Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn

Last updated
Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn
AlexanderOtherSideOfDawn.jpg
Paperback tie-in novel cover
GenreDrama
Based onCharacters created by Dalene Young
Written byWalter Dallenbach
Story byDalene Young
Walter Dallenbach
Directed by John Erman
Starring Leigh McCloskey
Earl Holliman
Alan Feinstein
Eve Plumb
Music by Fred Karlin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producer Douglas S. Cramer
ProducerWilfred Lloyd Baumes
Production locationsUniversal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California
Beverly Hills Health Club for Men - 8612 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, California
Studio One - 652 N. LaPeer Drive, West Hollywood, California
Cinematography Gayne Rescher
Editor Neil Travis
Running time96 minutes
Production company Douglas S. Cramer Company
Original release
Network NBC
Release
  • May 16, 1977 (1977-05-16)
Related

Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn is a 1977 American made-for-television drama film directed by John Erman, and a sequel to Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976). It premiered on NBC on May 16, 1977. [1]

Contents

Plot

After the climatic ending in the first movie, Alexander Duncan (Leigh McCloskey), is taken to a hospital where he is being operated on. He has flashbacks of his life, showing how he came to Hollywood as an inexperienced young man from rural Oklahoma.

He spends most of his time drawing instead of being a farmhand to his father, this causes his father to basically throw Alex out of the home; his reasoning being that as the oldest Alex needs to become a man and make it on his own now, and with six other people to feed, they just can't afford for Alex to be another extra mouth. His father is firm on this, and his mother is not able to change the decision. Alex packs a small bag and with whatever money he has, buys a bus ticket to Hollywood, California.

At the bus depot, a streetwise hustler named Buddy befriends him. Buddy takes Alex back to his apartment and lets him stay there for the night. The next day, Alex tries to find a job, but because of California's strict labor laws, he doesn't have any luck because he is still a minor. Alex sees male prostitutes hustling on the streets as a means of income, and becomes disheartened when he returns to Buddy's apartment and sees an older man walking out the door. Buddy gives him a realistic talk about survival, and convinces Alex to go to a client of his to make an easy $50.

Alex's flashbacks ends and he is in the present day. He awakens in the hospital to Dawn, and they reaffirm their love to each other. Dawn helps Alex as much as she can after he's discharged from the hospital and still recovering. Both are no longer hustling, and without money, Alex convinces Dawn to go back home to her small Arizona town to wait for him to come get her. He takes her to the bus depot to see her off, promising her that he'll come get her when he earns enough money.

He loses the job that Umber got him in the first movie as a stock boy in a department store because of his involvement with Swan, and is unable to get another legit job afterwards because of his previous prostitution recognition. He calls home and speaks with his mother, telling her he wants to come home, but his mother says no. Alex is desperate and frustrated, and resorts back to prostitution, getting picked up by an undercover police officer immediately.

At the police station while he's getting booked, he asks to contact Donald Umber, and is overheard by a psychologist named Ray Church. Alex gets released on Ray signing for him, vouching for his guaranteed court appearance. Ray tells Alex that Umber is no longer around town, but that he's a good friend of his, and asks Alex how he knows him. Alex says that Umber helped him and Dawn before. Ray takes Alex to a youth house for gay men, but Alex feels uncomfortable because he is not gay, and he leaves immediately after he gets there.

Returning to his apartment, the landlady tells him the rent is way overdue, and the mural that he had painted on one side of the wall is being covered over with a coat of fresh wall paint. In Arizona, Dawn isn't adjusting well to being back home, and longs to be with Alex again. While on his way to the post office, Buddy sees him on the streets and catches up with him. He convinces Alex to go on a double date with him and one of his clients and her friend.

They go to a nice restaurant and Buddy lends Alex a nice suit to wear. They enjoy good food and wine, and Alex opens up to his older date about Dawn. He begins to enjoy himself, and he starts to genuinely like his date, going back to her home for the night. In the morning she gives him cab money, and he gets upset that she viewed their night together as a transaction. He does not take her cab money, and finds out that she has a husband as well as paid Buddy for their date. Alex goes to Buddy's apartment and confronts him about it; he leaves Buddy's apartment for the second time after feeling disgusted with the whole situation. Since he's been evicted, and not wanting to stay at Buddy's, he ends up sleeping outside underneath a public playground.

