The Morning After

I also saw this tv movie only once during its original airing. I was only 10 years old at the time. I regret to say that much of the content has since faded from memory. But don't think that has any reflection on the movie, only my memory! To this day I have not forgotten the impact that Dick Van Dyke's performance had on me. His portrayal of an alcoholic steadily descending into the deep abyss of his disease has stayed with me for almost thirty years. My first exposure to this illness came with this film. And it haunts me to this day. Not to mention the fact that I not once since seeing this movie have I been able to listen to the Beatles' 'Yesterday' without feeling a small jab in my heart because of it.

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.

Dick Van Dyke earned a well deserved Emmy nomination for his powerhouse performance in THE MORNING AFTER, a 1974 ABC Movie of the Week where Van Dyke played a successful public relations man who begins to forsake everything in his life for the bottle. This intense look at the disease of alcoholism is uncompromising in its approach to the story and Van Dyke pulls out all the stops to turn in this gut-wrenching performance, which, if the truth be told, probably wasn't a real stretch as Van Dyke was drinking very heavily at the time. Van Dyke had been drinking for years but kept it well hidden. A few years later, he made his alcoholism public and got sober a few years after that. I was 16 years old when this movie premiered but I remember Van Dyke's performance haunted me long after the movie was over. I remember a scene where his wife, played by Lynn Carlin, won't give him the car keys so he can go out and get more liquor and he practically beats her up to get the keys. I also remember the final scene of a drunken Van Dyke, all alone in the world, on a beach, with his bottle, drinking and passing out. The movie is a powerful indictment against drinking and vividly portrays the isolation from everything important in a drinker's life that alcohol can cause. Another landmark TV movie that should be made available on video if it is not.

I watched this film while I was in treatment for alcoholism in June of 1987.

Thanks to God and AA, I have been continuously sober for the past 16 years.

In a few days, it could be 17 but we do this one day at a time. I am going to reveal how the movie ends. Don't keep reading if you don't want to know. However, the movie is not available for purchase anywhere that I know so there's little chance that I'll spoil anything for you. The way it ends is that the Dick Van Dyke character gives up and goes away to drink himself to death. I generally hate movies that end badly but this one had a tremendous impact on me. Van Dyke's portrayal is so convincing. It reminds me of the tremendous power of alcohol and the "life and death" struggle that is recovery. God bless you for reading this and if you know of a way to purchase this film, please let me know.

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.