The Morning After

I would love to have a copy of this movie. I saw it when it was on TV and I was actively drinking very heavily. I have been sober 30 years now but I will never forget this movie. Anyone know where to get a copy??? I feel like it would be an impact on may lives of alcoholics as well as drug abusers. It has a very profound message for all ages. The realism stems from Van Dykes own personal bout with alcohol abuse. He brings to the movie what no other has done and I have seen a lot of movies about addiction. Recovery programs this is a must see!!! Individuals with addictions should see this movie. It will make you self examine your addictions. Please, someone get this out to the public again. It should never have been stopped from viewing in the first place.

Even though I haven't seen this movie since it was first shown in 1974 I still recall much of it vividly. Dick Van Dyke gives the performance of his life as an alcoholic, self-hating man who just can't accept the help he needs to get better. For anyone who has seen it, the last scene is just chilling and unforgettable. One of the best tv movies ever made.

Richard Matheson has given us another masterful screenplay, and Dick Van Dyke is perfectly cast in the dramatic role of his career. I saw this on its initial television release date, and I recall the wide recognition that it garnered; but "The Morning After" seems to have slipped from visibility lately. Still, at the time of this film, "lovable drunk" jokes and comics were prolific on television – and since "The Morning After", and its terrific eye-opening impact, they disappeared almost overnight. Now there were other, numerous efforts in those days to increase the awareness of alcoholism ... but I maintain that the impact of this unforgettable, much-discussed television film, with its chilling end, had a huge impact on the American consciousness. But we'll never be able to measure the number of lives it must have saved. Highly recommended to all.

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 fantasma@negation.net. A man named Fitzgerald owns the site. He will gladly send you a copy at a very reasonable price.

I saw this movie when it came out. I was ten or eleven at the time and it's effect on me was profound.

One scene in particular, struck me so hard as to become a recurring nightmare:

Van Dyke's character wakes up on a beach and is going through the DTs. He runs down the beach clawing at himself and screaming. I remember asking my mother what he was doing and she explained the concept behind the DTs.

Years later, as a young adult, I discovered the joys (?) of drinking. Although I always had fun, I had a fear of that exact situation happening to me. On a trip to Club Med, I awoke to find myself face down on a beach. No DTs but I immediately flashed back to that movie and viewed myself as Van Dyke's character. A lonely, lost man with a terrible problem. We will just say that things changed from that point on.

Thank you, Dick.

Another note:

This film has always reminded me of "A Face In The Crowd". In that film, America's beloved Andy Griffith gave a chilling performance as a simple country man who allows fame and fortune turn him into a bitter wretch of a human being. As both films allow us to see very different sides of a pair of comic geniuses, I have often thought that they would make a great double-feature.