The next day, he is loitering at an art museum and is noticed by a man named Charles Selby, who is a professional football player. Selby is a closeted gay, and he entices Alex with his lavish lifestyle, employing Alex as his current boy-toy. He's making good money under Selby's employment and companionship, but Selby is not naive to Alex's true intentions and feelings.

Selby and Alex run into Ray at a nightclub, and Ray reminds him of his court appearance. At court, Alex gets lucky and goes before a compassionate judge who dismisses his charges with a warning not to appear before her in court again. Ray also gives Alex some advice, stating that Selby is smart enough to realize that Alex is just using him, and that he should be prepared for when Selby replaces him.

When Alex goes back to Selby's home from court, he sees that Ray's warning has come true. Selby is enticing a new boy-toy with the same surfer posing photographs that he did with Alex. At a party that Selby is hosting, the realization that Selby is getting tired of Alex becomes more prominent. Ray tells Alex that he needs to start thinking about his own life; that he has no cause to be bothered by the new surfer boy because Alex was just hustling Selby anyway. He also states that whatever Selby might be as a closeted gay, he's not a hustler.

After dropping off Ray, Alex goes on a drug pickup for Selby, but the whole party gets caught when two stakeout detectives follow Alex back to Selby's. In Arizona, while buying a shirt for Alex, a man recognizes Dawn as a prostitute in Hollywood. Dawn runs out of the store mortified. In court, Alex tells the judge that he just wants to leave and get out of that town forever; the same judge that dismissed his charges the first time, is sympathetic to him again, and dismisses his charges again.

Ray drops Alex off at the bus depot, where he's bought a ticket to Arizona to get Dawn. As he's on the bus, he sees Dawn in the streets. He gets off of his bus and runs up to Dawn, telling her that he was on the bus coming to get her, and she should have waited for him at home. She told him about the incident at the store with being recognized by a former john, and that she just couldn't wait anymore.

The movie ends with Alex telling Dawn that they're going to a new place and will try their luck there. As they head back to the bus depot to decide where they want to go, they see a fresh new kid walking out of the depot down Hollywood Blvd. for the first time. They both look at the young kid, knowing the hardships he'll be faced with.

Cast

Alexander was the last appearance by actress Jean Hagen, who died August 29, 1977.

Reception

Phil Hall of Film Threat called it "not a great film" but "a breakthrough, of sorts, in LGBT television." [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Lets Do It Again</i> (1953 film) 1953 film by Alexander Hall

Let's Do It Again is a 1953 American Technicolor musical film set in 1950 New York, and released by Columbia Pictures. The film was directed by Alexander Hall and starred Jane Wyman, Ray Milland, Aldo Ray, and Tom Helmore. It is the story of a composer's wife (Wyman) who tries to make him (Milland) jealous, but the ploy backfires and leads to divorce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Osborne</span> Fictional character from Hollyoaks

Jack Osborne is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Jimmy McKenna. He first appeared on 18 November 1996 and is the second longest serving character in the serial. He was introduced as part of the Osborne family along with son Darren and wife Celia who joined daughter Ruth to live in Hollyoaks village. His storylines have included an affair with Dawn Cunningham, four marriages and an insurance scam which saw him fake his own death. In his later years, Jack was more commonly known as the landlord of the show's pub, The Dog in the Pond.

Terry Woods (<i>Emmerdale</i>) Fictional character from Emmerdale

Terry Woods is a fictional character from the British television soap opera Emmerdale, played by Billy Hartman. He was one of the longest-serving characters in the show up until he was killed off alongside Viv Hope in early 2011, after 16 years.

"Cavender Is Coming" is episode 101 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on May 25, 1962 on CBS.

<i>Symphony in Slang</i> 1951 film

Symphony in Slang is a 1951 cartoon short directed by Tex Avery, written by Rich Hogan and released with the feature film No Questions Asked by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Minimalist and abstract in style, it tells the story of a man, who finds himself at the Pearly Gates explaining the story of his life to a bewildered Saint Peter and Noah Webster using slang of that era. The majority of the short is made up of sight gags based on Peter and Webster's imagined, literal understandings of such phrases as "I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth" and "Outside it was raining cats and dogs."

