Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Last time I saw Cheech and Chong’s “Up in Smoke,” I nearly got a contact high from all the folks in the theater enjoying secret tokes.

You know Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong – those counterculture icons known for partaking in a doobie now and then. They met in Vancouver in 1969 and formed an improv act that specialized in druggie humor.

Their first movie, “Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke” (1978) is the epitome of a wacky, on-the-road stoner comedy. Reviewers could not resist describing the movie’s storyline as “high antics.” Yeah, you get the pun.

It’s getting a new screening at the Tropic.

Written by Cheech and Chong, the movie was originally titled “The Adventures of Pedro and Man.” In it, Cheech gives us Pedro De Pacas, a pot-smoking hitchhiker, while Chong plays Anthony “Man” Stoner, an unemployed drummer who picks him up.

The plot is mostly a string of puerile jokes. The guys go on a road trip in a van made entirely of the green stuff. Despite being chased by cops, they wind up entering a Battle of the Bands and win.

“Up in Smoke” was produced and directed by Lou Adler, the record producer who worked with such musical greats as the Mamas and the Papas, Neil Young, Jan and Dean, Johnny Rivers, Janis Joplin, and Carole King.

Variety wrote that “Adler lets the film degenerate into a mixture of fitful slapstick and toilet humor.”

The Chicago Tribune gave the film half of one star out of four. Gene Siskel called it “one of the most juvenile, poorly written, awkwardly directed pictures I have ever seen.” He included it on his list of the worst films of 1978.

Rotten Tomatoes rated it only 49% on the Tomatometer, describing it as “oft-quoted but undeniably flawed ….”

Despite all the negative reviews from critics, “Up in Smoke” grossed over $104 million on a $2 million budget. It established the stoner film genre and became a cult classic. Eventually, it was selected for the National Film Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

“Up in Smoke” features such now-familiar faces as Stacy Keach, Tom Skerritt, Ellen Barkin, David Nelson, Strother Martin, Edie Adams, and Harry Dean Stanton. Jack Nicholson loaned his ’67 Volkswagen Beetle for an early scene in the movie.

Richard “Cheech” Marin grew up in East Los Angeles, the son of Mexican American parents. Thomas B. Kin Chong was raised in Calgary, the son of a Canadian mother and Chinese father. A Chicano, Marin’s nickname “Cheech” is short for chicharrón, a fried pork rind. In 2003, Tommy was sentenced to nine months in prison for selling drug paraphernalia (7,500 bongs and water pipes) on the Internet. An interesting off-and-on duo.

Cheech and Chong practice what they preach. Tommy Chong says, “I never changed my views. Cheech has evolved into like a rich guy. I was rich – my movies, I was a rich kid that wanted to smoke dope and play music. I’m exactly the same way.”

He adds, “I’ve had two sets of families. I had my older daughters, Rae Dawn Chong, who is a very famous movie actress, and Robbi Chong, who is also another famous television actress. I was a very friendly father – if they wanted to get high, they could smoke with their dad. My one daughter used to just ask me for joints and I’d give them to her and then she’d sell them to her friends at school.”

I’ve never met Cheech Marin or Tommy Chong, but I did meet Rae Dawn Chong at a movie premiere (“Quest for Fire”). She was beautiful; she was perky; she was friendly. But she didn’t offer me a joint.

Tommy Chong says the family’s dope-smoking reputation is exaggerated. “I think most people think I smoke more dope than I do … I’ve gone years without pot. I’m not a pothead. I think that’s a big misconception because of the movies. I’ll go work out in a gym sooner than I’ll go smoke pot. That’s more important to me than smoking pot.”

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com