Some Other Movies From 1972

The Top Movies of 1972

The Godfather (required viewing), The Poseidon Adventure (required viewing), What's Up, Doc? (see below), Deliverance (required viewing), Jeremiah Johnson (required viewing), Cabaret (very good), Deep Throat (don't bother), The Getaway, Lady Sings the Blues and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (not a Woody Allen fan).

Popular Albums of 1972

Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones, Honky Chateau - Elton John, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie, Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull, Harvest - Neil Young, Machine Head - Deep Purple, Talking Book - Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon - Paul Simon, The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff, Eat a Peach - The Allman Brothers Band, Neu! - Neu!, I'm Still in Love with You - Al Green, Something/Anything? - Todd Rundgren, Back Stabbers - The O'Jays, Amazing Grace - Aretha Franklin, Sail Away - Randy Newman, Still Bill - Bill Withers, Music - Carol King, American Pie - Don McLean, America - America, First Take - Roberta Flack, Chicago V - Chicago, Super Fly - Curtis Mayfield, Catch a Bull at Four - Cat Stevens, and Seventh Sojourn - The Moody Blues.

1972 Books Later Adapted Into Movies or TV Shows

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk, Watership Down by Richard Adams, All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott, Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky (Tarkovsky's Stalker was based on this novel), The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth, and The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin.

Major Sporting Events of 1972**

The Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl over the Miami Dolphins, the Summer Olympics were held in Munich (yes, those Summer Olympics.  For details refer to the movie Munich), the Oakland Athletics won the World Series, the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Finals, Eddy Merckx won the Tour de France, Jack Nicklaus won both the U.S. Open and the Masters Tournament, and the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup.

Comic Books in 1972*

Adam Warlock made his first appearance in Marvel Premier #1, Luke Cage made his first appearance in Hero for Hire #1, Ghost Rider made his first appearance in Marvel Spotlight #5, DC acquired the rights to The Marvel Family, Art Spiegelman published Maus for the first time, New Gods was canceled by DC, and this set the stage for Jack Kirby's return to Marvel and the creation of The Eternals

Excellent 

1. What's Up, Doc?

I could praise Ryan O'Neal, I could praise Barbara Streisand, I could praise director Peter Bogdanovich, or I could praise the writing.  But you know what?  The highest praise I can give this movie is that it's still funny (and still clever) 50 years later.  Sure, the zany car chase near the end is a bit unnecessary, but it was 1972 and this movie presents that car chase with a knowing grin.

Modern audiences might be puzzled by the "Love means never having to say you're sorry" line at the end of the movie.  This is a reference to 1970's Love Story, in which Ryan O'Neal also starred.

2. Siddhartha

Clearly a labor of love for all those involved in its production.  For the more philosophical end of this story you'll want to read Hermann Hesse's book, but this film is nevertheless a beautifully photographed, well paced, and exquisitely performed work of art in its own right.  It is in some ways a product of its time, but that doesn't mean its relevance has been diminished.  There will always be two Indias: the one that is and the one we'd like to be, and this movie is a flawless imagining of the second one.

Fun Fact 1: The director's life paralleled Siddhartha's in many ways.  He was an heir to the Avon fortune, battled substance abuse, and traveled extensively in Asia.

Fun Fact 2: This movie owes a lot to cinematographer Sven Sykvist.  He worked with Ingmar Bergman on several of that director's films.

Fun Fact 3: The beautiful Simi Garewal's nude scene in this movie scandalized Indian censors.  At the time even onscreen kissing wasn't permitted in Indian films.

Edgar Allan Poe by Way of Dr. No

1. Dr. Phibes Rises Again

Vincent Price reprises his role as a disfigured genius out to resurrect his dead wife.  The story is relatively thin, but the budget is right there, on the screen, complete with beautiful women and memorable sets.  Fans of the early Bond films - particularly of Ken Adam's set design - will find a lot to like in this movie.

And hey, it's Caroline Munro again.  She's not the dead wife, but she is the face in the photograph.  She played Dr. Phibes' wife in the first movie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

There's a torture scene in this movie that I first saw when I was very little.  I didn't know until now that it was part of this movie.  That once scene, short as it is, is far and away the best thing about this film.  It gave me nightmares for years!

Some Good Ones

1. Fat City

Celebrated director John Huston oversaw this story of a boxer down on his luck.  Stacy Keach stars, with Jeff Bridges as a young man he tries to mentor.  It's a good movie, aside from the fact that Bridges' character is a bit underutilized.  I especially liked the dynamic between Keach and his would-be girlfriend.  That actress (Susan Tyrell) is excellent in this movie.

2. Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (a.k.a. "Slap the Monster on Page One")

Thriller in which a girl is murdered against a background of Italy in political turmoil.  It's REALLY slow, but if you have the time your patience will be rewarded.  My biggest complaint about this sharply written film isn't the pacing, but rather the janitor's "shrine," discovered near the end of the movie.  That detail is just a little too convenient.

ˇ3. The Hot Rock

Unfortunate title aside, it's a solid heist movie featuring Robert Redford.  My patience was tested by the number of times they almost had the diamond, but the ending is satisfying and Peter Yates once again demonstrated his skill as a director.  The screenwriter, William Goldman, also wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives, Marathon Man, All the President's Men and A Bridge Too Far.  He also wrote the novel upon which The Princess Bride was based.

Quincy Jones' score might be the best part of this movie.

4. Sisters***

Brian De Palma.  For whatever reason he's often left off lists of "great directors."  Maybe this is because his big hits were less frequent.  Maybe it's because many of his movies fall inside the same genre.

In Sisters Margot Kidder plays a mentally disturbed woman who may also be a murderess.  It shows De Palma standing on the shoulders of Hitchcock, and its predictability reveals a director new to this craft.  It's definitely good, but not nearly as good as other films by the same person.

5. The Canterbury Tales

The second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life."  It's more blatantly sexual than The Decameron and less momentous than The Arabian Nights.  It's definitely not a bad movie, but I found the fixation on genitalia a bit off-putting.  Yes, we know that people back then fucked like farm animals, and yes, we know that Chaucer's stories were bawdy, but I think the overemphasis on nude people takes away from the story.

