Drying Up the Streets

When I watched this movie on CBC as a teenager, it made two impressions on me: first, to never cause my parents hardship by running away from home; second, if I did run away, to try and meet Sarah Torgov(the actress who plays Ann, the prodigal daughter). Although the film offers fine support by such renown actors as August Schellenberg, Len Cariou and Jayne Eastwood, the two leads really stand out: Sarah Torgov and Don Francks. Francks plays Ann's dad, who takes on the seedy urban culture to try an locate his daughter. The father plays the low life to get the low down on his low-laying child. As the film evolves, the audience begins to realize that the father is not a stranger to life on the streets as he occasionally checks himself into re-hab clinics and seems all too familiar with the life of his new compatriots. We realize that this is not a story of a good father trying to find his daughter gone bad but a man who's own life has gone bad and is trying to prevent his girl from making the same wrong mistakes he made. The film has a strong emotional impact and teaches a valuable lesson without being preachy. I think CBC should re-air some of these 70's classics that put many USA TV movies to shame.