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.
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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