Centron Productions, in conjunction with the Yale Center for Alcohol Studies, made this 1954 film as a way to stimulate discussion among young people in a classroom or in other group settings. The film shows kids at a party finding out that two of their friends who had been drinking and driving just hit a pedestrian. This information starts an open-ended discussion, with Sally, Jack, and others all giving their different opinions. Some blame alcohol for all of civilization’s problems, while others maintain that teens should be allowed to drink. Each opinion is aired in a nonjudgmental way, so that the audience itself can have a frank and open discussion about the implications of teenage drinking. Some bizarre scenes are included, such as when one boy flashes back to a discussion with his father in which his dad advocates a glass before dinner as “just about the best thing I know of to settle your nerves and give you an appetite.” At the end of the party sequence, each teen’s opinion is summarized, leaving it up to the audience to discuss its merits.