<i>Buddy</i> (Hinton novel) 1982 novel written by Nigel Hinton

Buddy (1982) is a novel written by Nigel Hinton. The main characters are Buddy Clark, his mother Carol Clark, his father Terry Clark and Julian and Charmian Rybeero. The story deals with issues such as racism, juvenile delinquency and child neglect.

<i>Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway</i> 1976 television film directed by Randal Kleiser

Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway is a 1976 American made-for-television drama film which premiered on NBC on September 27, 1976.

<i>I Know What You Did Last Summer</i> (novel) 1973 suspense novel by Lois Duncan

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1973 suspense novel for young adults by Lois Duncan. A film adaptation loosely based on the novel was released in 1997.

Snow is an American Christmas-themed film starring Tom Cavanagh and Ashley Williams that premiered in 2004 on the ABC television network, and was also shown on the Freeform cable network later the same year. It was written by Rich Burns and directed by Alex Zamm.

<i>In the Flesh</i> (1998 film) 1998 American film

In the Flesh is a 1998 independent gay-themed murder mystery film, produced, written, and directed by Ben Taylor. It is set in Atlanta, Georgia where it was filmed on a very low budget, according to the writer-director. It tells how two gay men on both sides of the law are brought together as intimate friends amid the dark events and circumstances that surround them.

<i>Upperworld</i> 1934 film

Upperworld is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Warren William as a wealthy married railroad tycoon whose friendship with a showgirl, played by Ginger Rogers, leads to blackmail and murder. Upperworld is one of the last films released before the strict enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code by Joseph I. Breen, which began on July 1, 1934.

<i>The Sitter</i> 2011 US black comedy film by David Gordon Green

The Sitter is a 2011 American black comedy film directed by David Gordon Green and written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. The film follows a slacker college student who, after being suspended, is forced by his mother to fill in for a babysitter that called in sick. During this time, he takes his charges along for his extensive criminal escapades.

<i>Buddys Song</i> (film) 1991 film by Claude Whatham

Buddy's Song is a 1991 British comedy-drama film starring Chesney Hawkes, Roger Daltrey, Sharon Duce and Michael Elphick, based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Nigel Hinton. The film follows a teenage boy, Buddy Clark (Hawkes), who is determined to make it as a pop star, aided by his father Terry (Daltrey). He struggles with young love, estranged parents and the problems associated with making it in the music business.

<i>Hick</i> (film) 2011 film by Derick Martini

Hick is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Derick Martini, based on the novel of the same name by Andrea Portes that draws on non-fictional elements. The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Eddie Redmayne, Ray McKinnon, Rory Culkin, Juliette Lewis, Blake Lively, and Alec Baldwin. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2011. It received a limited theatrical release on May 11 and is distributed by Phase 4 Films.

<i>Qissa</i> (film) 2013 film

Qissa is a 2013 Indian-German drama film in Punjabi written and directed by Anup Singh. The film was released in Indian theaters on 20 February 2015 nationwide and simultaneously on DVD and VOD as well. The film was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival where it won the Netpac Award for World or International Asian Film. The theme of the film focuses on desire of a Sikh man towards having a son to continue the family lineage.

Every Man Needs One is a 1972 made-for-television romantic comedy film. It was first shown December 13, 1972, on ABC as an ABC Movie of the Week.

<i>Buddys Song</i> (novel) Novel by British author Nigel Hinton

Buddy's Song is a novel written by a British author, Nigel Hinton. It was first published in 1987. It is the second instalment in the Buddy trilogy, between Buddy and Buddy's Blues, and follows the story of Buddy as he started to pursue a musical career. The book was adapted into a film, directed by Claude Whatham and starring Roger Daltrey and Chesney Hawkes as Terry and Buddy respectively, in 1990.

<i>Ray Meets Helen</i> 2017 American film

Ray Meets Helen is a 2017 romantic drama film directed by Alan Rudolph. It is notable as Sondra Locke's last acting appearance before her death in 2018.

References

  1. Levine, Elana (2007). Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television. Duke University Press. pp. 41–42. ISBN   9780822339199.
  2. Hall, Phil (February 1, 2013). "The Bootleg Files: Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn". Film Threat. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013.