“UP PILL DOWN PILL” 1970 ANTI-DRUG USE & ABUSE AMPHETAMINES & BARBITURATE SCARE FILM XD45614

Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website This short narrative film from 1970 is both an anti-drug PSA and as a quiet character study about two men and how they deal with the setbacks and disappointments of life. One of these men is Roger (Ron Fisher), a homeless dropout who takes “uppers and downers” (amphetamines and barbiturates.) While squatting on in abandoned boat, Roger is discovered by Charlie (Paul Backensten), an old man forced into retirement and left without a purpose in life. After Charlie buys the boat, he lets Roger live there while he restores it, and the two men slowly develop a friendship. At a doctors appointment, Charlie gets the low down on the pills Roger has been taking and the seriousness of pill addiction. Charlie then convinces Roger to stay onboard and help finish the boat project, giving both men something to live for, and Roger is able to kick his pill habit. Though they get the