Synanon

Dramatization of real-life Synanon House, a Santa Monica-based rehabilitation center for hardcore drug addicts (many of them recent parolees). Heroin-user Alex Cord butts heads with former prison adversary Chuck Conners, while Stella Stevens sorts out relations with her ex-husband and struggles to stay off the streets. A bit glamorous in its depiction of life in the gutter, perhaps due to the kicky fashions and the ocean-front locale, though director Richard Quine is quick to underline the narrative with bitterness and regret. Not as moving as it should have been, but still quite potent. Harry Stradling Jr.'s black-and-white cinematography is excellent, as is Neal Hefti's jazzy score. **1/2 from ****

One of the first movies to show drug addicts & their attempts to 'get clean'. Main character 'Joaney' played by the great STELLA STEVENS is an addict that is trying to straighten out her life and get custody of her son. She is attending counseling sessions at the famed SYNANON HOUSE in sunny California. Lots of good acting support from off-key sources like EARTHA KITT. Overall, film is average.

Synanon was formed because there was pretty much nowhere an addict could find help back in the fifties. Even Alcoholics Anonymous wouldn't accept them. Heroin addicts were regarded as hopeless cases. In fact, the founder of Synanon came to believe addicts had to remain in a confined supportive community for the rest of their lives in order to avoid relapse. The movie is a remarkably realistic portrayal of what rehab was like for drug addicts back in the day. Countless Therapeutic Communities were patterned after Synanon. Residents who broke the rules underwent a variety of punishments: anything from wearing humiliating signs around their necks to digging "graves" 6 feet deep, 8 feet long and 4 feet wide every morning for a week. Until it was outlawed, sleep deprivation was a common punishment. A resident might be made to stay awake for 72 hours straight. This movie is a fascinating glimpse into the early days rehabilitation.

Studies of drug use and addiction in these United States show there wasn't really what could be called a "societal problem" until after passage of the Harrison Act of 1913, the law outlawing so many drugs.

Marijuana was outlawed about 25 years later, and all the drug prohibition has faithfully followed the pattern set by alcohol prohibition in the 1920s: crime and misery and violence and bloodshed.

And huge profits for the people willing to break the laws against selling and distributing those products.

Opponents of prohibition believe, with much research and evidence backing their position, that the laws cause more problems than do the drugs.

There is really not much support for the drugs themselves, although there is growing support for the freedom to choose, and even the most ardent opponent of prohibition recognizes that at least some people suffer badly from drug use and especially from drug addiction.

Synanon was founded by a former substance abuser to help addicts kick their habits. This movie is about him and that effort.

It could have been a cheapie exploitation movie, and the original advertising plan did seem to appeal to the sensational. But it had, instead, an intelligent and apparently honest script and some of Hollywood's most talented actors.

I started watching a TCM presentation with trepidation, prepared to switch channels, but found myself fascinated.

Especially by the actors.

Chuck Connors is one of my favorites and I sat in awe of his very low-key performance. Yes, he stayed busy, even having two TV series, but I don't think he got the respect he should have.

Edmond O'Brien is one of the greatest, an actor capable of probably any type of characterization.

Richard Conte is another of my favorites, and again his low-key performance fit his role just perfectly.

Many others also deserve praise, but I've gone on too long. Let me just say I highly recommend "Synanon."

Ever wonder why this supposedly wonderful organization isn't around anymore?

Synanon is purported to have been involved in several criminal activities, such as the disappearance of Rose Lena Cole around late-1972 or early-1973. Cole had received a court order to enroll in Synanon before she disappeared. She has not been seen or heard from since. Initially Synanon did not support violence; however, Dederich later changed the rules to allow for violence in order to maintain control. Much of the violence by Synanon had been carried out by a group within Synanon called the "Imperial Marines." Over 80 violent acts were committed including mass beatings that hospitalized teenagers and ranchers who were beaten in front of their families. People who left the organization were at risk of physical violence for being a "splittee"; one ex-member, Phil Ritter, was beaten so severely that his skull was fractured and he subsequently fell into a coma with a near-fatal case of bacterial meningitis.

During the summer of 1978, the NBC Nightly News produced a news segment on the controversies surrounding Synanon. Following this broadcast, several executives of the NBC network and its corporate chairman allegedly received hundreds of threats from Synanon members and supporters. However, NBC continued with a series of reports on the Synanon situation on the NBC Nightly News. The Point Reyes Light, a small-circulation weekly newspaper in Marin County, would later receive the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their covering Synanon at a time when other news agencies avoided reporting. Several weeks after NBC began receiving threats, on October 10, 1978, two Synanon members placed a de-rattled rattlesnake in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz of Pacific Palisades, California. Morantz had successfully brought suit on behalf of people who were being held against their will by Synanon. The snake bit him, and he was hospitalized for six days. This incident, along with the press coverage, prompted an investigation by the police and government into Synanon.

Six weeks later, the Los Angeles Police Department performed a search of the ranch in Badger that found a recorded speech by Dederich in which he said, "We're not going to mess with the old-time, turn-the-other-cheek religious postures... Our religious posture is: Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead, literally dead... These are real threats," he snarled. "They are draining life's blood from us, and expecting us to play by their silly rules. We will make the rules. I see nothing frightening about it... I am quite willing to break some lawyer's legs, and next break his wife's legs, and threaten to cut their child's arm off. That is the end of that lawyer. That is a very satisfactory, humane way of transmitting information. I really do want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk." During the investigations researchers also came across multiple lawsuits and arrests against Synanon members.

Dederich was arrested while drunk on December 2, 1978. The two other Synanon residents, one of whom was Lance Kenton, the son of the musician Stan Kenton, pleaded "no contest" to charges of assault, and also conspiracy to commit murder. While his associates went to jail, Dederich received probation because his doctors claimed that due to ill health he would most likely die in prison. As a condition of probation, he was disallowed from taking part in managing Synanon.

Synanon struggled to survive without its leader, and also with a severely tarnished reputation. The Internal Revenue Service revoked the organization's tax-exempt status and ordered them to pay $17 million in back taxes, which bankrupted Synanon, which formally dissolved in 1991.