The People Next Door

1970

Action / Drama

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 41% · 2 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 41% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 516 516

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Plot summary

A married couple struggle with the realities of their imperfect marriage as they fight to save and rehabilitate their teenage daughter from a life of drug addiction and ultimate committal to a mental ward.

Director

David Greene Photo
David Greene

Top cast

Anita Dangler Photo
Anita Dangler as Blonde Mother
Sandy Alexander Photo
Sandy Alexander as Elliott
Mike Kellin Photo
Mike Kellin as Dr. Margolin
Don Scardino Photo
Don Scardino as Sandy Hoffman
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
867.64 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 34 min
Seeds ...
1.57 GB
1920*1040
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 34 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by moonspinner55 5 / 10

"We lost our son to this sickness, this craziness, but we're not gonna lose our little girl!"

Theatrical remake of a well-regarded 1968 "CBS Playhouse" special for television about the secret drug-life of today's suburban teenagers was directed both times by David Greene, who practically disowned this franker, R-rated version. The problem could be in the central casting: Eli Wallach pushes far too hard as the clueless father of a tripping 16-year-old girl while mom Julie Harris smokes and looks distraught (when her daughter tells her she's on the Pill, Harris hilariously responds, "I think I'm losing my mind!"). The original rock songs (performed by The Bead Game and The Glass Bottle) are dreadfully pedagogic--hoping to 'inform' us with their lyrics--but, since nobody can reach this alienated girl, what good is it probing her inner-thoughts to music? Generation Gap tale has a solid cast (including Hal Holbrook, Cloris Leachman, Rue McClanahan, Stephen McHattie, Don Scardino, newcomer Deborah Winters, and Rutanya Alda as a pixilated nurse), yet the pitch of the film is off, hysterical instead of riveting. ** from ****
Reviewed by TheFearmakers 7 / 10

Deborah Winters, underused & underrated

David Greene's obscure THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR is out to prove that a parent, in particular a father working eight-hours and then having a nightcap and sleeping pill to fall asleep, is just the same as a wayward teenager dropping acid...The latter happens quickly as underrated starlet Deborah Winters, after watching brother Stephen McHattie's hippie band rehearsing, winds up in her own closet, seeing God and thus, freaking out...She later attempts spitefully french-kissing dad Eli Wallach, married to chain-smoking Julie Christie, both desperately trying to figure out what makes their drug-fueled, discontented daughter tick...Ironically, Winters would wind up in another LSD-centered cult film, BLUE SUNSHINE, and she always gives an intense performance, visually epitomizing the cute blonde California girl who's miserably unglued, in this case adding much-needed suspense, like anything can happen at any time...And while both her bad acid trip and idealistic tantrums literally peak too soon for an effectively cohesive melodrama of a clashing suburban clan to follow, NEXT DOOR is a semi-worthwhile compromise between an anti-drug exploitation and counter-culture propaganda for the young people themselves...That is, despite the youth-rebel cliches... that Winters successfully rises above despite a somewhat mundane television-style script... which fits since she had co-starred in a 1968 CBS Playhouse (with a different surrounding cast) that this feature was adapted from...So when she eventually takes a backseat to the primary story (while mom and dad deal with their own mundane demons), there's hardly any tale to tell since, after all, a bad trip beats a bummer trip.
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