A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Using the famed drug rehab center of SYNANON as a backdrop seems like a sure fire hit, but this film misses more than it scores. Alex Cord is a junkie who seeks help at the center and finds himself at odds with former prison crony Chuck Connors. He also finds himself smitten with sexy fellow addict Stella Stevens. A film of such noble bearing is difficult to criticize but it is a shame that director Richard Quine infuses the story with such cliché-ridden melodrama. The acting is mightily uneven with Stevens and Connors coming off best. Cord is far too dull a screen presence to be truly compelling and, as the founder of the program, Edmond O'Brien recites each and every line as if he's addressing an assembly. He's so didactic it's impossible not to snicker at his verbose delivery. There's some great B&W cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr. and some very odd pseudo-jazz music by Neal Hefti. The supporting cast includes Barbara Luna, Alejandro Rey, Eartha Kitt and Richard Evans as "Hopper," Cord's demented junkie pal.

regarding Manson era, S. California and the drug issue.Suffice to say, this film is an interesting squib on the socio-political era of the late 1960's. While it offers no answers it gives the audience a glimpse into the times.Look for Jay Sebring (1969 victim of the Manson/Tex Watson murders), as well as Stella Stevens as a junkie in rehabilitation, she looks quite well put together. The actor portraying Zanke Albo, who is involved with Stevens is quite good as a heroin addict.Eartha Kitt looks lovely, is convincing as a drug addict at the end of the line, living at "Synanon", in Santa Monica California headquarters.The true story of Synanon itself has a very interesting back-story, apparently the founder Dieterich (well portrayed by an aging Edmond O'Brien) at one point had raised millions. Initially if one researches, the group had helped addicts, but later became a cult without good purpose.This film is often shown on satellite via Universal or MGM and I rate it a 9 because it is very interesting to those of us interested in 1960's American culture.Also, I will not call it "counter" culture because research into the political era shows how very divided this country was, and indeed, still is. Similar issues and divisiveness exist, even to this day.VERY interesting 9/10.

***SPOILERS*** One of the first movies to take on the drug problem head on does have its merits but gets so tangled up in its own good intentions that it falls completely apart well before the ending credits."Synanon" has to do with the famous Synanon House in Santa Monica California that used tough love to help rehabilitate its many dope addicted members. The places founder ex-alcoholic Charles "Chuck" Dederich, Edmond O'Brian, used his own life experiences on those addicts in the plan to get them back into the real world of being hard working and productive citizens and off the dope that they got themselves into over the years.It's when transported New York City dope addict Zankie Albo, Alex Cord, dropped in one evening at the Synanon House to sleep it off that things started getting real dopey there. Not at all looking to help himself get off the stuff, heroin, Zankie in fact got to fellow Synonon House resident Joaney, Stella Stevens, who fell madly in love with him to take off and get high with heroin supplied to him by his good friend and drug dealer Hopper, Gregory Morton. While all this was going on reformed dope addict Ben, Chuck Connors, who served time with Zankie back east tries to get both him and Joaney back to Synanon House before they both end up dead from a hot load, drug overdose, or behind bars in the local "clink" if their lucky.***SPOILERS*** It didn't take long for Zankie to get in touch with Hopper at the Zanzibar Bar in downtown Santa Monice to get his desperately needed dope to shoot up with. Going to a local hotel to get high together with what looked like a blank eyed and zombie like Joaney Zankie shots up with a load of hot heroin and soon conks out before Ben can break into the place to stop him from doing it! To the shock of everyone in the hotel room, Ben Joaney & Hooper, Zaknie goes into convulsions and drops dead moments after he hit, with a needle, himself!The now hysterical Joaney seeing what dope can do to her, like in what it did to Zankie, finally sees the light and together with Ben heads back to Synanon House to save whatever is still left of her life to save from the ravages of dope addiction!P.S It was sad to see that even Synanon House's founder Chuck Dederich later fell back into his previous existence as an alcoholic as well was take up drugs,to expand his mind, by getting himself stoned almost daily on LSD. Dederich also went as far as trying to murder those who he considered his enemies by planting deadly rattlesnakes in their mail boxes that had him convicted of attempted murder! Dederich broken drunk and forgotten died in 1997 at age 83 but the good work he did, before he lost his mind, in saving hundreds if not thousands of dope addicts will always be cherished and remembered by them and their friends and family members in what a great job he did in saving their lives from the horrors of drug addiction when he was still normal.

Synanon was formed because there was pretty much nowhere an addict could find help back in the fifties. Even Alcoholics Anonymous wouldn't accept them. Heroin addicts were regarded as hopeless cases. In fact, the founder of Synanon came to believe addicts had to remain in a confined supportive community for the rest of their lives in order to avoid relapse. The movie is a remarkably realistic portrayal of what rehab was like for drug addicts back in the day. Countless Therapeutic Communities were patterned after Synanon. Residents who broke the rules underwent a variety of punishments: anything from wearing humiliating signs around their necks to digging "graves" 6 feet deep, 8 feet long and 4 feet wide every morning for a week. Until it was outlawed, sleep deprivation was a common punishment. A resident might be made to stay awake for 72 hours straight. This movie is a fascinating glimpse into the early days rehabilitation.