Adam at Six A.M. (1970) Online

Idealistic college professor decides to find himself by spending a summer in the midwest as a laborer. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young lady who, to his regret, cannot share his same vision. Biggest differance here is that the other laborers aren't potrayed as ignorant, suspicious, bigots. Instead we see them as friendly, helpful, and interesting people. Does degenerate into the perverbial bar fight, but mostly this is a subdued, almost loving look at Americas' heartland. Great chance to see Michael Douglas in a very early dramatic role. (He did this even before STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO). Lee Purcell is also quite good becoming easily identifiable of most young ladies of that era (and even today). She willingly takes on the more 'liberated' values of the younger generation when it is conveniant and fun, but is unable (and unwilling) to break from the mores of the enviroment from which she was raised. Has a good final shot.

Although I can answer the question of what movie they watched at the drive-in ("The Reivers"-1969), there is no obvious explanation for the "Adam at 6A.M" title. Adam (played by Michael Douglas) does not do anything special at 6AM - maybe the title just symbolizes his newness, since 6AM could be considered the waking hour of the new day of the rest of your life. Anyway, Adam is a newly minted linguistics professor at a California college. He comes from a wealthy California family (his father is a relatively famous musician turned house builder) with roots in small-town western Missouri. Adam has just received his PhD and an appointment as an assistant professor. Summer break has begun and it gives him an opportunity at age 30 to stand back and take a look at where he is and where he is going. He doesn't particularly like what he sees and upon learning of a distant aunt's death in Missouri he impulsively drives there for her funeral, in his Porsche 911 (if there was a Porsche 611 it would at least explain the title).

Given its 1970 release, this film was attempting to cash in on the box-office success of The Graduate and Easy Rider. While there are related themes it is considerably less imaginative and much more conventional in tone and production technique.

As the vaguely disgusted Adam drives east into the unknown his energy level increases with his forward motion. The awkward and uncomfortable moments at the funeral and the reception are the most authentic scenes in the film. A highlight is a discussion of the movie "Blow-up" with a disgusted relative who went to the film thinking from its title that it was a war picture.

Adam is about to move on when he is introduced to Jerri Jo (Lee Purcell). They go to a drive-in movie (see The Reivers comment above) and soon fall in love. Unfortunately the Douglas/Purcell romantic scenes are weak and only the hormonal aspect of their relationship is believable. Douglas decides to spend the summer in Missouri and gets a job clearing brush for the local power company. The work crew certainly looks authentic; since they only have a couple lines of dialogue they may have actually been some local hicks.

He thrives in his new job and sincerely enjoys the change of pace and the lack of complications. He becomes friends with Joe Don Baker (apparently the only other professional actor on the crew) and sees how his marriage and kids keep him trapped in a going nowhere life. For some reason this depressing situation inspires him to propose to Jerri Jo, who has a very different idea of what their marriage will be like. There was a little foreshadowing about this back when Adam was explaining his academic specialty (semantics) to one of his relatives; he cited the communication problems that occur between two people when they have different meanings for the same word. Adam's idea of marriage is traveling around together having adventures. Jerri Jo's idea of marriage is setting up house in her hometown with her husband teaching semantics at the local college.

It slowly dawns on Adam that he and his prospective bride do not share the same vision of marriage. This is done through a wonderful semi-montage sequence of engagement party decorations, father-in-law dressed in an apron, hair curlers, laughing relative, domestic discussions with Jerri Jo's girlfriends, and the ice cream fetching errand. Adam leaves the party and drives to the A&P for ice cream. You suspect that he is going to bail out on the whole Missouri thing so having him actually buy the ice cream was a stroke of genius. He could have just left town immediately but this builds suspense, puts a more positive slant on his decision to leave (i.e. it is not just an impulsive irresponsible act-he gives it careful consideration), and it provides a prop for a great final image.

What Adam is saying is that he does not want to be like most people, he does not want to construct a small world for himself where he can keep everything orderly. He does not know exactly what he wants but he does know for certain that he does not want the average. Although this is a low budget production with some major flaws, it is a very solid effort. The theme is compelling, the score communicates as much as the dialogue, Douglas and Baker do a good job, and Purcell is very pretty.