Pasolini himself commented that he "wasn't in the right frame of mind" for this movie.  His lover, Ninetto Davoli (who appears in the film as "Perkin") left him to marry a woman during filming, and the director's introspective mood made the subject matter more difficult to contend with.

Sex and Violence

1. Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

Giallo picture in which several murders take place on an Italian estate.  I can't say it's a dramatic masterpiece, but it's populated with several beautiful women and a few memorable killings to boot.  To be honest I was a little disappointed by this movie.  I'd been hearing about it for years, and I found it to be less than the reputation that preceded it.  That oil slick near the end?  Eh...

Sex and Violence, with an Extra Helping of Cheese

1. Blood Orgy (a.k.a. "The Gore Gore Girls")

An uptight, probably gay detective and a female reporter track down a killer.  While they take their time doing so, said killer mutilates a series of strippers.  Herschell Gordon Lewis directed this one, and if you're familiar with movies like The Wizard of Gore you'll know what you're in for.  It was the director's last movie until 2002's Blood Feast 2, and it embraces a very late 60s aesthetic.

Like, Far Out Man...

1. Dracula A.D. 1972

Double points for Caroline Munro, but it's still not very good.  Bringing Dracula and (in a way) Van Helsing into the "present day" was an interesting idea, but Christopher Lee has little to do in this movie, and Peter Cushing spends most of it pontificating.  It brings some of the late 60s forward into the early 70s, it gives an indication of the kind of London scene guys like Bowie and Bolan were desperate to escape, but beyond that it doesn't offer much to modern viewers.

Fun Fact 1: This is the seventh film in Hammer's Dracula series, and the sixth to feature Lee.

Fun Fact 2: Peter Cushing and (to a lesser extent) Caroline Munro also appear in Dr. Phibes Rises Again (above).

Some Bad Ones

1. Buck and the Preacher

There are some good scenes in this movie, featuring some great acting, but I think it was a mistake to let Sidney Poitier direct it.  The action doesn't seem to flow as it should, and between moments of violence this film just creaks along, often without any musical accompaniment.  I'm also not sure how this "Delta Planter's Association" would have the money to send a posse so far from Louisiana, and what their motivations for doing so might be.  I have no doubt that similar things happened in the Old West, but the tenacity of those men and the distances they travel is never really explained aside from "racism."

Fun Fact: This movie was filmed in Mexico and Kenya.  Why Kenya?  I have no idea.

2. Sleuth

In real life Laurence Olivier suggests stealing the jewels and Michael Caine tells him to fuck off.  Then, instead of engaging in an elaborate game of dress up, Caine leaves the house, never to return.  Sleuth was a adapted from a play - complete with soliloquys - and it shows.  Fans of the detective genre might enjoy this movie, but as for me the only enjoyable thing about it was Ken Adam's sets.

Wikipedia states that this movie received "overwhelmingly positive reviews."  It wasn't, however, doing anything for me.

3. 1776

Like Sleuth above I'm putting this in the "Bad" category more out of a dislike for the genre, not because it's objectively bad.  1776 is a musical about the founding of the United States, and as you might expect the prevalent social ills of the time aren't discussed in any meaningful way.  It was 1972, 1776 is a musical, and movies like this were more about bringing people together, rather than finding fault in shared history.

There's a lengthy discussion of historical inaccuracies and critical responses here.  Roger Ebert's response to this movie is, in my opinion, right on the nose.

4. Super Fly

The real star of this movie is Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack.  The rest of it?  Well, it isn't exactly Shakespeare.  A cocaine dealer tries to make enough to stop hustlin'.  The low budget is evident throughout, even if the slo-mo fight scene near the end is classic.

Fun Fact: Did I say Shakespeare?  The star of this movie, Ron O'Neal, was a very well trained actor.  He won several awards on Broadway prior to appearing in Super Fly, and he was cast in several Shakespeare productions after its release.

Somewhere, in the Darkest, Most Shameful Part of the Early 70s, Someone is Masturbating to this Movie

1. The Abductors

The second movie in the "Ginger trilogy," in which a lower budget, female version of James Bond exposes herself to and strings along various men in the pursuit of an ill-defined goal.  I'll give it this: it was better than Girls are for Loving, the third movie in this trilogy.

I'm still wondering what that business with tying the boat to the helicopter was about.  Was there a stunt removed from the film?

Porn

1. Senta: Danish Pastry

An actress visits Los Angeles and sex ensues.  There's very little info available on this film, anyone appearing in it, or the production team.  It's an hour long and the voiceover is unintentionally funny at times.

So Bad It's Good

1. Blacula

Why is star William Marshall so sweaty in this movie?  Seriously.  He sweats his way through the whole thing.

And why is it ok to dismiss the gay characters as "faggots?"  I get that it was 1972, but really, they kind of undermine whatever pretensions toward equality they had.  I'm not trying to be "woke" or anything, it's just that the intolerance is obvious from the beginning.

I will say that Blacula is WAY better than it's sequel, Scream Blacula Scream.  The first one is missing Pam Grier, but it's also a lot less talky, and the script was more to the point.  If you watch it, don't bother with questions such as "How does Blacula speak English?" or "How does Blacula know how to find places in the city?" and you'll be fine.

Related Entries:

Some Other Movies From 1973 (2)

Some Other Movies From 1973

Some Other Movies From 1974 (2)

Some Other Movies From 1974

*Some of the info in this section comes from Marvel Greatest Comics: 100 Comics that Built a Universe, which I read recently.

**Apologies if these lists are a bit America-centric.  When it comes to sports more popular outside North America I'm usually at a loss.

***Wikipedia lists this movie as appearing in 1973, not 1972.  I also wasn't sure about The Abductors.

"No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention" by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer (2020)

"A feedback loop is one of the most effective tools for improving performance.  We learn faster and we accomplish more when we make giving and receiving feedback a continuous part of how we collaborate.  Feedback helps us to avoid misunderstandings, creates a climate of co-accountability, and reduces the need for hierarchy and rules."

