Double Feature!

LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH 1960
U.S. film. Man! What a low-down, slum and squalor, dope addict movie! Set in Chicago's notorious South side circa 1950s. Ten-year old Nick Romano walks the dirty streets passing dopers and drunks to meet his mom Nellie (Shelley Winters), at the filthy bar where she is a waitress. Nellie does her best for her son; but it's not much. They live in a dirty tenement where Nellie surrounds herself with a motley assortment of losers, but they try their best to be friends and guardians to young Nick. Nellie tries to hide the truth about Nick's father; that he was given the electric chair for killing a cop!

Flash forward to the late 1950s and Nick (James Darren) is now a leather-jacketed, teenage JD who practices piano in a rat-trap apartment he shares with his mom. Nellie befriends Louie (Ricardo Montalban) who bails Nick out of jail when he gets into a gang fight. To show her gratitude Nellie does some special favors for Louie. Louie runs a flower shop as cover for his bookie operations. His bookie operations are cover for his real business; he pushes heroin! When Nellie complains of headaches, Louie says he can take her pain away. Before too long Nellie is hard core junkie, always needing a fix.

Nick is introduced to someone who is impressed with his piano playing and gets him a big audition. On the night of the audition Nick catches Nellie in the bathroom giving herself a fix. Nick smashes the syringe on the floor and Nellie goes dope crazy and beats on her son. Let No Man Write My Epitaph is a gritty, superbly-acted story about poverty, addiction and survival.

Ella Fitzgerald is fantastic as junkie piano player. Ella sings, "Angel Eyes," "Reach for Tomorrow," "One for My Baby." James Darren, Ella Fitzgerald, Jean Seberg, Shelley Winters, Burl Ives, Ricardo Montalban, Rodolfo Acosta, Philip Ober, Jeanne Cooper, Bernie Hamilton, Walter Burke, Francis De Sales, Michael Davis. Let No Man Write My Epitaph.

Plus this bonus selection...

1960s ANTI-DRUG FILMS
U.S. Educational films. Short subject drug films meant to scare the bajeezus out of junior high school students and facilitate discussions about drug abuse and prevention. Films include: Heroin: A Case Study and Barbiturates: A Case Study.

LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH 1960 movie on DVD and VHS!