiker

Stoner Disguised as a Busty Hitchhiker Getting a Ride With Pedro

• in a "hitchhiking" scene, Pedro pulled over and attempted to pick up two young female surfers on the PCH; they were credited as Jail-Bait (Jane Moder and Pam Bille), but they refused the offer; he reversed direction and crossed lanes (almost causing an accident) to pick up a stacked female (with melons stuffed inside a shirt) who was thumbing a ride on the other side side of the road - Pedro was attracted to her, calling 'her' "double-bubble"; Pedro picked up the hitcher but quickly noticed he had been tricked: "Hey, you ain't a chick!...Hey, that's false advertising then, man"; as they were pulling out, a police car came up behind them to interrogate them, but the officers were distracted when another vehicle rear-ended the police car just as the low-rider accelerated, and they fortuitously made a clean get-away
• the duo were on a highly-motivated search for ultimate highs, and realized that they both liked to smoke joints; at first Stoner complained that Pedro's rolled cigarettes were the size of toothpicks: ("What kind of joint is this, man?") - and it turned out he had been handed an actual toothpick; they also learned that both of them were members of a band: (Pedro: "We play everything from Santana to El Chicano, man")
• as they were driving along, Stoner pulled out his own gigantic joint and Pedro was amazed: "Is that a joint, man? That there looks like a quarter pounder, man...What, is it heavy stuff, man? Will it blow me away?"; Pedro boasted: "I been smoking since I was born, man. I can smoke anything, man. I smoke that Michoacan, man, Acapulco Gold, man...I could probably smoke this whole joint and still walk away, man. It wouldn't be no problem at all, man"; as they both toked on it, it became obvious it was partially made out of dog poop:
  • Pedro: "Hey, what's in this s--t, man?"
    Stoner: "It's mostly Maui Wowie, man...but it's got some Labrador in it."
    Pedro: "What's Labrador?"
    Stoner: "It's dog s--t...Yeah, my dog ate my stash, man. I had it on the table and the little motherf--ker ate it, man....So I had to follow him around with a little baggie for three days before I got it back. Really blew the dog's mind."
    Pedro: "You mean we're smokin' dog s--t, man?"
    Stoner: "Gets ya high, don't it? I think it's even better than before, you know?"
    Pedro: "Uhhh, I wonder what Great Dane tastes like, man"
• the two were also listening to the radio playing: "Rockin' Robin" as the car filled with smoke; Pedro asked: "Hey, man, am I drivin' OK?"; Stoner replied: "I think we're parked"
• Pedro freaked out over having smoked the most powerful cannabis ever in his life ("I never had no dope like that in my life"), and began to experience breathing problems; Stoner offered something to "mellow" Pedro out, but accidentally gave him the wrong pills: ("Don't take those man!...I almost gave you the wrong s--t, man"); he admitted he had provided him with a massive dose of LSD: ("You just ate the most acid I've ever seen anybody eat in my life"); Pedro screamed out that he thought he was going to die (and his head would turn into a pumpkin), so Stoner assured him that it was "good acid" and that Pedro should start chanting "Ommmm!" to calm down
• as they were about to drive off from their parking spot, a police car pulled up behind them, and an Arresting Officer (Arthur Roberts) confronted the two, as Stoner attempted to swallow other unknown drug substances; when Pedro was asked to roll down his window and to show his license and where it was located, he answered: "It's on the bumper. Back there, man!"; Pedro laughed uncontrollably, but then also screamed out: "I'm blind" - not realizing that his cap had been pulled down over his eyes
• then, after a few moments, the cop also asked Stoner for his name; he paused, scrunched his face, and proceeded to vomit into Pedro's lap, prompting Pedro to answer for him: "Uuhhh - His name is RAALLLPH, man!"