Reed Hastings is the CEO of Netflix, and Erin Meyer is an author, professor and business consultant.  Prior to No Rules Rules she wrote another book, The Culture Map, which informed this book on Netflix's corporate culture.

And what is Netflix's corporate culture?  According to No Rules Rules it involves, as the quote above suggests, a lot of non-hierarchical decision making.  People working at Netflix are given a lot of freedom (and responsibility) to make decisions, but this freedom exists in a highly competitive work environment, wherein underperforming employees work under the constant threat of losing their jobs.  Netflix, according to the book, encourages its employees to gamble big, but their gambling must also be consistent, their decision-making process communicable to coworkers, and they must be open to criticism (feedback) when their bets don't pan out.

It's a corporate model very much in line with the age we live in, and moreover one that seems very practical to me.  But is it how Netflix actually operates?  I honestly have no idea.  This book is a good introduction to their way of thinking, but it's understandably light on the details.

Related Entries:

"Marvel Greatest Comics: 100 Comics That Build a Universe" by Melanie Scott and Stephen Wiacek (2020)

"The Narrow Corridor" by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (2019)

"Me" by Elton John (2019)

"Extreme Economies" by Richard Davies (2019)

"Marvel Greatest Comics: 100 Comics That Build a Universe" by Melanie Scott and Stephen Wiacek (2020)

"In the early 40s, patriotism was running high in America, and Simon and Kirby believed that a hero embodying that principle would sell comic books."

I don't have much to say about this weighty volume, primarily because it does exactly what it sets out to do.  It introduces 100 comic books and explains why they're important.  This said, I have two issues with this book:

1. Talking about comic book history in the absence of DC comics is disingenuous.  Many of Marvel's heroes, villains, storylines and comic book crossover events were reactions to what DC was doing, and vice versa.  I realize that namedropping Superman is copyright infringement, but for someone genuinely interested in the history of comic books this book tells less than half the story.

2. Some of the "historic" comic books introduced in this collection aren't that historic.  This book was written with an eye to the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and thus comics which passed most of us by are discussed as if they were momentous events.  Fantastic Four #1?  Unquestionably historic.  Guardians of the Galaxy #1?  Not so much.

If you're coming into comic books from comic book movies you'll enjoy this book.  If, however, you came to the comic book movies from the comic books that inspired them you'll probably find it somewhat puzzling.

Related Entries:

Thoughts on Zack Snyder's Justice League

The Boys (I Know I'm Late to the Party)

Superhero Movies From October 2018 Onward (12: The Last One)

Comic Book Interlude 12

Some Other Movies From 1973 (2)

For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 1973 entry.

The following things happened in 1973:

• The UK, Ireland and Denmark entered the European Economic Community.
• Elvis Presley's concert in Hawaii surpassed the moon landing in terms of TV ratings.
• Ferdinand Marcos became President of the Philippines.
• The U.S. Supreme Court overturned state abortion bans in Roe v. Wade.
• The Paris Peace Accords brought an end to the Vietnam War.
• The U.S. and China agreed to establish liason offices after Richard Nixon's visit to China.
• The Young and the Restless aired for the first time on U.S. TV.
• The World Trade Center opened in New York.
• The Watergate hearings were aired on TV.
• The automated teller machine (ATM) was patented.
• The first mobile phone call was made.
• The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was founded.
• Bruce Lee died.
• The Yom Kippur War began between Israel, Egypt and Syria.
• An OPEC oil embargo triggered an energy crisis.

Required Viewing

1. Enter the Dragon

Every once in a while you just HAVE to watch Enter the Dragon.  It's SO iconic, and it casts such a long shadow over the movies that have come after it.  It's also one of those "lightning in a bottle movies," in which certain people and trends came together in exactly the right way, at exactly the right moment.  Bruce Lee?  Yeah, this movie's purely a function of who he was and his career up to that point.  The director?  The rest of the cast and crew?  I'm guessing that Bruce Lee knew exactly what Bruce Lee wanted to do, and everyone else was smart enough to follow his lead.

Fun Fact 1: Jim Kelly's appearance in this movie led directly to Black Belt Jones the following year.  Robert Clouse directed both movies.

Fun Fact 2: Clouse would also go on to direct Game of Death, The Big Brawl (one of Jackie Chan's early attempts to crossover into the American market) and the cult classic Gymkata.

Fun Fact 3: Many are aware of Jackie Chan's extremely brief appearance in this film, but fellow Hong Kong alumnus Sammo Hung is also in it for a second.

Sad Fact: Bruce Lee's costar John Saxon died last year.  He's buried in the same cemetery as Bruce Lee.

1. (Andy Warhol's) (Flesh for) Frankenstein

I'd already seen this.  This, and the one in which Udo Kier plays Dracula.

It's cheesy as hell, but god damn if this movie isn't entertaining.  It balances offerings of sex, violence and drama perfectly, even if the acting isn't - how shall I say - professional.

Udo Kier stars as Dr. Frankenstein, with Joe Dallesandro as a villager caught up in his machinations.  Oh, and I almost forgot the alarming Monique van Vooren, who performs her role without eyebrows.  It's all ridiculous and compelling at the same time, a testament to the director who conceived it and a near-condemnation of almost everyone else involved in the production.  In other words it's great.  Full stop.  Great.

This is hands-down my favorite adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel.  A more literal approach?  FUCK that noise.  Give me Flesh for Frankenstein any day of the week.  All the good stuff is in this film, in all of its italianate glory, and it awaits those who are ready for it.

Further Viewing: Check out the rest of director Paul Morrisey's filmography.  Strap yourself in, clear out the rest of the day's schedule, because it's going to be a deep dive.

Fun Fact 1: The "Little Joe" mentioned in Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side" is Joe Dallesandro.

Fun Fact 2: The crotch on the cover of the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers also belongs to Joe Dallesandro.

