The People Next Door

Don't judge a book by its cover, or so the saying goes. Bloody good advice to tell you the truth! Is the same principle advised for movies? Well yes to some degree but much less so. After all, its only gonna take 90mins of your time to watch a movie. So what, right? Today's film is one I watched on account of its poster which I found in an exploitation movie art book, it depicted a somewhat haunting image of a white silhouette of a girl grabbing onto a tree in the dead of night; a distorted image that suggests something is not quite right. So, an eye-grabbing and odd poster, what about the film? Its about a dysfunctional family who experience serious problems when the teenage daughter develops a serious drug problem. Its an effective addiction drama, with a nice cast which includes Eli Wallach as the father. It does have melodramatic tendencies which anti-drug movies often have but that's okay in this case, as its never less than involving. So, a big yay to movie poster art - it makes you check out movies you never otherwise would.

David Greene's obscure THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR is out to prove that a parent, in particular a father working eight-hours and then having a nightcap and sleeping pill to fall asleep, is just the same as a wayward teenager dropping acid...

The latter happens quickly as underrated starlet Deborah Winters, after watching brother Stephen McHattie's hippie band rehearsing, winds up in her own closet, seeing God and thus, freaking out...

She later attempts spitefully french-kissing dad Eli Wallach, married to chain-smoking Julie Christie, both desperately trying to figure out what makes their drug-fueled, discontented daughter tick...

Ironically, Winters would wind up in another LSD-centered cult film, BLUE SUNSHINE, and she always gives an intense performance, visually epitomizing the cute blonde California girl who's miserably unglued, in this case adding much-needed suspense, like anything can happen at any time...

And while both her bad acid trip and idealistic tantrums literally peak too soon for an effectively cohesive melodrama of a clashing suburban clan to follow, NEXT DOOR is a semi-worthwhile compromise between an anti-drug exploitation and counter-culture propaganda for the young people themselves...

That is, despite the youth-rebel cliches... that Winters successfully rises above despite a somewhat mundane television-style script... which fits since she had co-starred in a 1968 CBS Playhouse (with a different surrounding cast) that this feature was adapted from...

So when she eventually takes a backseat to the primary story (while mom and dad deal with their own mundane demons), there's hardly any tale to tell since, after all, a bad trip beats a bummer trip.

unfortunately, the only treasured memory I have of this film is the fully nude hairy biker descending the stairs...I saw the SNEAK PREVIEW Of this movie in 1970, when I was ten, accompanied by my parents and my mother's 84 year old childhood governess. I can say that it was electrifying to me at that age to see a middle-class home thrown into chaos by naked tripping hippies. The governess did not have any comment, but what she must have been thinking...I always wondered if the male nude scene was later cut for general release, and if so was I privileged enough to see the DIRECTOR'S CUT with my parents and the governess...this would still be a fairly shocking film if seen today. needs a DVD release.

Theatrical remake of a well-regarded 1968 "CBS Playhouse" special for television about the secret drug-life of today's suburban teenagers was directed both times by David Greene, who practically disowned this franker, R-rated version. The problem could be in the central casting: Eli Wallach pushes far too hard as the clueless father of a tripping 16-year-old girl while mom Julie Harris smokes and looks distraught (when her daughter tells her she's on the Pill, Harris hilariously responds, "I think I'm losing my mind!"). The original rock songs (performed by The Bead Game and The Glass Bottle) are dreadfully pedagogic--hoping to 'inform' us with their lyrics--but, since nobody can reach this alienated girl, what good is it probing her inner-thoughts to music? Generation Gap tale has a solid cast (including Hal Holbrook, Cloris Leachman, Rue McClanahan, Stephen McHattie, Don Scardino, newcomer Deborah Winters, and Rutanya Alda as a pixilated nurse), yet the pitch of the film is off, hysterical instead of riveting. ** from ****

Seemed like one of those after school special on troubled teens, preoccupied parents, and anti-drugs turned all the way up to 11. Wasn't in the mood for it.