The Best ‘70’s Films I Never Saw on TV Growing Up That Do Not Have “Two,” Lane” or “Blacktop” in the Title

Sometimes you think you've seen everything. Here's a list of 1970's films that I never saw (or heard of) and found to be pretty good, or even great. Lots of heist and New York films here. I have not included Two-Lane Blacktop because we already know it is the greatest '70s film never seen on TV growing up. For the record, the snobs at Criterion did a fine job on the 2-disc DVD set. ($35 Criterion?! What about the working man?!) You can click on any picture for a larger image.


The Anderson Tapes (1971)

An ex-con, played by Sean Connery, heists an entire Upper East Side apartment building but is unaware of surveillances. A little slow but the heist is excellent and the film is directed by Sidney Lumet and includes Christopher Walken.





The Hot Rock (1972)

I really love the comic tone of this Robert Redford film about a museum diamond heist in New York. Mr. Wrong Turn Journal may be able to tell us about the Donald Westlake novel.





Charley Varrick (1973)

Walter Matthau rips off a local bank without realizing the money is from the mob. Includes the memorable--if improbable--scene of Matthau seducing a real dame with a line about "boxing the compass." Joe Don Baker has a great turn as a whore-hating hitman. Highly entertaining, one of my favorites. Directed by--I realized this later--Don Siegel of Dirty Harry fame.





Cops and Robbers (1973)

Who would suspect a cop as a robber? Two cops, unhappy with their salaries, steal bonds from Wall Street then try to double their earnings by ripping off the mob during the exchange. Like The Anderson Tapes, a little slow but the heist is excellent. From Donald Westlake.




Shamus (1973)

I pegged Burt Reynolds for two good films: Deliverance and The Longest Yard but this film was a lot of fun. Reynolds plays a struggling P.I., with a Bond-like knack for getting the girl, who takes on a strange case. Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan all make appearances in this one.








Law and Disorder (1974)

To battle rising crime in their East Village neighborhood, Ernest Borgnine and some like-minded friends become auxiliary cops. Carroll O'Connor, playing against the Archie Bunker type, is not sure it's such a good idea. Funny and then serious.






The Terminal Man (1974)

Doctors cure George Segal's seizures by implanting a computer in his brain but fail to predict the brain's response. Director Mike Hodges (who more recently helmed Croupier which I really liked) displays style and throws a few jabs at an impersonal medical system.






Smile (1975)

If I had to pick a favorite from this list it would be a toss-up between Charley Varrick and this film. A really funny satire that follows an earnest if naive contestant in a Young Miss America contest.






Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)

Comedy with some very funny moments starring Bill Cosby, Harvey Keitel and Raquel Welch about a mostly unregulated private ambulance service in L.A. The film opens with a motivational Knute Rockne-esque speech from dispatcher Allen Garfield to his drivers which should be the beginning of a Damnation Decade adventure:

I don't have to tell you people times are tough. You read the papers. The country's going to hell. Now you take inflation, recession, welfare, there's nothing we can do about that. But thanks to muggings, malnutrition, assassination and disease we got a chance to make a buck!

Now I can see that some of you must be shocked by that statement. But I didn't write the rules of life myself, no sir! The cripple, the junkie, the wounded and the dying... society calls them all worthless. But they're not worthless. Not to us! To us each one is worth $42.50 plus 50 cents a mile and let's not forget it!

The Driver (1978)

Ryan O'Neal is a professional getaway driver and Bruce Dern the obsessive and psychopathic detective out to get him. Leonard Maltin calls it right: Oddball melodrama doesn't seem like much at the time, but has a way of staying with you afterwards. Very noir. From director Walter Hill.



Bonus film:

The Ninth Configuration (1980)

Granted, the whole wacky-inmates-running-the-asylum routine is a bit dated but this film, William Peter Blatty's meditation on the existence of God, is a real trip with a Stacy Keach fight that has to be seen to be believed and an ending worth waiting for. I don't know who does a freakier dream sequence than Blatty (see also Exorcist III). Check out the introductory video on this page.