Fun Fact 3: Monique van Vooren had a brief appearance in Oliver Stone's Wall Street.

Fun Fact 4: Roman Polanski came up with the idea for the plot

Fun Fact 5: Visual effects artist Carlo Rambaldi would go on to win multiple Academy Awards.  His first was for 1976's King Kong, and this was followed by Oscars for Alien and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Fun Fact 6: There actually is some basis for Serbians representing the "true Greeks."  Serbia was part of the Byzantine Empire during the Early Middle Ages, and a community of Greeks remains in Serbia to the present day.  There's also evidence of the Ancient Greeks expanding into the region between the 5th and 2nd centuries B.C.

Excellent

1. Lady Snowblood

I watched this alongside Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, which came out the following year.

The star of this movie, Meiko Kaji, makes it great.  The direction is flawless, and the story is told in the most concise way possible, but Meiko Kaji is the thing pushing it into the realm of greatness.  It's like that confession scene in Kurosawa's High and Low, in that without that one element the whole thing would have been less than the sum of its parts.

In Lady Snowblood a woman in feudal Japan seeks to avenge her dishonored parents, with results worthy of Toshiro Mifune.  This movie probably owes its present audience more to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill than to its own merits, which is really too bad because it's an excellent film in its own right.  Tarantino carried the outlines of this revenge story into the present day, but the heart and soul remains in 1973 with Lady Snowblood.

The sequel, 1974's Love Song of Vengeance, isn't nearly as good.  It starts out well, but instead of investigating Lady Snowblood's reasons for surrendering herself it gets bogged down in a political subplot.  And if it was so easy for Lady Snowblood to infiltrate the bad guys' lair, why didn't she do so from the beginning?  Why wait around for them to burn down the village and infect people with the plague?

2. The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Peter Yates directed this crime thriller set in Boston, with Robert Mitchum as a small time crook set on avoiding prison time.  None of the other actors in this movie went on to be names in Hollywood, though they might be examples of perfect casting.  The Friends of Eddie Coyle was well received by critics, but it was something of a financial disappointment for the studio.

3. Scarecrow

Gene Hackman and Al Pacino star as two drifters headed to Pittsburg.  Hackman had done The Poseidon Adventure the year before, and The French Connection the year before that.  Pacino was a much newer face, having come from 1972's The Godfather.  The director, Jerry Schatzberg, also directed Pacino in 1971's The Panic in Needle Park, which was both Pacino and Schatzberg's second movie.

Fun Fact: Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond was a big deal in the 70s.  He worked on Deliverance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter.  His last "big" movie was probably Maverick in 1994.

4. The Long Goodbye

Elliot Gould stars as Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's famous detective.  Robert Altman directed The Long Goodbye, so expect an ambitiously framed story and a lot of strange conversations happening just within earshot.

Fun Fact: Arnold Schwarzenegger is in this movie for a few minutes.  He went uncredited, and did it between Hercules in New York and Stay Hungry.

Strangely Fascinating

1. My Name is Nobody

This movie starts out as a conventional western, and then balloons outward into this strange, stirring, existential thing.  I'd be at pains to explain the mine subplot, but somehow it doesn't matter.  Henry Fonda stars as an aging gunfighter, with the relatively unknown Terence Hill (a.k.a. Mario Girotti) as his enigmatic rival.   Ennio Morricone's score is a real highlight.

Fun Fact 1: Sam Peckinpah is referenced several times in this film.

Fun Fact 2: That barber at the end?  That's Geoffrey Lewis, father of Juliette Lewis.  You may remember him as Clint Eastwood's buddy in Every Which Way But Loose.

Fun Fact 3: Those involved in the production argue as to how much Sergio Leone had to do with this film.  Some would give him a director credit, while others would say he played a more marginal role.

Strap Yourself In...

1. Belladonna of Sadness

Weird, sexual, impressionistic anime based on a French novel.  At 7 AM I was unprepared for gang rape and a penis sprite.  You'll have to be careful where you watch it and who you watch it with, but if you're in the mood for pure, unrestrained 70s weirdness this is the movie for you.

Fun Fact: This movie is part of a trilogy of adult-oriented anime films which resulted in the animation studio responsible going bankrupt.  Too weird for the 70s perhaps, but appreciation for this film has grown considerably over the years.

2. The Holy Mountain

Belladonna of Sadness, The Holy Mountain, Sweet Movie... if you're looking to begin a tour of 70s cinematic weirdness these are three good movies to start with.  All three are sexual, violent and strange in equal measure, and all three - love them or hate them - are among the most idiosyncratic films ever made.  If forced to pick a favorite I'd probably pick Belladonna of Sadness, but The Holy Mountain is almost as arresting.  Sweet Movie?  Well, let's just say that movie wasn't an easy two hours for me.

In tone The Holy Mountain is somewhat reminiscent of Matthew Barney's later Cremaster Cycle of films, though I think the images at play in Jodorowsky's work are more memorable.  It also has a more coherent framing narrative, and of course it came first.  It is uniquely the product of the man who directed, wrote, produced, co-scored and starred in it, and I applaud its unhindered ambition.

Warning: If you're an animal lover I recommend not watching this movie.  I won't go into the gory details, but I very much doubt that the Humane Society was on hand during its production.

I'll Have the Cheese Sticks And The Cheese Plate With An Extra Side of Cheese

1. The Baby

If you're the kind of person who appreciates movies like Female Trouble and Pets you'll be all over The Baby.  I'd rather not explain the plot here because I don't want to ruin it for you.  DON'T read the Wikipedia entry beforehand, and DON'T look it up on IMDb.  Go into this one cold and you'll see what I mean.

Further Viewing: For an even deeper dive into cult film watch The Harrad Experiment by the same director, Ted Post.  There's also a lot of movie history in the combined filmographies of this movie's cast, everything from Alfred Hitchock to Elvis to The Last Porno Flick to The Godfather.

Some Good Ones

1. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

Caroline Munro again, as lovely as ever.