This is an unusual film for Michael Douglas, and kind of "lost". I wonder if it was ever even released? I rather doubt it's even available on video or DVD today: your only shot at seeing it is late at night on same cable station. Which is how I saw it, many years ago.

Adam is a late 20s college professor having a sort of early mid-life crisis when he decides to spontaneously attend a family funeral in the Midwest. Away from his intellectual/liberal environment and hedonistic lifestyle, he finds life in the small town surprisingly warm and embracing. In time, he has a working class job (light years from his cushy teaching job), friends (Joe Don Baker) and a cute girlfriend for whom he has the major hots, but who is "saving herself for marriage." Adam becomes, for this one summer anyhow, so immersed in this simple down-to-earth lifestyle that he decides to marry the girlfriend and buy a house.

At this point, the film takes a sharp detour...as if ashamed suddenly of the idea that simple hard work, good friends and a loving marriage might be exactly what spoiled pretentious Adam needed all along. So he abruptly decides to "chuck it all" when sent on a mission to buy vanilla ice cream for his fiancé's bridal shower...and skedaddles out of town in his sports car, presumably never to be seen again. (Or maybe to return to his unhappy life as a swinging college teacher.) No closure on the presumably broken-hearted fiancé, who had to be humiliated by his disappearance, or his confused and hurt friends.

For some reason this film has stuck in my mind all these years. I think because up until the final couple of minutes, it almost seems like a pre-Reagan paean to family values...which would have made "Adam" a real oddity in 1970. Some good supporting work from supporting actors. This film also foreshadows the 80s film, "Amber Waves of Grain" with Kurt Russell and Mare Winningham, about a spoiled actor who becomes a farm worker.

If you are up late at night and this comes on...watch it. Something different, and you get to see a very young Michael Douglas.

(BTW: No, the title makes no sense at all.)

Call it sentiments of generation X before generation X. This movie was fantastic. It asks the sincere question: do you see yourself as successful, or do others see it in you? And what would happen if you and society found your success in different places? The last scene captures the outcome visually with great symbolism.

That would be the only reason why I would watch it again. I was 3 years old when it was made, but I remember my parents talking about how exciting it was to have Michael Douglas staying in our little 'ol town and how everyone in town were extras in the movie. I've seen it as an adult and the only thing I enjoyed about it was looking for familiar faces and familiar places in my hometown. I would imagine anyone not from my hometown wouldn't enjoy this movie as much as I did.

It is kind of an interesting movie to watch, early in the career of Michael Douglas. I believe this movie was made before he did Streets of San Francisco which by the way I absolutely loved!

The movie starts with Adam (Douglas) as a linguistics professor in California. During summer break, he takes the opportunity to look at his life. The movie doesn't really spend enough time developing the early Adam, but he sees something in his life he doesn't like. He finds out that an aunt that lived in Missouri has died and he takes this opportunity to drive across country for the funeral and maybe a better life.

Being somewhat disenchanted with California life, Adam enjoys what he saw in Missouri. He is introduced to Jerri Jo (Purcell) and as most guy meets girl plots go, they fall in love. Because of this, he decides to spend his summer break in Missouri. He gets a job and makes friends with the locals. Joe Don Baker plays a member of Adam's work crew, and is portrayed as the basic mid-western, small town family man. With a wife and kids he seems happy, but restricted from doing much else with his life.

Time progresses and Adam and Jerri Jo decide to get married. But not much later, he begins to see Jerri Jo and her family in a different light. He notices little snippets of the life he might be living, if he goes through with the marriage. It becomes more and more obvious to him that he and Jerri Jo don't share the same views of married life.

From interaction with Jerri Jo's family and friends, his concerns build until he seems to struggle with the choice he's made. He sees a "cookie cutter" way of life laid out for him, if he stays in Missouri. He's torn between two worlds. There are parts of Missouri life he would enjoy, but he also enjoyed parts of the free spirit life he had in California. The intensity builds until he finally has to choose.

I won't spoil the end, although some of the other reviews have already done that. I enjoyed this movie. I think I partly liked seeing the places I'm familiar with, the faces I know, etc. But I'm also very much a Michael Douglas fan. This film was before "The Streets of San Francisco", a series I loved. And you'll see a much younger Douglas in this movie, although you'll see his compelling persona has already begun to form.

