The Morning After (1974)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Dick Van Dyke does very fine work in this thoughtful TV-movie about a once-successful speech writer for a public relations firm who has hit the skids: he's a heavy drinker, and doesn't know how to help himself. Thriller-writer Richard Matheson was a surprising choice to adapt Jack Weiner's novel, but he does a terrific job at setting up the circumstance and then allowing his central character to free-fall with help from his ever-present bottles of booze. Lynn Carlin, as Van Dyke's enabling spouse, is put in the somewhat unbearable position of playing mommy to both her sick husband and her shaky kids, and one longs for her to stop being a victim and take charge. But, this being 1974, the avenues which are now present for people in this unfortunate situation simply weren't commonplace yet, and Van Dyke's struggles--his broken promises, his self-inflicted downward spiral--are painful to witness. Matheson seems intent not to make this a cookie-cutter domestic drama, and at that he succeeds. The final shot (extremely well executed) leaves the viewer with a lot to consider. It becomes clear this isn't solely a hard-hitting portrait of alcoholism--it is also a story about giving up.

I cannot say enough good things about this film. I guess it is the mark of a classic that a film that was made almost thirty years ago could still touch people today. Dick Van Dyke deserved an Emmy for his mind-blowing performance as a tragic alcoholic. This movie has the grimmest ending you could imagine but it makes it a better film and a cut above the typical "disease of the week" fare tv has so often served. What is so amazing to me is that Dick Van Dyke had never played a dramatic part before he took on this one. He has played two other dramatic parts I remember well, he was a priest accused of murder in The Runner Stumbles and played another alcoholic in an HBO presentation of The Country Girl. Its so ironic that all three of these fine performances that he gave are now almost impossible to see. I have gotten e-mails from people after I got my copy of TMA asking me how they could get it because they have family members who are alcohlics. All right,go to "Google" on your computer. It is the most effective search engine and type in Weird World Of 70's Cinema Video Library. They have many, many rare videos that I didn't even know existed and The Morning After is one of them. Thats how you can get a copy. The e-mail address of this site is [email protected]. A man named Fitzgerald owns the site. He will gladly send you a copy at a very reasonable price.

Its amazing that this seldom seen movie isn't out anywhere on video but it reminds us all of the emotional impact and trauma the affect us all when the painful and bitter subject of alcoholism comes into view. It can affect that lives of everyone we truly loved around us and it can pay a dangerous and painful price. I don't remember much about this movie when I saw it years ago as a child,but I did however got the chance to see this movie again when it aired recently on a cable channel and it stuck me in total awe. Dick Van Dyke's performance is astounding to watch as we see a man who has every to gain but terribly slips away to deep abyss of being a alcoholic losing everything he has worked for including losing his beloved wife and kids. I had an unbelivable impact on me when I saw this and it reminds me of how so much of how this disease can put you in either losing it all,ending up in jail,or sadly six feet under in the grave. Richard Matheson's masterful screenplay is a genuine classic as well as Dick Van Dyke's role of his career in which he should have won a Emmy for his mindblowing portrayal.

I saw this movie as a child. My mother insisted my brother and I watch it. My father is an alcoholic and has never recovered. I am now in recovery. This movie had an unbelievable impact on me as a child. I cried so very hard when I saw it, and as another person commented, I can not listen to the Beatles song "Yesterday" without thinking of that poor desperate soul. I need to see this movie!