1st watched 2/18/2007 - 6 out of 10(Dir-William O'Connor): Honest portrayal of alcoholism and it's effects in this rarely seen film. The title character, a family man named Joe Morgan, has a daughter who is very sick and visit's the new doctor in town at the local hotel and bar. The only problem is he steps his foot into the bar and orders a drink(his family history is such that one drink will start a cycle that he won't be able to stop). Up to this point, he is seen as a hard-working, family-loving man but things get worse as he frequents the bars day after day. After a few months, he is to the point where he needs the doctor worse than his daughter as she is getting better under his care. He loses his job and all his money in a card game and soon he is spending more time at the bar than at home. There are a couple un-forgettable scenes where his daughter visits him in the bar asking him to come home because she misses him so much that is heart-breaking(although the 2nd scene makes it a little over-done). This movie started as a portrait of a sick girl and became a portrait of a sick man who is only temporarily won over by the love of his daughter. The movie doesn't try to explain away the problem, it just presents it. He still loves his daughter and his family but he is taken away from it by his alcoholism. It also doesn't try to candy-coat things with a Hollywood-type ending, it just ends(actually on a pretty negative note). The only real negative to the movie is it's attempt to throw in minor scenes of comedy and a very slight portrayal of the effect on the family but these things really don't diminish from the overall impact of the movie.
