Up in Smoke Goes Digital: Preserving a Stoner Classic on the Internet Archive
The film was produced on a shoestring budget of under $2 million. Lou Adler, the record producer turned director, captured lightning in a bottle. However, the film’s distribution history is chaotic. Original theatrical cuts featured a soundtrack packed with period-specific rock (War, Earth, Wind & Fire) that later became a licensing nightmare. Subsequent home video releases (Paramount, Criterion, and various public domain distributors) have used different cuts, alternate scene takes, and missing dialogue.
: There is also a 1960 educational film titled Up In Smoke