Adam at Six A.M.

This is a very early Michael (or as he was popularly known then, Mikey) Douglas vehicle. He plays a disillusioned college professor of the late Sixties (there seem to have been so many of them scurrying about in those days!) who drops out of his successful, stressful life in the big city to go in a search for his roots in a not-so-idyllic midwestern small town. The story plods along, showing his courtship of a rather status-proud Junior Miss type whose Mom (wonderfully etched by Louise Latham) is the town hairdresser, and his adventures in serious male bonding with Joe Don Baker and other flannel clad logger types. Grayson Hall has an excellent cameo role as his aunt, and gets to administer a deft put-down of Douglas' masculine vanity towards the end. In some ways the last 30 seconds is the best part of the movie. Overall not at all a bad effort. To quote Maggie Smith in a movie that is much more suitable to this writer's temperament, "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like." I did make liberal use of the fast forward button in viewing "Adam at Six A. M."

Idealistic college professor decides to find himself by spending a summer in the midwest as a laborer. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young lady who, to his regret, cannot share his same vision. Biggest differance here is that the other laborers aren't potrayed as ignorant, suspicious, bigots. Instead we see them as friendly, helpful, and interesting people. Does degenerate into the perverbial bar fight, but mostly this is a subdued, almost loving look at Americas' heartland. Great chance to see Michael Douglas in a very early dramatic role. (He did this even before STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO). Lee Purcell is also quite good becoming easily identifiable of most young ladies of that era (and even today). She willingly takes on the more 'liberated' values of the younger generation when it is conveniant and fun, but is unable (and unwilling) to break from the mores of the enviroment from which she was raised. Has a good final shot.

Saw Adam at 6AM decades ago. I believe it was Michael Douglas's first movie and he was still in college when asked to make the movie. The movie gets its name, when Adam starts his trip east in the red sports car and the camera focus on the clock 6 AM. The movie was very low budget. Several scenes in Mo at the home were never cropped and you can see the the lighting and other equipment. They never went back to re shoot. Michael's voice hadn't developed, but you can see his grace and charm even at this young age.

The movie starts to drag about 3/4 through and doesn't pick up.Obvious when the movie was casted, producers wanted the Douglas name even if only the son of Kirk was available. Movie appears to be related to the the graduate.I'm still trying to remember the res sports car, was it and Austin Healey? Reminds me of my TRS 3 in college. I knew I had something in common with Michael Douglas.

Call it sentiments of generation X before generation X. This movie was fantastic. It asks the sincere question: do you see yourself as successful, or do others see it in you? And what would happen if you and society found your success in different places? The last scene captures the outcome visually with great symbolism.

This is an unusual film for Michael Douglas, and kind of "lost". I wonder if it was ever even released? I rather doubt it's even available on video or DVD today: your only shot at seeing it is late at night on same cable station. Which is how I saw it, many years ago.

Adam is a late 20s college professor having a sort of early mid-life crisis when he decides to spontaneously attend a family funeral in the Midwest. Away from his intellectual/liberal environment and hedonistic lifestyle, he finds life in the small town surprisingly warm and embracing. In time, he has a working class job (light years from his cushy teaching job), friends (Joe Don Baker) and a cute girlfriend for whom he has the major hots, but who is "saving herself for marriage." Adam becomes, for this one summer anyhow, so immersed in this simple down-to-earth lifestyle that he decides to marry the girlfriend and buy a house.

At this point, the film takes a sharp detour...as if ashamed suddenly of the idea that simple hard work, good friends and a loving marriage might be exactly what spoiled pretentious Adam needed all along. So he abruptly decides to "chuck it all" when sent on a mission to buy vanilla ice cream for his fiancé's bridal shower...and skedaddles out of town in his sports car, presumably never to be seen again. (Or maybe to return to his unhappy life as a swinging college teacher.) No closure on the presumably broken-hearted fiancé, who had to be humiliated by his disappearance, or his confused and hurt friends.

For some reason this film has stuck in my mind all these years. I think because up until the final couple of minutes, it almost seems like a pre-Reagan paean to family values...which would have made "Adam" a real oddity in 1970. Some good supporting work from supporting actors. This film also foreshadows the 80s film, "Amber Waves of Grain" with Kurt Russell and Mare Winningham, about a spoiled actor who becomes a farm worker.

If you are up late at night and this comes on...watch it. Something different, and you get to see a very young Michael Douglas.

(BTW: No, the title makes no sense at all.)