To give you a bit of an inside, I grew up in Cameron, Missouri. It was one of the small towns this movie was filmed in. I was 17 at the time. The producers came to our high school, looking for extras. They wanted a fresh and naive mid-western look. Men with short cut hair and no mustaches or sideburns, women with wholesome, girl next door faces.

I don't intend to spoil the "look" of the movie for you, but it was obvious that they wanted Missouri to look vastly different than California's "hip" way of life. I thought they might have gone too far looking for the "hick" element in contrast. They even had a tractor driving down the main street of our town, in the film.

Other than some things that only a local might see, they did a pretty good job of showing how a small mid-west town was, back in the late 60s or early 70s. And although this production has some flaws, it shows a "coming of age" struggle that many young people deal with. I think this movie is worth your time.

Saw Adam at 6AM decades ago. I believe it was Michael Douglas's first movie and he was still in college when asked to make the movie. The movie gets its name, when Adam starts his trip east in the red sports car and the camera focus on the clock 6 AM. The movie was very low budget. Several scenes in Mo at the home were never cropped and you can see the the lighting and other equipment. They never went back to re shoot. Michael's voice hadn't developed, but you can see his grace and charm even at this young age.

The movie starts to drag about 3/4 through and doesn't pick up.Obvious when the movie was casted, producers wanted the Douglas name even if only the son of Kirk was available. Movie appears to be related to the the graduate.I'm still trying to remember the res sports car, was it and Austin Healey? Reminds me of my TRS 3 in college. I knew I had something in common with Michael Douglas.

Douglas stars as a big city California college professor who realizes his life is pretty unfulfilled. His cushy college job is pretty boring and he's tired of waking up Monday with what's her name Sunday. He's lived a very pampered life from rich parents as everything in his life came on a silver platter and he's taken far too many things for granted. While visiting his parents, he overhears his mother on the telephone ordering flowers to be sent to a recently deceased relative's funeral in a small Missouri town. It dawns on him to get away from it all, drive across the country and get to know his virtually unknown relatives.

As soon as he goes to the funeral he's touched even though the locals treat him like he just stepped off the mother ship. Feeling like he's finally home he gets a bush-clearing job and despite being over educated and underpaid his life is new again. At the funeral he meets a popular local girl (played by Lee Purcell) who immediately sets her sights on Douglas; she wants a husband and her parents are ready for a son-in-law. The two fall in love but he soon discovers someone else once again controls his life, this time by his soon to be in-laws all neatly packaged and planned. Even though he truly loves his girl he isn't sure if he's ready to settle down and be rooted in another town just yet.

If the movie were made today it would probably be made into a comedy with Ice Cube so I'm very happy that it was made during the time it was. The plot tackled important issues and it was meant to be a drama.

The movie includes a wonderful cast, including Michael Douglas and Lee Purcell of course. Other standouts include Joe Don Baker as Douglas' logger co-worker whose big dream is becoming a TV repairman or the meddling future in-laws played by Louise Latham and Charles Aidman.

Also check out the really good song "Elijah Rise Up" by Danny O'Keefe.

I was only able to find this title on VHS about 10 years ago as an out-of-print special order. It would be very nice having it on DVD, as it's a great collection to any fan of Michael Douglas, the 70's or just great acting. Interestingly in this movie Douglas plays a professor was released in 1970 and the other Douglas' movie "Summertree" in 1971 in which he played a college student, one year later.

The person who made the comment that the title of this film makes no sense is incorrect. Of course, the title makes sense. The main character, Adam, is a young college professor who spends the summer working at a blue collar job. Thus, he gets up at 6 a.m. to go to work. The entire movie is about the summer that he spends working at this job. I first saw this film when I was about twelve or thirteen, and I absolutely loved it. It's now a period piece, but it's an excellent period piece. The last shot of this film--which I won't reveal here--is wonderful. I've described it to many, many people over the years as being one of the funniest things that I've ever seen in a movie. I can still remember watching this on television with my brother and my father, and we all laughed hysterically at that final shot.

