Movies Similar to The Last Child (1971)

Back before he was producing Charlie's Angels, Aaron Spelling was a major supplier of made-for-television feature films, particularly to ABC, on which this movie premiered in 1971. The Last Child takes place in America in 1994, a time in which a massive, chronic overpopulation crisis has resulted in the passage of Draconian laws, declaring that no couple can have more than one child, and that nobody over the age of 65 can receive any but the most superficial medical treatment. Michael Cole and Janet Margolin play a young married couple whose first child died; she is pregnant again, and they now find themselves hounded by the authorities when she refuses to submit to a legally mandated abortion. Chased across country by Population Control agent Edward Asner (a sinister figure in his pre-Mary Tyler Moore period), they plan to escape to Canada but find the border closed. They receive unexpected help from Van Heflin, in his final screen performance, portraying retired U.S. Senator Quincy George, who opposed the Population Control Laws. He shelters Cole and Margolin at great risk to himself, using what political clout and respect he still commands in his own state to block Asner's pursuit. They must find a means of escaping the country, however, as the authorities close in even on this momentarily safe haven. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi