The Morning After (1974 film)
| The Morning After | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by |
Richard Matheson (teleplay) Jack B. Weiner (novel) (as Jack Weiner) |
| Directed by | Richard T. Heffron |
| Starring |
Dick Van Dyke Lynn Carlin Don Porter |
| Theme music composer |
Pete Carpenter Mike Post |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Lawrence Turman |
| Producer(s) | Stan Margulies |
| Cinematography | Michel Hugo |
| Editor(s) | David Newhouse |
| Running time | 75 min. |
| Production company(s) | Wolper Productions |
| Distributor | ABC |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | February 13, 1974 |
The Morning After is a 1974 ABC TV movie starring Dick Van Dyke and Lynn Carlin, based on the best selling novel by Jack B. Weiner, and with a screenplay by Richard Matheson.
Van Dyke played a successful public relations writer who has a serious drinking problem that threatens his marriage and life. Around this time, Van Dyke admitted he himself was an alcoholic and had been seeking treatment (one of the first celebrities to do so). This film also marked Van Dyke's first real attempt to escape his Rob Petrie image. Van Dyke was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama but lost to Hal Holbrook. Today, the film is still shown in some treatment centers.
Charlie Lester is a public relations speech writer for an oil magnate. He is married with two children. As the film opens we see him drinking heavily at an office party and then having an argument with his wife Fran after he tipsily returns home. The song "Yesterday", sung by Joey Scarbury, is played several times in the film as Charlie continues in a downward spiral. He is given a jolting reason to quit drinking after his boss scolds him for appearing half drunk at an important business meeting, then ruining a dinner party at his home and even hitting his wife in a drunken rage. He is shown afterwards literally on his knees, begging her forgiveness.
It is revealed in the film that Charlie's father was an alcoholic and his mother was abusive, ignoring him while lavishing her affections on his younger brother. He breaks down as he tells this story to a therapist. In massive denial and pain, he drops out of therapy and continues to drink, culminating in a physical assault on Fran as she tries to drag him out of a bar. When he returns home, she informs him she is seeing a lawyer and filing assault charges. Charlie then becomes violently ill and vomits blood. His doctor informs him he may be suffering from liver damage and "either you stop drinking or you're going to drink yourself to death!"
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