1. Survival (1975)
HOW LONG WILL GOD HAVE
PATIENCE WITH US BEFORE
HE DOES SOMETHING DRASTIC
TO GET OUR ATTENTION?
There's a lot to unpack here:
1. Are we assuming that God, that being present since the beginning of the world, has a limited supply of patience? And that, moreover, He can run out of patience?
2. What' does "drastic" mean in the context of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient diety? Drastic for whom?
3. Can't God command our attention any time He wants to? Or is that somehow against the rules that He Himself has set forth?
And what's the deal with that prologue anyway? That doesn't sound like any part of the Bible I ever read. There are bits of the Bible in there, yes, but also a lot of assumptions that are new to me.
The Premise: A family is stranded in the desert after a plane crash.
Where Are They Now?: Star Robert Sella most recently appeared on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit TV show. Yes, careers can survive even the likes of Survival.
Overall: A Christian movie! Praise be! I'm going to go ahead and assume that those who made this movie were high on THE LORD and nothing else. So weird, so badly acted and so terrible it's worth checking out.
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2. The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)
Barnaby Jones! Vague memories of that show...
The Premise: Passengers aboard a flight from England to the States find their travel plans thwarted by an ancient artifact.
Where Are They Now?: Most recently William Shatner appeared on The Masked Singer. According to Wikipedia he now spends a lot of time arguing with people online.
Paul Winfield passed away in 2004. His film and television work came to an end in 2003.
Chuck Connors, that quintessential "Western type," passed away in 1992. His last big movie was Airplane II: The Sequel.
Overall: The first half of this movie is solid, but the second half features, unfortunately, William Shatner doing a less than convincing impression of what Gene Hackman did in The Poseidon Adventure the year before.
3. Mayday at 40,000 Feet (1976)
Yeah, it was the 70s. Airplane movies were a thing. Which flavor do YOU prefer? "Hostage" or "disaster?" Maybe both?
The Premise: Things go very, very wrong for a group of passengers flying from Salt Lake City to New York.
Where Are They Now?: Ah, Marjoe Gortner, that pillar of Western cinema. His last movie was 1995's Wild Bill. He's still alive, but I couldn't find any details concerning his current whereabouts.
Overall: It starts off well, but pacing is an issue. I get that they were filming for television, but a lot of the middle section could have been cut out.
4. Too Late the Hero (1970)
I will always think Cliff Robertson deserved another Oscar for Obsession. Anyone who thinks otherwise can fight me!
The Premise: Robertson, Michael Caine and Denholm Elliot lead a squad of British soldiers in an attack on an Imperial Japanese outpost.
Where Are They Now?: Cliff Robertson died in 2011 at the ripe old age of 88. His last screen appearance was a cameo as Uncle Ben in Sam Raimi's Spider Man 3.
Michael Caine is now ten years younger than Cliff Robertson was in 2011. Retired as of this year, 2023's The Great Escaper will be his and (the great) Glenda Jackson's final appearances on film.
Denholm Elliot passed on in 1992. He was a casualty of the AIDS epidemic.
Director Robert Aldrich had some hits in the 60s, but from the 70s onward his career was definitely winding down. He directed The Dirty Dozen, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and The Longest Yard. He and Cliff Robertson despised one another. Robertson was only cast in this movie over Aldrich's objections.
Overall: There are some great scenes between the principal actors, but the score really hurts this movie. On top of this there's also the ending, which falls completely flat. Did that character carrying the essential intelligence really just walk right back into the shooting gallery? How could anyone know that all of the Japanese had left the scene?
5. Rituals (a.k.a. The Creeper) (1977)
The Premise: A party of doctors find themselves stalked through the wilderness by a mysterious assailant.
Where Are They Now?: Hal Holbrook passed away in 2021. He was in a lot of great 70s and 80s movies, including The Great White Hope, All the President's Men and Wall Street.