Arrested and Hauled Into Court: The Duo Was "Framed!" Before an Alcoholic Judge (Marian Beeler)

• after being busted, as their car was being towed away, Pedro sang Leiber and Stoller's "Framed": ("They put me in the line-up And let the bright lights shine There was poor dudes like me Standing in that line I knew I was a victim of somebody's evil plan When this scroungy-looking dude Came up and said, ''Yeah, that's him, man'; Hey, wait a minute, man, I've been framed, man! Oh, listen to me,Judge, I was framed! I never do nothin' wrong Oh, but every time, I get the blame Hey, I've been framed!..."); during a montage described by the vocals, Pedro and Stoner were brought before stern-looking Judge Gladys Dyke (Marian Beeler) in a courtroom, where Stoner kept asking for water - and Pedro grabbed the Judge's water glass; it was discovered to everyone's horror, after Stoner took a drink, that she was imbibing vodka from a larger pitcher; (offscreen), the Judge was led away and the duo were freed; Stoner was offered a place to sleep at Pedro's place
• the next morning, drummer Stoner met and argued with many of singer/guitarist Pedro's band members before a rehearsal; all of them were trying on their new band uniforms: gold jackets, ruffled white shirts, and black pants; Stoner complained that they looked "lame" in "waiter uniforms" and some of them agreed
• to the radio's tune of Leiber and Stoller's "Searchin'" by the Search Boys, Pedro and Stoner drove off through parts of Marina del Rey to "score a lid" - preferably Kona Gold or Maui-wowie "smoke"; they visited the home of Pedro's cousin Strawberry (Tom Skerritt), a "weirded-out" Vietnam War veteran (due to 'Nam grass, according to Stoner), who lived in a stone house in a neighborhood off the 110 Freeway north of downtown; in the "whatcha lookin' at man?" scene inside the house, although he was warned to avoid the subject of Strawberry's big red birthmark patch on his right cheek and neck, Stoner stared at it; Strawberry called him out, and Stoner embarrassingly responded: "Oh, nothin'. I wasn't lookin'. I was just - I wasn't lookin' at his neck"; Strawberry was offended and called Stoner a "strange dude"
• Pedro and Strawberry departed on a motorcycle (with a side-car) to acquire the drugs elsewhere; left inside the house and in the messy kitchen, Stoner accidentally spilled some Ajax Cleaner on a paper plate, and then was interrupted by a drug-loving female roommate, credited as Ajax Lady (June Fairchild); she took one look at the inviting lines of white powder and snorted them with gusto using a plastic straw, thinking it was cocaine; she experienced a mind-blowing reaction with animal sounds (a duck and elephant) - Stoner smiled and responded: "What a rush, huh?!"
• unbeknownst to those in Strawberry's house (Stoner, the female cokehead, and many other youth) who were in the midst of a wild, drug-fueled party, a contingent of police was surveilling the house and preparing for a drug bust from inside a white Hollenbeck Laundry van set up as a command post; the officers were led by narcotics Sergeant Stedenko (Stacy Keach)
• as Pedro and Strawberry were returning, the disturbed war vet interpreted the police to be enemy Viet Cong during a troubling PTSD flashback - he imagined gunfire and explosions in paddy fields: ("Charlie has us surrounded!"); Pedro tried and failed to bring him back to reality about the drug raid in progress: "It's the cops...They're gonna bust your pad! Hey, Strawberry! Oh, man, are you flipped out on one of your Vietnam trips, man?"; Strawberry deployed himself by jumping off the bike, leaving Pedro (in the side-car) to crash the cycle into a building across the street; during the loud party and bust, Pedro failed in an attempt to phone a disguised pig-Latin warning to Stoner from a pay-phone booth, when their phone line was cut off (literally)
• just before the Sgt. arrested both Ajax Lady and drug-crazed Laughing Lady (Rainbeaux Smith) and the rest of the partiers in the house, Stoner had been locked out of the house and escaped arrest; Pedro cleverly arrived with two band members impersonating representatives of a finance company - they were costumed in white-uniforms and claimed to be furniture movers and repo-men; Stoner was rescued as the suspects were loaded into a police van; the sequence ended with Strawberry assaulting his own home and finding it empty
• with a scarcity of "smoke" in the area, Pedro's hustler friend Curtis (Christipher Joy) suggested some "bad weed" he had acquired from Arabs in Turkey: ("This stuff will put a hump in a camel's back...It'll boogie-woogie on your brain"), and offered it to Pedro for "a double dime"; after Stoner and Pedro smoked the inferior weed with all his band members, Stoner complained: "I haven't even got a buzz yet, man"; the group was caught up in an Immigration (the "Migra") and Naturalization Service (INS) raid, and everyone was arrested; Pedro's own cousin had reported the party to authorities, knowing it would result in a free deportation bus ride to Mexico to attend a wedding (with a free lunch), and the two unexpectedly found themselves deported and on a bus to the border town of Tijuana in Mexico
• while across the border, Pedro phoned his Uncle Chewie in town, and arranged to drive his uncle's van back into the US, as a way to smuggle in cheap upholstery: ("He's got an upholstery shop in Beverly Hills, but he gets cheaper work done here, man"); meanwhile, a bumbling narcotics squad was being organized by single-minded Sgt. Stedenko to stop "one of the largest shipments of marijuana ever to cross the Mexican border into the United States"; he instructed his inept team, Harry (Mills Watson), Clyde (Karl Johnson), and Murphy (Rick Beckner) about how there was a new, clever and devious way to smuggle drugs across the border (other than traditional ways such as by boat, carrier pigeon, freight, piggyback, plaster casts, and long trucks); the latest technique was to create objects, like a TV set, entirely manufactured from "fiberweed" - solid and liquid marijuana
• Pedro went to the wrong address for the van - not the upholstery shop of his uncle, but a marijuana processing plant disguised as an upholstery shop; after picking up the "van," they drove back into the US in a large green vehicle (marked Sweet & Low Upholstery), entirely made out of solid and liquid marijuana
• at the Cal-Mex border crossing, Stoner tossed his giant joint onto the lap of one of the occupants of an adjacent car filled with nuns that was also waiting in line; the border officials were distracted from checking the green van, and instead busted the sisters, lined them up and searched them (evoking smiles); the gloating Sergeant Stedenko, who thought he had caught the smugglers, was interviewed by Toyota Kawasaki (Akemi Kikumura) about his objectives: "Dope, drugs, weed, grass, toot, smack, quackers, uppers, downers, all-arounders. You name it, we want it," as the green van was cleared behind them and allowed to enter California; Stedenko told a vulgar joke in front of the ashamed nuns: "The only kind of meat a priest could eat on Friday was nun"

