Sleeve Design : Unknown

Toke
 

Don McDougall | USA| 1973

“This story is based on fact.” proclaims the prologue to this very obscure, leisurely-paced ganja smuggling drama set in the Tex-Mex border town of El-Paso. Toke was an independently produced feature, helmed by veteran television director Don McDougall, and was actually partly funded by marijuana smugglers, including the notorious dope lawyer Lee Chagra — who was gunned down in his office in 1978. 

Thumbtripping ex-Vietnam veteran Tony Riva (Joe Renteria, who also part-penned the story and musical score), gets socked over the head and robbed by a male-female grifter pair who give him a lift. Luckily, later that day he gets the opportunity to take revenge and doing so, steals their car.

Catching up with a pair of old grass smuggling buddies, DJ (Robert Random) and Buster (Shelly Novack; Vigilante Force), the re-united trio hatch a money-spinning marijuana smuggling operation: buying the grass in Mexico and crossing the American border at nightfall, they employ increasingly sophisticated methods of smuggling, right under the noses of the ever vigilant border patrols.

     After several successful trips across the border, Riva decides to call it a day — but not before making one final big score to fund his retirement. The operation is a success, but not without casualties: DJ gets high on his own supply and wanders off into the desert, whilst Buster is shot by the police and is left behind to be apprehended. However, Tony’s plans to settle down with his girlfriend become tainted with the sudden and unexpected re-appearance of the male grifter,  out for revenge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initially titled Esperanza, then changed to Joint Crossing, before finally hitting US theatres as Toke [a drag on a reefer], this was unsurprisingly never released to UK cinemas. Instead, Toke made its debut on video as the strangely titled Dangerous Traffic on VTC in January 1985. 

In early 1988 the BBFC passed the film with 10s of cuts (clipped out was a Mexican police officer's multiple head bashes against his patrol car's window) for Global Sales Ltd’s VIZ label, who used the VTC master, as evidence by the VTC logo at the beginning of the recording. 

One of the few VIZ sleeves not to use an illustration, instead being graced with a photograph of a shadowy bare-chested male, standing in front of a dark cityscape

 

aka : Dangerous Traffic; Esperanza; Joint Crossing

cast : Joe Renteria, Robert Random, Shelly Novak, Deirdre Daniels, Carmen Zapata, Ed Faulkner, Ramon Adame, Barthy Snoddgrass, Hermelinda Espinosa, Paul Caruthers, Tom Bush, Mel Snodgrass, Bruce Bissonette, William McLaughlin, Robert Hoy, Rodolfo Pedregon, Fred Lerner, Alan Gibbs, Jeff Gates, Howell Eurich, Tom Garmon, Jay Lofton