Overall: This movie still enjoys a following, but in my opinion it too closely resembles 1972's Deliverance, which is a far better film. Another problem is the ending. The dialogue seems to be building up to some kind of plot twist, but this plot twist never really arrives.
6. The Clown Murders (1976)
Like Rituals, another Canadian effort.
The Premise: Several friends engage in a "prank" which leads to serious consequences for everyone involved.
Where Are They Now?: John Candy! Yep, he's in this. This was his fourth movie, following Tunnel Vision, which came out the same year. Anyone else remember that one?
Overall: A well written, well acted movie that suffers from lower production values (especially the sound). The order in which certain scenes were edited is a mystery, but overall it was much better than I thought it would be.
7. Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
I'd heard about this one...
The Premise: Several in attendance at a young couple's wedding question the nature of love, marriage and other human relationships.
Where Are They Now?: Bonnie Bedelia! She'd go on to play Bruce Willis' wife in 1988's Die Hard. Most recently she was in 2023's The Hill.
Diane Keaton steals a few scenes toward the end of this film. She was around 24 at the time and this was her first movie. She'd appear in The Godfather two years later, and Annie Hall five years after that. She'll be appearing alongside Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard in Summer Camp in May 2024.
Overall: It's on the talky side, and I have to admit I spaced out for a few minutes while watching it, yet it remains a charming movie full of memorable exchanges.
Fun Fact: Both Jerry Stiller and Sylvester Stallone are in this movie for a second. Neither appear in the end credits.
8. I Walk The Line (1970)
Nope, not the Johnny Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix, but rather a much older movie by John Frankenheimer with a Johnny Cash soundtrack.
The Premise: A small town sheriff finds his life upended after crossing paths with a family of local bootleggers.
Where Are They Now?: Gregory Peck lived the ripe old age of 87, and went to his great reward in 2003. His last big movie (which was a remake of a movie he'd originally starred in) was 1991's Cape Fear.
Sometime after I Walk the Line Tuesday Weld married actor Dudley Moore. She had her share of famous boyfriends and husbands. The 70s were a high point for her, and even though she's done both movies and TV since she's remained, for the most part, out of the spotlight.
Charles Durning, who plays Gregory Peck's deputy, passed away in 2012. He was one of the great character actors, with a filmography stretching all the way back to 1962.
Fun Fact: Several characters in Lovers and Other Strangers (above) watch scenes from Spellbound in which Gregory Peck appears.
Overall: Somewhat out of left field for Frankenheimer, but an excellent movie nonetheless. Gregory Peck was a master when it came to playing conflicted, morally compromised characters, and the rest of the cast is perfect.
9. The California Kid (1974)
The Premise: Martin Sheen uses his kickass car to bring a homicidal sheriff to justice.
Where Are They Now?: Martin Sheen's filmography stretches back to 1967. He wasn't quite famous when The California Kid appeared on TV (at that point his biggest movie was the arthouse hit Badlands), but he was well on his way to being a star. He has a movie, Lost and Found in Cleveland, in post-production now. It's worth mentioning that his younger brother Joe Estevez is also in The California Kid.
Nick Nolte was much newer to the screen in 1974. He also has a movie, Eugene the Marine, due out at some point.
Vic Morrow, who plays the evil sheriff here, famously died in a helicopter crash during the making of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Overall: It's not a bad movie. Derivative, yes, but not bad.
10. Firepower (1979)
The Premise: James Coburn, Sophia Loren and O.J. Simpson (!) try to bring down a crime boss.
Where Are They Now?: James Coburn died in 2002.
Sophia Loren is still around. There was a documentary about her, What Would Sophia Loren Do?, which came out in 2021. Her filmography might be the longest here, stretching as it does all the way back to 1950.
O.J. Simpson died this year. But of course if you've used the internet recently you probably already knew that.
Overall: This movie serves as a reminder that it doesn't matter how many plot twists you load into a motion picture if none of the characters are compelling. Coburn does stuff, O.J. assists and Loren is left o react to everything.
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