At The Mex-Cal Border, In a Green 'Marijuana' Van Next to a Car Full of Nuns, Who Were Suspected of Smuggling Drugs

• on the California side of the Mexican-US border, Stedenko entered a nearby border-patrol restroom (where the green van was parked out front for a toilet stop), and found himself standing at a urinal next to Stoner; the Sgt. took a few moments to admire himself and pick his teeth in a mirror reflection, but became incensed when Stoner "pissed" on his leg as he shook himself off; and then outside, the Sgt. was told that the nuns were the wrong target; they should have arrested "two hippies in a green van"
• they discovered a sentry police dog stiff and passed out after sniffing around the parked green van before it took off; Stedenko reacted: "Must be some heavy s--t"; he and his three men entered into a pursuit car and chased after the green van, using the 110 Freeway from Pasadena to Los Angeles (and other roads in different areas); Pedro didn't realize that they were being tailed; Pedro swerved and reversed course across a busy highway to maneuver the van to pick up two female hitchhikers on an overpass; when the two were asked how far they were going, the blonde bimbo answered: "All the way!"; the police chase ended when one of Stedenko's clumsy bald-headed men Harry shot out their own right front tire, and they lost the trail of the suspects

Two Female Hitchhikers: Blonde Debbie (Anne Wharton), and Redhead Jade East (Zane Buzby), Picked Up on an Overpass