As Munro struggles not to burst out of whatever top she's wearing, Sinbad and his crew race a wizard to a mysterious treasure.  Ray Harryhausen's stop motion animation takes center stage, and the pacing of the story is excellent.  This is the second movie in a trilogy, the first being The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which appeared way back in 1958, and the third being Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, which featured the beautiful Jane Seymour in 1977.

Fun Fact: Check out 1981's Attack Force Z, featuring John Philip Law, star of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, alongside a couple lesser-known actors by the names of Mel Gibson and Sam Neill.

2. Charley Varrick

Some problems with this movie:

1. That scene where Charley beds the bad guy's secretary.  It's so implausible it took me right out of the movie.

2. The car/airplane duel near the end seemed like an excuse for stunts.

3. Even if the people chasing him are dead, it's still the mob's money, and they're still going to come looking for it.  And in eluding one set of mobsters he's left a big trail for others to follow.

Aside from the above this movie's not bad.  Walter Matthau stars as an aging bank robber, with Joe Don Baker as a mob enforcer trying to track him down.  I thoroughly enjoyed it up until #1 above, and Lalo Schifrin's score adds a lot to the movie.

Fun Fact: Don Siegel directed this two years after Dirty Harry.  He had a close relationship with Clint Eastwood, and Charley Varrick was originally written for Eastwood, who turned it down.

3. The Wicker Man

Uncomfortable yet?  I certainly hope so!

In The Wicker Man Christianity, in the guise of a Scottish policeman, encounters a belief system much older than itself.  I really wanted to put this movie in the Excellent category, and I've been meaning to see it for years, but parts of it are really blurry and hard to make out.  Edward Woodward is great in the lead, veering between righteous indignation and pure disbelief, and the inhabitants of the island are sinister throughout.  In terms of pagan-infused horror I'd put this one below Midsommar and far above the disappointing 2006 remake.  It definitely has a lot to recommend it.

Fun Fact 1: The director, Robin Hardy, only directed four films before his death in 2016.  He directed a sequel to The Wicker Man, titled The Wicker Tree in 2011, but it was a critical and commercial disappointment.  He would have directed a third installment by the name of The Wrath of the Gods, but his attempts at crowdfunding that movie failed.

Fun Fact 2: The idea of the wicker man, which wasn't present in the novel that inspired the movie, was taken from Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War.

Fun Fact 3: Christopher Lee, who did this movie for free, would perform with Britt Ekland again in 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun.

4. Soylent Green

"Soylent Green is....!"

Sure, he lived long enough to become a right wing gun nut, but I'll always love Charlton Heston for three classic science fiction movies: Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, and Soylent Green.

In Soylent Green Heston plays a corrupt cop investigating a murder.  And guess what?  This murder takes place in 2022.  Yes, my friends, we're now living in the future, and thankfully it's not the Soylent Green timeline or else we'd all be in serious trouble.  We're... not in serious trouble, right?  Right?

I can't fault Richard Fleischer's direction overmuch, but this movie does take a bit too long to get going.  Other than that it's good, and the ending still packs a punch almost 50 years later.

Spooky Fact: The "funeral scene" in this movie was a little more than acting.  The actor involved died 12 days after filming.  He (and maybe also the other actors involved) probably knew his days were numbered while they were filming it.

5. Mean Streets

From a storytelling point of view this movie has serious issues, but its nevertheless an intriguing look at the Scorsese yet to be.  Harvey Keitel stars as a low level gangster, with Robert de Niro as his irresponsible friend.  It doesn't quite end where it should and there are some unnecessary voiceovers, but it's still a serviceable movie incorporating elements that Scorsese would make better use of later on.

Oh, and I looked it up.  Scorsese has directed 22 feature films since this one, De Niro has appeared in 91 films, and Keitel has appeared in 115 films.

6. Robin Hood

Disney adaptation of the oft-told tale. I can remember watching this when I was a kid. I had no idea it came out so long ago.

Not Really Good, Not Really Bad, Kind of in the Middle 

2. Coffy

Pam Grier plays an inexplicably vengeful nurse bent on cleaning up the inner city.  The dialogue near the beginning is really, really bad, and the acting isn't much better, but there's enough nudity to make up the difference.  Here's a thought though: what if they hadn't given Coffy King George's "smack" in the car?  How would her plan have worked then?

Fun Fact 1: A proposed sequel, Burn Coffy Burn, was scrapped in favor of Foxy Brown.

Fun Fact 2: In 1973, within the blaxploitation market it was a close race between Coffy and Cleopatra Jones.  Coffy ended up earning more money.

Here Ye, Critics, Unite in Your Appreciation for This Movie or Be Damned!

1. F is for Fake

My initial reaction to this movie was "Fuck you, Orson Welles," but upon further reflection my reaction is "Fuck you, Orson Welles."  Yeah, he was the guy behind Citizen Kane, but F is for Fake is writing checks the film can't cash.  "What is art?" quoth the movie, but I was to busy watching YouTube on the side.  Sorry, Orson... what was the question again?

Some Bad Ones

1. Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob (a.k.a. "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob")

The French sense of humor... eh... I suppose if you like Mr. Bean you might also like this movie, but as it is I struggled.  I'm also not sure why it's called "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" when Rabbi Jacob isn't in that much of it.  Instead of the good rabbi, most of the plot revolves around a Mr. Privert, a racist, older Frenchman perpetually on the way to his daughter's wedding.  There's a zany chase through a chewing gum factory, some hijinks involving a boat strapped to the top of a car, and a few other gags, but these gags are set up so far in advance they're never a surprise, and hence never that funny.

According to Wikipedia this movie enjoys a cult following.  I have no idea why.

2. Girls are for Loving

Just how badly did people want to see boobs in 1973?  Judging by this film, really bad.  The boobs, however, aren't worth sitting through the rest of the movie for.  Nothing against the boobs, it's just that the acting is so atrocious, the dialogue is so cringy, and the plot makes almost no sense whatsoever.  There's also plenty of straight up porn from the same time period that's much easier to watch.

