chow913 The moral of this story is, parents aren't responsible for raising their children. So when their daughter Alice turns to drugs it's everyone else's fault and everyone else's responsibility to get Alice off of drugs.Alice is a typical teenage girl. Oh who the hell are they fooling? Alice isn't a typical girl! She's a blonde Hollywood actress! But as usual the film expects us to believe she's fat, shy, and ignored by boys! Yeah right.Alice literally turns into a hardcore drug user over night. Pot, LSD, heroin, all overnight! Just like all bad parents they claim not to know. Every time I heard a parent say this during a school lecture I wanted to scream. How could they not know their child was a junkie? It was obvious to me their child was a junkie. If I see someone at work with bloodshot eyes, slurring their words, and barely staying conscious I ask them if they have the flu and need to go home.How do parents not notice these things. The reality is they do, they just don't care enough to do anything about it and then expect everyone else to pity them because they let their teen die of a drug overdose.Alice gets into really serious trouble as she sells her body for drugs and then runs away. Soon she and her friend are being imprisoned and raped by child molesters. This scene is one of the creepiest in film history! Fortunately Andy Griffith steps in to save the day. No kidding! Alice shows up at a homeless shelter run by Andy Griffith! Sheriff Taylor gets Alice off the streets and back to her parents. Her parents whom muck up Alice all over again! They send her bad to the same bad school and send her back to the same junkie friends and are then shocked, shocked to find Alice dead of drug overdose. Just imagine how shocked they'll be to find gambling in Casablanca.In summery there are some good scenes here but the only moral message comes from Alice's mother at the end explaining how this was a true story based on Alice's diary. So the parents take no responsibility for raising their daughter?

Amanda I hope the movie is released one of these days because it would definitely bring back memories. I have not seen it since I was in Junior High School in the late '70's (they used to show it at school, perhaps as a scare tactic) but I still remember the book and the movie as having a profound influence on why I never touched drugs. I now understand this was not a true story but at the time I couldn't get over "Alice's" story and the consequences of using drugs. I still own a copy of the book and re-read it from time to time. I would love to see the movie again but wouldn't be surprised if I found it very dated and wonder why it affected me so much back then.

lynda_h I was 13 when this film came out. I was in catholic school and the movie was shown one afternoon in religion class. Very powerful and very scary. Unfortunately it didn't scare me enough. Although I was an A-B student, I experimented with drugs in high school and over the years and wound up a full blown addict by the time I was 39. Today I am over 6 years clean. While watching a documentary on illegal drugs on the History Channel, I thought about this movie and how it should be shown in schools across America, even though it came out in 1973. Hollywood and television producers in this country should not be afraid to tackle this topic on a deeper level...drug addiction is alive and well in America and we need to prepare our children with profound and factual information even if it scares them to death. Drug addiction, as with other addictions, can be arrested if caught in time. The sad thing is that, if we continue to turn a blind eye to our borders, to our communities, to our schools and to our children, we'll continue to cultivate generations of addicts and will have no one to blame but ourselves. "Button, button...who's got the button?!" ...It's up to US to decide!

billandsuesaylor I was 13 when I saw this movie and today at 45 it is still my favorite movie of all time. The story was so realistic in it's approach to drugs and hanging out with the bad crowd. The choices that we make and how it can affect us. I loved the music also! I think that the networks consider bringing this back on TV. The story is still relevant today as it was back than.This is one movie that you can't get out of your mind! Parent's should also see this with their children and discuss the movie afterwords. The movie didn't seem to scream in your face about drugs, it kept you interested and involved in what was going to happen next. Please get this movie on DVD if anyone can.