• while Stoner was driving, Pedro suggested to the blonde bimbo Debbie that he show her the rest of the van in the back; Stoner encouraged Pedro: "Have fun at Magic Mountains," and Pedro replied: "Oh, yeah. I see London. I see France. If I ain't out in three weeks, man, send a search party"; as the two made out in the back, up front, the red-head shared her supply of "ludes" with Stoner
• the duo learned from the females that an upcoming Battle of the Bands contest was to be held at the Roxy Theatre (and the winner would receive a record contract and a $100 prize), and they convinced themselves to perform there; Pedro became excited: "It's just punk rock. You don't have to know how to play. You just got to be a punk. We could do that" - but they also had to be stoned
• to pick up some more drugs, red-headed Jade suggested contacting their unlikely blonde drug dealer Gloria (Louisa Moritz) - a police officer; while at her police station as Gloria went to get the "powder," the duo had fun speaking over the radio dispatch microphone and police transmitter; first, Pedro pretended to be a DJ, and then that he was having sex; when Sgt. Stedenko called in, they taunted and frustrated him by misinterpreting his code-name "Hard-Hat" as "Lard Ass"; meanwhile, Gloria found out that the entire confiscated stash of cocaine had been burned up, but she knew about a large new shipment that was expected shortly from Tijuana
• as the group left the police station, Pedro detoured to the restroom, where Sgt. Stedenko had just entered to pick his teeth at the mirror; Pedro experienced "stage fright" until the Sgt. ran the sink faucet nearby; Pedro also sprayed him in the leg as he 'shook off, just as Stoner had one earlier; the group didn't realize that their van's exhaust was affecting bystanders and giving them the "munchies"; one man hurried to a food stand and ordered a stack of hamburgers; they were able to evade arrest by a motorcycle cop (Otto Felix) affected by the fumes, who only wanted to consume their hot-dog
• to the tune of "Rock Fight," Pedro and Stoner arrived at the marathon 'battle of the bands' multi-day rock concert performance at LA's Roxy Theatre; band members from dozens of bands sat in an alleyway outside the theatre awaiting the contest; as Pedro lounged at the rear bumper of the van, he listened with his ear up to the van's back door, as he overheard a story being re-enacted (in words) inside the back of the van by Jade; she was telling Stoner and Debbie (both not listening and dozing) about a friend of hers having sex with her boyfriend Alex; listening outside, Pedro began to think that his friends were engaged in wild orgiastic sex inside the rocking van; as Stoner exited the back of the van, he was applauded by the crowd for his performance; Pedro led him: "Make way for the new king. God-damn, you're a star, man. Go ahead. After you, King Salami"

Battle of Rock Bands - Pedro Dressed in a Pink Tutu, and Stoner as a Giant Red Quaalude

• during the rock concert competition, the other bands were poorly received by the crowd; hitchhiker Jade gave Stoner what she thought was an "upper" to feel better, but it was LSD; outside the auditorium, Stedenko (whose team had dressed as orange-robed Hare Krishna members to infiltrate the concert) were denied entry without tickets; they discovered that the green van had been towed and parked in front of the theatre, with a leaking gas tank; a discarded lit cigarette ignited a fire beneath the van
• meanwhile, Pedro's band (Alice Bowie) and Stoner appeared on stage, wearing glittery silver jump-suits with open V-necks and shoulder wings; totally drugged-out, Stoner was led to his position behind drums, dressed as a giant red Quaalude with a shiny blue cape; as lead guitarist/singer, Pedro was dressed in drag in a frilly pink tutu (with a Minnie Mouse cap), a shiny blue eye-mask and two pastie-nipple tassels on his chest; their band won the contest with their original raunchy song "Earache My Eye," aided by fumes from their burning van funneled into the theatre through its ventilation system
• outside, the officers admitted defeat after they were also affected by the marijuana smoke from the burning van; the Sgt. succumbed to "munchies" cravings with orders of pizza and other goodies, and angrily admitted: "I am stoned!"; he reacted to Harry urging him to go with it, by stuffing his face with pizza: "You almost botch up the entire operation, you lose my best dog, two guys piss on my leg, and you tell me to go with it? I'll go with it!"
• in the film's conclusion, Pedro and Stoner were smoking hash (with smoke billowing out of the windows) in Pedro's low-rider, and talking about their good fortunes; the car swerved when some of the burning hash fell into Pedro's crotch-area; an aerial view followed the car as it wildly swerved and smoke billowed out of the windows ("up in smoke") along the coastal PCH at sunset