Michael Douglas plays a young semantics professor who has several close lady friends. I believe the film takes place in California. It has a definite hippie-era vibe. The soundtrack is kind of country-sounding, and it makes you wish they'd spent a little cash on getting some popular rock musicians to do the score. No real original music to keep the film "fresh-feeling". I've seen a dozen better films from this era about similar subject matter. Nicholson was in about five or so of them. Douglas always has a p***ed off look on his face in this movie. But I still enjoy almost every MD film I watch. He's just not Jack Nicholson. Then again, who is? Except Mr.Ray-Bans himself.

This film is the latest acquisition to my collection of Michael Douglas videos and DVD's, and the IMDb user reviews prepared me for what to expect from the film. The main interest for me was to see Douglas in one of his first films - and to see just the same mannerisms, facial expressions and voice intonations as in his most recent films! The story itself I found mainly improbable - what was the point of the long and irrelevant intro? We needed to see more at that stage of just why Adam was dissatisfied with his life. I also couldn't for the life of me see what Adam found attractive in Jerri-Jo - she was so shallow, surely he could see that from when he first met her?? OK for a summer fling maybe, but getting engaged to her?? Give me a break! The best scenes of the film were those with the labourers - you could understand why he enjoyed being with them - and they were the only scenes that rang true for me. Plus the ice cream tub at the end - nice one! But where did Adam go? Back to his unsatisfying life again? How sad!

A minor cult classic for fans of 70s films. Joe Don Baker is outstanding. I highly recommend it, if you see it in the late-night TV listing.

Bored with his job as an assistant linguistics professor at a California university--and equally disenchanted with the indifferent woman in his bed--young Adam hears of a relative's funeral in Missouri and hits the highway in his Porsche, in search of the Meaning of Life. The political and socioeconomic issues raised by screenwriters Stephen and Elinor Karpf seem to flare up out of nowhere, while brooding-but-sincere Michael Douglas seems unsure how to respond to the hubbub. The Karpf's main concern, as it turns out, is in finding Adam an understanding woman to love, which makes this 'unconventional' movie just as formulaic as all the other coming-of-age dramas released in the wake of "The Graduate". Professionally done, and with a finale not unlike that of "Five Easy Pieces", released the same year. ** from ****

This is a very early Michael (or as he was popularly known then, Mikey) Douglas vehicle. He plays a disillusioned college professor of the late Sixties (there seem to have been so many of them scurrying about in those days!) who drops out of his successful, stressful life in the big city to go in a search for his roots in a not-so-idyllic midwestern small town. The story plods along, showing his courtship of a rather status-proud Junior Miss type whose Mom (wonderfully etched by Louise Latham) is the town hairdresser, and his adventures in serious male bonding with Joe Don Baker and other flannel clad logger types. Grayson Hall has an excellent cameo role as his aunt, and gets to administer a deft put-down of Douglas' masculine vanity towards the end. In some ways the last 30 seconds is the best part of the movie. Overall not at all a bad effort. To quote Maggie Smith in a movie that is much more suitable to this writer's temperament, "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like." I did make liberal use of the fast forward button in viewing "Adam at Six A. M."

Parts of this movie were filmed in Excelsior Springs, MO and Henrietta, MO. The house (where he mingled with the "locals" and tried to explain what a "Semantics Professor" was) and the grocery store (where he bought the ice cream that he tossed out of his car), and the beauty shop were all in Excelsior Springs. The Drive In Theater was in Henrietta. It no longer exists. The bar scenes look like they may have been filmed in Orrick, MO, but not sure about that.

When they were at the Drive In making out, I was the out-of-focus person in the blue shirt walking back from the concession stand seen through the rear window of the Porsche. I was fourteen. All of us got paid $15.00 a day and got to eat catered food.

We all had a blast. But the movie sucks. My attorney is still trying to get me listed in the credits as the "Out-of-focus-concession-patron-guy-#1". I'll keep you posted.

An early Micheal Douglas {before the Streets of San Francisco}portrays him as a college professor who goes midwest on the summer break and takes a job doing "mans work". Along the way he meets a pretty young lady who he tries to pry away from her from her vice-like closely knit family.His experiences include being "branded" by one of the machines,getting in the middle of a barroom brawl,poison ivy but his biggest hardship is after proposing to his girlfriend ,trying to at least a word or idea about the wedding the honeymoon,where they will live afterwards etc. This film ends with a large container of vanilla ice cream being tossed out a convertible.this symbolizes the blandness of the family.