Synanon (1965) - Imprint Films Limited Edition

Zankie Albo (Alex Cord) is strung out and in need of a fix. He’s suffering from heroin withdrawal. Sweating, anxious, and ill, he wanders the streets of Santa Monica until he happens upon the Synanon House rehabilitation clinic and they take him in. He spends a few nights, coming down from his withdrawal symptoms, until he’s clear-headed enough to realize where he is, what he’s gotten himself into, and has begun his path of recovery.

Along the way, we meet the other members of Synanon House, like Joaney (Stella Stevens), a fellow junkie who’s nearly one year sober. And then there’s Ben, whom Zankie knows from a previous stint in jail, and due to an altercation and supposed finkery, the two do not get along—there’s bad blood there, with one thinking the other did them dirty. Betty (Eartha Kitt) is the center’s kind of sort of secretary, and she’s three years sober. Chuck (Edmond O’Brien) is the founder of the center, with Reid (Richard Conte) serving as his right-hand man.

Zankie is exposed to a kind of group therapy where other participants hold everyone accountable. There’s no b.s. here. If you’re lying to yourself, the group will let you know. Some folks can hack it and some folks can’t.

As a recovering addict myself, I always get a kick out of movies about addiction and recovery. Not all of them are created equal. Synanon (AKA the hilarious alternate title Get Off My Back) is a sort of idealistic propaganda for its real-life counterpart’s methods. And well-made, well-meaning propaganda, it is, with a stacked cast and talented crew that craft a compelling story around a clinic that was… well, let’s just say controversial. And the less you know about the controversy surrounding the clinic, the better. If you’re able to divorce reality from fiction, you’re going to find a movie with some simplistic hopefulness for recovery from addiction. If you’re not, you’re going to see an arrogant, hypocritical film that revels in half-truths, pseudoscience, and flat-out lies.

Still, Synanon is a decently made film that has its heart in the right place. The real ugly truths about the Synanon House didn’t come out until long after the film had been released, so thoroughly-debunked methods of therapy were, at the time, seen as a kind of cutting-edge advancement, instead of the wonton acts of cruelty that they were later revealed to be. Synanon, the film, wants to see recovery as a possibility for everyone and presents the harsh, uncomfortable truth to it that, ultimately, the most important step toward recovery is wanting to recover, and putting in the work, to see it through. Without that, you’ve got nothing.

The whole cast gives it their all. You’ve got Chuck Connors, from The Rifleman TV series. Stella Stevens from numerous pictures at the time like Girls! Girls! Girls! with Elvis Presley and The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis. Richard Conte went on to be in The Godfather. And Eartha Kitt, the legend, requires no introduction. The script by Ian Bernard and S. Lee Pogostin gives them plenty to work with, as they wrestle with their demons and verbalize the anguish they’re going through. Richard Quine wisely directs the movie with a sort of clinical eye, particularly in a sequence where a character shoots heroin and the camera never blinks from the harsh reality of it. The sequence is startlingly graphic for 1965 and details the process of cooking the drug on a spoon and injecting it straight into a vein. Similarly, the camera never looks away when too much is shot up and they overdose. It’s ugly, but it’s reality.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the methods of the clinic, reality no longer enters the picture. A for-profit clinic where money is never discussed and any junkie from off the street can wander in and get a bed, food, and treatments. Where you can screw up as often as you like, without facing any repercussions because the staff have one mission: To kick your addiction. It’s a lovely fantasy, that flirts with some real consequences but it all feels a bit too naïve.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Synanon arrives on Blu-ray, courtesy of Imprint Films on a single disc in a standard case with a removable slip. The removable slip contains the film’s original poster artwork, with a graphic depiction of our main character shooting heroin, with the actual injection point obscured with a black bar (this has been how the cover has always looked since 1965 to skirt censorship issues). The actual case features new artwork that’s less graphic and less controversial. Inside the case, wrapping both sides of the interior, is a wide shot still from a pivotal scene in the picture.

I checked Imprint’s website and unfortunately, I can’t get any clear verification on any restoration process that went into the visual presentation of Synanon, but it looks fantastic. If I were a betting man (I’m not, but let’s just say that I am), I’d say that there was a restoration process from the film’s original camera negative and a 4K version of it exists somewhere now. For this Blu-ray release, the film is presented in 1080p high-definition video. There are some minor, minor issues here and there: During two nighttime shots, in extremely low light, one edge of the frame had some static flickering against the shadows. Other than that, shadows look wonderful, whites look gleaming white, film grain is present throughout and the picture is damn near free of dirt and debris and other imperfections you’d see pop up on a poor-quality transfer. Synanon looks great, I just wish I had more information about the work that had gone into its restoration because I’d be very surprised if one hadn’t been commissioned for this.

Synanon’s audio mix is in 2.0 LPCM mono for this Blu-ray disc, so it’s going to be a front-only presentation for your audio system. I had no complaints here. Dialogue was crystal clear and for such a talky picture, having that prioritized is an absolute must. The score by Neal Hefti (who worked on the original Batman television series from the 1960s) gets plenty of oomph across the soundstage. It feels full, it feels big. The bass and the bongo beat get a lot of play from the subwoofer. The background ambient effects are surprisingly robust and well-integrated for a monoaural sound mix, with the chatter of crowded rooms present, or a small jukebox in a 1960s tiki bar playing some tune.

Alas, there are no special features here to be found, outside of a theatrical trailer. I would have loved to see a short featurette about the making of the film or a short retrospective about the film Synanon vs its controversial real-life counterpart. Or maybe an audio commentary from a film historian.

• Theatrical Trailer

Synanon is an interesting curiosity of a film, rescued from obscurity by Imprint Films and given an attractive audio/visual presentation. The movie itself is decent, the kind of movie you might watch late at night one evening on TCM and think, “Hey! That movie was pretty good!” Unfortunately, special features outside of a theatrical trailer are nonexistent, which is a shame considering how interesting the film’s story is when compared to what happened to Synanon House after the film was released. Still, the work that’s gone into this film’s Blu-ray release is worthy of applause and it comes Recommended, particularly to existing fans. It’s likely never looked better on home video than it does now.