3. Battle for the Planet of the Apes

When I was a kid these movies were on TV all the time.  I remember the LP/storybooks, the action figures, even the coloring books.  It was a very low maintenance franchise, in which facial prosthetics could be used and reused, and in which the story only had to be vaguely science fiction-y to get a passing grade from fans.  I liked the first one, but I wouldn't say it was High Art.  The reboots?  Like the originals, they were often trying too hard to make a point.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes might be the most confusing entry in the series.  With all the time travel and alternate futures I really had a hard time figuring out what was going on.  This, and it's been a LONG time since I've seen the other movies.  I'm still very confused as to the overall chronology, how certain characters know certain things, and how bits of technology still work in this post-apocalyptic (or is it pre-apocalyptic?) future.

Perhaps worst of all, the screenwriter never bothered to consider why anyone would care about these characters or their dilemmas.  The apes are by turns arrogant and stuck in the past, and the humans seem to lack the self respect necessary to strike out on their own.  I mean, it's not like any one group has such an advantage over any other group.  Why the indecisiveness?  Why the doubt?

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"The Narrow Corridor" by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (2019)

"The story of this chapter is that this architecture, though it worked to lever the U.S. into the corridor, was a Faustian bargain.  One of the major things it promoted was the ability of Southern slaveholders to exploit their slaves, making the hands of the state not just tied but also sullied.  These sullied shackles meant that the federal state remained impaired in some important dimensions.  For one, it obviously didn't protect slaves and later its African American citizens from violence, discrimination, poverty, and dominance.  It is emblematic of this pattern too that it was the poor, black citizens of Ferguson who were harassed, fined, imprisoned, and even killed.

"For another, the concessions to the states and the various constraints also meant that the federal state would be hobbled when it came to protecting all of its citizens, not just African Americans, from violence and economic hardship."

Daron Acemoglu is a Professor of Economics teaching at M.I.T., and James A. Robinson is a Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago.  The two of them authored another book together, Why Nations Fail, which is very influential.

In The Narrow Corridor the authors offer a rather unwieldy model of how free societies come to be, and of how they continue to be (or cease being) free over time.  Many of the authors' arguments are compounded upon Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, a much older work which describes the origin and purposes of government.

Key to their idea of a free society are three models of government, these being the Despotic Leviathan, the Shackled Leviathan and the Absent (or Paper) Leviathan. The first type of government exercises near absolute (despotic) control over its subjects, the second is restrained (shackled) by the power of the people, and the third is absent (or ineffectual), unable to change the social medium in which it exists.  Alongside all three models the authors posit a "Red Queen Effect" in which society and government attempt to keep pace with one another in terms of how they affect individual choices. It probably goes without saying that the authors regard the Shackled Leviathan as an ideal government, existing as it does in a "narrow corridor" between the Despotic and Absent Leviathans.

As you might expect, this book begins its lengthy arguments in the ancient world and from there slowly progresses toward the present day.  This approach is, I think, a mistake, in that we have so few sources for the societies under discussion, and using them as examples of anything feels like cherrypicking. As the authors move into the Industrial Age they're on more solid ground, and their evidence is more convincing.

This book is, in my opinion, very lopsided. Part of the reason for this is the authors' awkward model of a "narrow corridor," complete with diagrams that mean almost nothing.  Another reason is the time scale over which they stretch their survey.  This time scale is really too big, and too many cultures are ignored in an effort to apply the authors' ideas over several centuries of human culture.

I will say, however, that the last few chapters of this book are quite good.  They don't require an understanding of "leviathans," "red queens" or "corridors," and are instead a common sense look at the world we live in today.

Their ideas on labor coercion, by the way, could have easily been expanded into a book better than this one.

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Some Other Movies From 1973

1973.  A lot of good albums that year.  Maybe a lot of good movies, too?  We'll see...

The Top Movies of 1973:

The Exorcist (excellent), The Sting (OK, but hasn't aged as well), American Grafitti (always thought it was overrated), Papillon (not nearly as good as the book), The Way We Were (don't bother), Magnum Force (not one of Eastwood's better movies), Last Tango in Paris (very influential), Paper Moon, Live and Let Die (VERY early 70s) and The Devil in Miss Jones (don't bother).

Popular Albums of 1973:

Aladdin Sane - David Bowie, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd - Lynrd Skynrd, Band on the Run - Paul McCartney and Wings, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (yes, it was popular in 1973, too), The Wild, the Innocent and the E. Street Shuffle - Bruce Springsteen, Quadrophenia - The Who, Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin, The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd, The World is a Ghetto - War, Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack - Diana Ross, Seventh Sojourn - The Moody Blues, No Secrets - Carly Simon, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player - Elton John, Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell, Billion Dollar Babies - Alice Cooper, Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite - Elvis Pressley, Living in the Material World - George Harrison, Chicago VI - Chicago, Brothers and Sisters - The Allman Brothers Band, A Passion Play - Jethro Tull and Goats Head Soup - The Rolling Stones.

1973 Books Later Adapted Into Movies:

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber, Crash by J.G. Ballard, The Princess Bride by William Goldman and Awakenings by Olver Sacks.

Major Sporting Events of 1973:

The Miami Dolphins won the Superbowl, the Oakland Athletics won the World Series, the New York Knicks won the NBA finals, George Foreman beat Joe Frazier to become World Heavyweight Champion, the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup and Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." 

Comic Books in 1973:

Dell Comics ceased publication. 

Excellent

1. Paper Moon

Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal star as a con man and a young girl traveling through the Midwest.  The celebrated Peter Bogdanovich directed this one, and Tatum O'Neal's performance would earn her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the ripe old age of 10.  It was filmed in black and white, and many of the scenes look like paintings.

I can't say I liked this movie as much as Bogdanovich's earlier The Last Picture Show, but it's still exceptional.

Fun Fact: In winning that Oscar Tatum O'Neal beat out one of her costars in this movie, Madeline Kahn.

