Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977) (TV)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

John Erman

Writers:

Walter Dallenbach (screenplay)
Walter Dallenbach (story)

Release Date:

16 May 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A teenaged boy arrives in Hollywood to become a movie star, but winds up becoming a male prostitute and gets involved with a gay football star. |

Plot Keywords:

Male Prostitute | Gay Interest | Homosexual | Prostitution | Sequel

Cast

Leigh McCloskey	...	Alexander Duncan
Eve Plumb	...	Dawn Wetherby
Juliet Mills	...	Myra
Jean Hagen	...	Landlady
Lonny Chapman	...	Eddie Duncan
Earl Holliman	...	Ray Church
Alan Feinstein	...	Charles Selby
Asher Brauner	...	Buddy
Diana Douglas	...	Clara Duncan
Frances Faye	...	Singer
Fred Sadoff
John Devlin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Talia Balsam
Jonathan Banks	...	Michael
Matt Bennett
Claudia Bryar	...	Ms. Mathias
Gary Campbell	...	Bernard
Noel Conlon	...	Thomas
Doria Cook-Nelson	...	Della
Pat Corley	...	Marty
Robert Deery
Robert Doyle	...	Frank
Robert Dryer
Yolanda Galardo	...	Linda
Jon Gries
Colin Hamilton	...	Patrick
Wayne Heffley	...	Possehl
Alice Hirson	...	Clara Duncan
Lincoln Kilpatrick Jr.	...	Jeff
Damu King	...	Red
Ben Marley
Jack Rader	...	Jack
Larry Rosenberg	...	Rick
Richard Sanders	...	Travis
P.J. Soles
Joe Warfield	...	Doctor
Sam Weisman	...	Ron Bergman
Frank Whiteman	...	Coley
George Whiteman

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12

Company:

Douglas S. Cramer Company

Trivia:

Jean Hagen's final performance.

Movie Connections:

Follows Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976) (TV)

Post-"Midnight Cowboy" hustling; commendable exploits for '70s television...

Shy, straight kid from Oklahoma who likes to draw and paint gets thrown out of his house, soon ending up in Los Angeles where he romances a pretty young prostitute while paying the bills as a male escort to women and men. Worthy TV-made continuation of the 1976 ratings blockbuster "Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway" wasn't as big a success, partly due to a been-there-done-that feel but also perhaps because of the gay content--uncomfortable territory for 1977. The filmmakers work very hard to show us that Alexander (deep-voiced Leigh McCloskey, looking too old to be a minor) is indeed heterosexual; with lots of lip-locking between he and Dawn (returning Eve Plumb), we get the point early he's just using the gays as trade without all the speech-making. Alexander ends up living with a gay football player, who's just another stepping stone to this kid and one who seems to understand the situation (he quickly picks up another boy, though he isn't made out to be a villain). Earl Holliman gives probably the strongest performance in the movie, playing a (presumably gay) community center counselor who wants to clean up the streets--and Alex's life. John Erman directs in an unembarrassed, straightforward fashion, admirable for what is basically low-budget, exploitation television. The film refuses to paint the characters in shades of black or white, good guys or bad guys. Though the pseudo-happy ending doesn't quite ring true, and McCloskey's slack-jawed performance is disappointing, it's a decent attempt to scare impressionable kids away from Hollywood Boulevard.