EDITOR’S NOTE: Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn was on the CBS Late Movie on December 11, 1970 and June 30, 1980.

I said in the article on Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway that Alexander was a loser. Well, I should have seen his movie first, because it’s way better than the more famous first movie and he comes off way better.

This pulls a Halloween 2 and starts right where the first movie ended, as Alexander Duncan (Leigh McCloskey) is being operated on. He then has flashbacks of how he came from Oklahoma to Hollywood with dreams of being an actor. What else was he supposed to do? His father Eddie (Lonny Chapman) threw him out because he had so many kids to feed and Alexander was drawing more than doing chores. His mother (Diana Douglas, Michaels mom!) begs dad to reconsider, but his mind is made up.

He’s too young to get a real gig, so a hustler named Buddy (Asher Brauner) introduces him to sex work. He makes $50 off his first john. He then wakes up and we see the ending of the first movie, as Alexander convinces Dawn (Eve Plum) to go back home. While her story may be happy now, his isn’t. He loses his job and goes back to walking the streets, getting arrested on his first night.

Ray Church (Earl Holliman) overhears Alexander asking for his old probation officer, Donald Umber. But for some reason, he’s left town. And I totally lied about Dawn being happy, because she misses Alexander and stuff isn’t going well for her either. I bet she’d be unhappy to know that Buddy is taking his former friend on double dates where older women pay for their company. She also probably wouldn’t like that he becomes the plaything of football player Charles Selby (Alan Feinstein), using him for his cash.

Dawn gets recognized at home by someone who knows she was a sex worker. She runs away and goes back to Hollywood, where she luckily meets Alex just in time. He’s fresh off a drug bust and just wants to leave town. Together, they head out into a future that we hope is happy.

Director John Erman also made the Scarlett TV miniseries, as well as Roots: The Next Generations, Stella and When the Time Comes. This was written by Walter Dallenbach (Las Vegas Lady) and Dalene Young, who is credited with the characters and story.

Alexander is obviously gay and his father’s hatred of his art hints at this. One wonders how solid his relationship with Dawn really will be. However, I was moved by how this movie, despite being made in 1977, didn’t have the normal homosexual stereotypes. It doesn’t place any judgement on Alexander for potentially liking men, even if we’re told her loves Dawn. My opinion? They’re both in horrible lives and only have one another, at least for now.

You can watch this on YouTube.