User Reviews

This NYC Public Health educational public service short is making the rounds on TCM underground series, its also on Youtube. From 1969 it shows how a heroin junkie slowly kills himself walking around Harlem stealing for money to buy heroin which we get to see him taking at the end. I am surprised at the criticisms directed to a public service short. Seems like there is more bitterness to American society then the film itself. Also being critical of production standards to something done on a shoestring budget seems unnecessary. I wanted to make the observation that when I was a teenager living in Hartsdale, New York (I was born in Manhattan but moved to Hartsdale when I was 13), I used to run around with my best friend George (who was black, I'm white) in search of scoring weed. Places we would go to would be "the Jamaicans" where George would go alone while I waited outside in the street (he said they didn't want any white people there), and a "shooting gallery" a building that is easy to find on Google Maps. Search Hartsdale New York and go to the street level view of the intersection at Central Ave and Hartsdale Ave. If you look North on Central Ave, to the right is a 3 story white apartment house. Inside there in the late 1970s lived a bunch of heroin junkies. I think many of them were on public assistance for mental issues. One night I was upstairs sitting on a couch with George observing junkies shooting up. A black guy I didn't know personally took a needle identical to the one Donny B uses in the end, an eyedropper with a needle attached. He jabbed it in between his toes, shot himself up, smiled, pulled it out (now covered in blood) and directed it to me asking if I wanted some. I had never watched this short before today but looking at that needle made me vividly remember that night. Lucky for me, I took my street wise friend George's advice as gospel, he told me never to try heroin and I always listened to that advice. With a cool soundtrack song and realistic message of doing junk as a path of life that will destroy you, I would recommend this educational short. Compared to its predecessors from the 1950s and 60s its a lot more realistic. 10 of 10 as a curiosity and for its message, stay away from smack.

"A Day in the Death of Donny B." is an American 14-minute live action short film from 1969, so this one has its 50th anniversary already this year and it is the only filmmaking effort by writer and director Carl Fick. The title already makes it obvious that this is a serious subject and it is about drug addiction, drug abuse and buying drugs. This black-and-white movie looks slightly like a documentary, but it it all staged with paid actors as this was made by an organization to show people how bad drugs are, especially heroin, and luckily the protagonist here did not really die. Sadly, I must say the production values seem pretty low to me. The problem is not the lack of color, which is a bit unusual already for late 60s, but there are other issues and not just 1 or 2. First of all, the title song added nothing for me and felt rather cringeworthy. The acting and the story as a whole admitteldy could have been better too. But yeah like I said, Fick never wrote a script before or after this film, so maybe they should have gone with a more experienced man behind the camera and behind this project in general. I mean the subject sure deserved better as it really sends out an important message that was as crucial (and hopefully effective) half a century ago as it is now. But the film all in all is really only worth seeing for movie hostorians I think. It has not aged well by any means. Watch something else instead.