2. The Paper Chase

It might not sound compelling, but this story of a law student caught between a demanding professor and his beautiful daughter hasn't aged a day.  The director, James Bridges, also directed The China Syndrome, Urban Cowboy and Bright Lights, Big City.  The Paper Chase also won John Houseman an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

And whatever happened to the star of this movie, Timothy Bottoms?  For a while he had a regular gig imitating George W. Bush on various shows, and since then he's appeared in various movies you probably haven't heard of.

3. The Last Detail

Two sailors escort a third to prison.  The great Hal Ashby directed, with Jack Nicholson as one of the three sailors.  The Last Detail is very well-written movie, and Randy Quaid's performance will remind you of how good an actor he could be.

Fun Fact 1: This was Nancy Allen's first movie.  She appears briefly in the party scene.

Fun Fact 2: Randy Quaid won his role over John Travolta.

Peckinpah Before He Lost His Edge

1. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

I'm conflicted over it, but I'm going to have to deduct points for Bob Dylan.  His music adds a lot to this movie, but he diminishes every scene he's in.  Aside from Dylan however, James Coburn is commanding as Pat Garrett, and Kris Kristofferson is a perfectly cast Billy the Kid.  This movie feels BIG in many ways, and through the tortured relationship sustained by the two leads one gets a sense of one generation giving way to another, and of communities sacrificing their own for the sake of an uncertain future.

Fun Fact: Kris Kristofferson won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance the same year.

Warning: Be sure you watch the "Special Edition" (i.e. the Director's Cut).  This is the cut edited by Peckinpah himself.  The studio had many issues with the film, and what hit theaters in 1973 was not what the director intended.

Out of Left Field

1. Touki Bouki

Senegalese movie about a couple trying to get to France.  Vegans beware - this movie is not for your eyes.  A couple animals are slaughtered in the course of the film, and even though these two slaughterings make sense given a) the place in which the story was filmed, and b) the movie's theme, they are disturbing nevertheless.

Movie History?

1. White Lightning

This movie was filmed about a year after Deliverance, another film in which Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty appeared together.  In many ways it sets the stage for Burt Reynolds' future career: the car chases, the fast women and the brushes with organized crime.  It doesn't only anticipate Gator, the sequel to White Lightning, but also movies like Hooper and Smokey and the Bandit.  

When Burt Reynolds was at his best he was doing stuff like this: southern-fried capers leading down dusty roads, concluded with a knowing wink at the audience.  I don't think White Lightning is as good as Deliverance or even its own sequel, but it's certainly good, and it had a huge influence on many of the movies that followed.

The director, Joseph Sargent, would go on to direct The Taking of Pelham One Two Three the following year.

Fun Fact 1: Diane Ladd, who appears briefly in this movie, is Laura Dern's mother.  Laura Dern also appears in this movie - even more briefly - as one of the children playing in the yard.

Fun Fact 2: Steven Spielberg almost directed this film.  He met with Burt Reynolds and began casting for it, but eventually passed on the project to do Sugarland Express.

2. World on a Wire Part 2

The world as simulation.  This TV series is firmly in line with the philosophical brand of science fiction that led up to it, wherein "rayguns and rocketships" gave way to virtual realities and existential concerns.  It's also interesting to see Werner Rainer Fassbinder's take on the genre, and the camerawork in this movie, which involves a lot of mirrors and panning both in and around objects, is a step above most productions of the time.  I can't speak to what sort of influence this German TV production had on subsequent films, but it was very much in keeping with what people were reading back then.

If you've already seen World on a Wire, this article on the Criterion site is interesting.  It goes some distance to linking World on a Wire with the trends and modes of thinking that produced it.  You might also give the 1980 television production of Brave New World a look.  The two programs are outliers in the realm of science fiction, but they both offer a meatier, more intellectual take on concepts many now take for granted.

Fun Fact: The 1989 movie The Thirteenth Floor was based on the same novel as World on a Wire.

Some Good Ones

1. Theatre of Blood

You had me at "Diana Rigg wears a series of tight sweaters."

Aside from Rigg, Vincent Price stars as an actor bent on revenge for a failed career.  This movie walks a fine line between straight horror and black comedy, and while it doesn't always work it's definitely interesting.  I only wish the true identity of Price's mustachioed associate was more of a mystery.  As it is it's easy to tell who's lurking under that wig.  

It might be the best thing Price ever did, and it's easy to see why he said yes to the script.

2. Scream, Blacula, Scream

One thing Vincent Price and William Marshall, star of Scream, Blacula, Scream have in common: PRESENCE.  You could have filmed them reading names out of a phone book and it would have still been captivating.  Aside from Marshall this movie is... OK, but Pam Grier's voodoo priestess really doesn't have enough to do.  Developing her character more would have made this movie twice as good.

For a deeper dive into the 70s (and other decades) check out American International's release schedule on Wikipedia.  Black Caesar, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, The Food of the Gods... the list of B movies there is almost endless.

3. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Peppermint Patty - because she's the butchest lesbian in the history of butch lesbians - invites herself and several associates to Charlie Brown's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  Charlie Brown, suffering from the lowest self esteem in the history of self esteem, then attempts cook a dinner he's unable to cook. It falls to Snoopy - as usual - to pick up the pieces.

4. The Last of Sheila

Well thought-out whodunit involving several wealthy individuals vacationing on a boat.  Richard Benjamin (remember him?) leads a cast consisting of James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, James Mason and Raquel Welch.  It's a bit contrived (as this type of movie usually is), but my main complaint is that it makes logical sense without making emotional sense.  I mean, would you really wait, alone, in that cabin for a person you knew was a murderer?  Would you really be on friendly terms with one of those people, knowing what they did?

Fun Fact 1: The script was written by Anthony "Psycho" Perkins and Stephen "West Side Story" Sondheim.  The script was initially based on a series of scavenger hunts Perkins and Sondheim engaged in with friends.

Fun Fact 2: According to several cast members Raquel Welch was really unpleasant to work with.

5. The Day of the Jackal

Authorities on both sides of the Channel try to catch an assassin gunning for Charles de Gaulle.  It flubs a couple details, and it's not exactly fast-paced, but it gets a lot of things right.  I particularly enjoyed the fact that this movie never bothers with the assassin's motivations, and that it foregoes the car chases and fight scenes most people would expect.

