Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway

I saw this when it first aired as a tv movie, and have also seen it on tape. This is a much better the average TV movie. Parts are very compelling as you watch this young runaway evolve into a streetwalker. I was shocked to find out that the actress that played Dawn also played Jan Brady. This role is a great departure for her, and she plays it very well. She can act, and she has sex-appeal. The ending is pure TV movie soap, but the middle and beginning are an intense drama. It is quality television that holds up well over time. This far better then the sequel which was more of soap.

I was a senior in high school when this played on TV and it was not only a big hit, but a big shocker. Plus the fact that one of the Brady Bunch girls played a run away who becomes a street walker added to the shock. Today, this made for tv film would be nothing to really write home about. Most of the acting was just average and Bo Hopkins as Swan the pimp basically overplayed his role, which was also very stereotyped. The content matter was raunchy for 1976. Not only female prostitution was addressed, but also male prostitution. Of course this was made a few years before the Aids epidemic, so it sort of lessens the impact. For it's time, pretty good.

Although a bit tame by today's standards, "Dawn" was quite the thing when it came out. In my opinion, the most memorable character is not Dawn, herself, but her hustler friend Alexander, played by Leigh J. McCloskey, whose performance was so deeply moving that he scored a sequel of his own: "Alexander: the Other Side of Dawn" (1977) (TV). Unfortunately, the sequel wasn't up to the original when it came to presenting Alexander. This was a landmark movie to many of its audience members, some of whom I know can STILL remember its EXACT title, a quarter century later; such was its impact on the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate generation.

Great stuff! It's a pity this movie and its sequel - 'Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn' are not available on video - (Perhaps we could lobby the studio!) Eve Plumb and Leigh McCloskey (where are they now?) are superb in the central roles. I couldn't imagine a successful remake of these movies as the naivety of the teenagers just wouldn't be credible in the 21st Century - or would it? Incidentally, I seem to recall a Disney movie entitled 'Blind Sunday' circa 1976, which featured Leigh McCloskey. His character was, in some ways, a precurser to the character of Alexander.

This movie portrays the life of a teenage runaway. Fortunately, the outcome of this made for tv movie is a positive one. It does show however, that those teens who wish to 'make it big in hollywood' does no necessarily end up that way. Prostitution and disease is a reality that must be stressed to teens.