Believe in Me

Remy (Michael Sarrazin) is a medical student working in a hospital. He is friendly with the patients but he's stealing drugs from his work. He starts dating Pamela (Jacqueline Bisset) and they move in together. The two become drug addicts.

It's a druggie movie. It's a little more realistic than the old government issued drug prevention shorts shown in high schools. It's still somewhat awkward like a lesson of the week movie. It doesn't have a free-flowing plot. They are druggies and they need the drugs. That seems to be the extend of the ideas in the writing.

Better than expected. Michael Sarrazin has never been overly convincing in anything really but Jacqueline Bisset is a revelation. It is also an interesting docu of the US in the 70s. For movie buffs.

"Believe In Me" has been aired quite regularly of late on Australian cable TV. I stumbled across it and (embarrassingly enough) thought I would check it out because I liked the Lou Rawls theme song. I'm really glad I did because this film turned out to be a small gem.

During the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film, I thought I was in for a corny romance about a dedicated doctor, Remy, and his editor girlfriend, Pamela. I was genuinely surprised when Dr. Do Good stole hospital supplies to get high and was really taken aback when Pamela decided to follow Remy's example and started to shoot up. Pamela and Remy's descent into drug addiction is affecting and very gritty for a mainstream movie made in 1971. I'm sure the subject matter of white collar drug use was even more confronting back then than it is now.

I was interested to read that a significant amount of the film was edited out and re-shot because it was thought to be too bleak. This explains the jarring way in which lighter moments are interspersed into the action and the very annoying use of the (quite lovely) romantic score, which I think was intended to give the impression that the film really just a tragic love story. I'm sure the studio thought this would make the film more palatable to audiences but it just makes the story seem ridiculous. Nevertheless, the studio butchery does not entirely ruin the film. The performances by Michael Sarrazin and Jacqueline Bisset are great and the film does provide a fresh perspective on drug addiction.

I would really love to see the film as the director originally intended. I think "Believe In Me" is ripe for a director's cut on DVD, this is one of those rare films that seems more relevant today than when it was made. Recommended!

This movie has haunted me for more than 35 years! I remember how beautiful Jacquelline Bissett was in the beginning and how she, the character, changed over the years with the use of drugs. I can still see the final scene - this from a fan who can barely remember the movies I saw last week! In the drug culture of the 1970's, this would have been a potent film to use as a drug deterrent for teens and adults alike. Her changing appearance was amazing! The family didn't looks at things very realistically either. My kids were pretty young then, so I didn't realize just how much this lifestyle could and would affect my own family's lifestyle. I have looked for this movie on all the TV movie channels and on movie sources for years, in the hopes to see it again. This space is the first I have found that tells that it hasn't been made into a CD. No wonder I haven't found it. However, I still would welcome an opportunity to see it again. The performances were outstanding and so important, even today.

Forgotten MGM drama in the drug addiction/downward spiral genre stars Michael Sarrazin as a flighty, mercurial New York City medical student--apparently interning under the critical eye of his own father--who becomes addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. Well-meaning, uncredited extension of Gail Sheehy's magazine article "Speed is of the Essence", based on her sister's addiction, features two rising new stars: Sarrazin and Jacqueline Bisset (as the live-in girlfriend who also starts speeding against her better judgment). The leads are quite comfortable with each other, while Allen Garfield oozes smarm as a dealer named Uncle Stutter. Stuart Hagmann is credited with the direction, but the studio was unhappy with his work and assigned another director, John G. Avildsen, to two weeks of reshoots (Avildsen would reteam with producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler five years later on "Rocky"). It's a smoothly-told if somewhat pedestrian "cautionary tale", though one with rich, brooding cinematography from Dick Kratina and Richard E. Brooks. Look fast for Katherine Helmond as a saleslady and Antonio Fargas as one of Garfield's street toughs. **1/2 from ****