Fun Fact 1: Fred Zinnemann, the director of this film, had a LONG history in Hollywood.  He also directed From Here to Eternity, and he won several Oscars during his lengthy career.

Fun Fact 2: British character actor Edward Fox, the star of this movie, has also had a long career, stretching from the early 60s to the present day.  His last film appearance was in Johnny English Strikes Again in 2018, and he's 94 years old at the time of writing.

Fun Fact 3: French actor Michael Lonsdale also played the villainous Hugo Drax in 1979's Moonraker.

What's the Sexiest Sex You Ever Sexed?

1. Pets

Despite the bad acting on display it's a weirdly fascinating movie.  This tale of a woman "kept" by several different people might seem to belong to the previous decade, but in terms of plot structure it's well-paced and never wears out its welcome.  A few years later this would have been an excuse for porn, but 1973 was, in some ways at least, a simpler time.

If you decide to watch this movie DON'T read the plot synopsis on IMDb.  It takes a delightful left turn at the end, and knowing how the movie ends will spoil it.

Fun Fact 1: Star Candice Rialson was the inspiration for Bridget Fonda's character in Jackie Brown.

Fun Fact 2: The beautiful Joan Blackman, who plays Rialson's lesbian lover, had quite a career in Hollywood before Pets.  She played opposite Elvis Presley in both Blue Hawaii and Kid Galahad.

2. The Cheerleaders

"I'm wise to the rise in your Levis."

HA HA HA THAT GIRL WAS ALMOST GANG RAPED IN THE SHOWER.

No, of course that part's not funny, but maybe, just maybe, if you cross your eyes and imagine yourself in 1973, that scene might seem a little less offensive.  1973 wasn't so far away from 1969, Women's Lib and free love, so maybe, just maybe they weren't implying rape.  I certainly hope so. 

The Cheerleaders is an excuse for naked women.  In this regard it succeeds admirably.  The cheerleaders in question are very beautiful, double entendres abound, and for the most part it's a fun sex romp that falls just short of explicit.

BLACK.

1. The Spook Who Sat by the Door

A CIA recruit uses his knowledge to start the Black Revolution.  Like a lot of Blaxploitation movies this film seems to divide the world into White and Black with nothing and no one in-between, but it does offer an interesting take on the concept of social justice.  The director, Ivan Dixon, did a lot of TV, and Herbie Hancock's score speaks for itself.

Some Bad Ones

1. Emperor of the North Pole

A hobo (Lee Marvin) contests a trainman (Ernest Borgnine) for the right to ride the rails during the Great Depression.  Borgnine's character isn't a very compelling villain, and Keith Carradine's character doesn't make a lot of sense.  It's not exactly terrible, it's just not very good.  The director, Robert Aldrich, also directed Marvin in The Dirty Dozen.  He'd direct Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard the following year.

2. Walking Tall

It's that Death Wish, vigilante kinda vibe, but populated by several characters - both heroes and villains - who are too stupid for words. The heroes might pause a moment and realize that you can be right - and you might even have the law on your side - but if you're not smart about what you do it doesn't matter. Likewise the villains might pause a moment, and realize that you could go after a guy like Joe Don Baker's sheriff head on, or you could stay quiet, and chip away at him from the shadows. Either way the characters in this movie aren't very strategic, they aren't very smart about what they do, and for this reason it's impossible to sympathize with any of them.

Add to this the fact that the music in this film was really overdone, add to this the sheer implausibility of how Joe Don Baker does his job, and add to this the ending, which would most likely result in Joe Don Baker's character going to prison, and in turn imperil his own family even further.

Fun Fact 1: Actress Elizabeth Hartman, who played Joe Don Baker's wife in this movie, voiced Mrs. Brisby in The Secret of NIMH.

Fun Fact 2: Actor Bruce Glover, who plays on of Joe Don Baker's deputies, might be familiar ftom 1970's Diamonds Are Forever, in which he played Mr. Wint.

3. The Train Robbers

Ann Margret though.  What a woman.  She was around 31 when this movie was filmed, and when she's in the frame it's hard to focus on what the other characters are saying.

In The Train Robbers John Wayne does his white hat thing, this time journeying to Mexico to recover stolen gold.  I suppose my biggest problem with this movie is that it all felt very arbitrary, and after a while all the riding around on horseback wore out its welcome.

It's possible I'm not being fair to this movie, but one thing I wondered at was the complete absence of religious thinking, sexism and racism in the story.  To modern eyes this makes John Wayne's version of the Old West seem inauthentic, and moreover steeped in a post-WWII sensibility that people back then didn't share.  If it wasn't the fear of God that kept someone in Wayne's party from trying to rape Ann Margret, what was it?  Some sense of decency out of step with that time?  And how could they have acted so naturally in front of a woman dressed in such revealing clothing, given that some of them hadn't even seen a woman in weeks?

Then again, maybe I'm overthinking it.  Imagine The Rock in a western and that's pretty much what this movie is.  It's not aiming for high drama, and it's not trying to outdo more modern takes on the genre.

4. Heavy Traffic

Ralph Bakshi's second movie.  I got about halfway through and turned it off.  It just seemed pointlessly violent and sexual.  It remains Bakshi's most critically successful movie, but I don't think it deserves the praise it gets.  Boundary pushing?  Maybe, but it doesn't seem to be saying much.

Bad Enough To Be Good

1. Horror Hospital (a.k.a. Computer Killers)

In the field of low budget horror Making.  Absolutely.  No.  Sense.  is a rare achievement, and Horror Hospital succeeds admirably in this regard.  From the opening credits almost nothing about this movie adds up, and the result is a mixture of sex, cyborgs (?), burn victims, midgets and whatever else the producers saw fit to throw in.  Pro Tip: When weird dudes on motorcycles show up, it's probably better not to ride anywhere with them.

Fun Fact: Michael Gough, who appears in this movie as the villain, would later appear as Alfred the pre-Nolan Batman films.

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