Well-reviewed '70's Films That I Wasn't Feeling:

There Was a Crooked Man (1970)
Western comedy with Kirk Douglas as a conniving charmer. Also features Warren Oates so it's not too bad. An OTD reader and friend once began a discussion of great character actors without mentioning Oates first (he went with Robert Forster). He may have been on crack.

The Hospital (1971)
George C. Scott plays a bitter doctor who gets involved with a wild Diana Rigg. Paddy Chayefsky's script won an Oscar.

Prime Cut (1972)
Lee Marvin busts up a female slavery ring run by Gene Hackman. Some tough-guy moments.

Ulzana's Raid (1972)
An Apache chief rebels and Burt Lancaster leads the cavalry to track him down. AMG calls it one of Robert Aldrich's best films.

Cinderella Liberty (1973)
James Caan plays a sailor on leave who develops a relationship with hooker Marsha Mason and her son.

The Last of Sheila (1973)
James Coburn plays a millionaire who takes friends on his yacht to solve a mystery game that turns real. If you're into classic "whodunit" I suppose this is pretty good.

Bank Shot (1974)
A less funny sequel to The Hot Rock with George C. Scott in the main role.

Rancho Deluxe (1975)
Is it the "modern Western" that turned me off? I only watched the beginning of this one. I think I'll give it another try. Mr. WTJ calls it "the ultimate cult Western." Warren Oates appears unbilled as a harmonica player.

Night Moves (1975)
Gene Hackman as a Florida P.I. who uncovers a case more important than Melanie Griffith's snatch. Mr. WTJ speaks heresy when he says of the ending: "You will simply not see a bigger existential downer--not [even] in Two-Lane Blacktop..."

Site Seeing

Some interesting sites:

Retro Arcade: A Photoset

According to the uploader these were slides rescued from the dumpster. Extremely hardcore.






Banophernalia

This is the first site I've found with reviews of some forgotten sci-fi novels. If I did a book review site I'd probably do it the same: capsule reviews of the old and new. If anyone has a copy of The Power of X (70's sci-fi plus political intrigue) hook a reader up. I haven't gone into his music reviews, however, because I'm a music snob.



Fading Ad Campaign


A photo collection of old New York building-side ads. On a similar tip, check out Forgotten NY.








io9
Why do I hate this sci-fi blog? Is it the catch-all nature, the mocking attitude or the corporate ownership? I'm not sure but I don't think I'll be returning often. That being said, Buck Rogers "getting down" and sharing the gift of Rock 'n' Roll are even better than Wrong Turn Journal led me to believe.

Third Place Finish

So Starbucks is reevaluating its business plan. They should have listened to our new hero The Kid From Brooklyn (NSFW):

Running on Empty

WTJ asks my opinion of Cloverfield. I find Cloverfield guilty on two hardcore counts: It borrows too much and has nothing to say.

First, the film's gimmick is meaningless. No one’s believing the film was recovered from the area “formerly known as Central Park.” Blair Witch played the reality card right; Cloverfield uses it as an excuse for its super-shaky style.


Second, the film uses 9/11 imagery as an action piece. The protagonists flee a dust storm from a collapsed building. Real-time news coverage is used to glimpse the beast. A phone call to mom is product placement. And the message when the head of the Statue of Liberty lands on Spring St.? Nothing more than the monster took the statue for an adversary.

MORE BORROWING: An attempt to pass through a firefight recalls Children of Men. The portent of rats fleeing a tunnel is lifted from 28 Days Later. When the camera’s night vision reveals a creature, it’s a scare from The Descent.

The young ensemble is as bad as you might expect, although Lizzy Caplan is pretty good. The problem is I didn’t feel for one character. Lizzy’s subway heroics feel manufactured and when she bursts like a balloon it’s nothing more than a shock. The goofy cameraman is unfunny and when he gets it you’ll only remember the Clovezilla close-up. A single shot in this film resonates: a driverless horse carriage meandering its way down Broadway.

FORGET THE FOG OF WAR. The hero is the military. With no delay, helicopters lead an orderly exodus across the Brooklyn Bridge, tanks and APCs are on the island and an underground triage includes specimen-studying scientists and hazmat-suited soldiers ready to quarantine bite victims. When bureaucracy prevents the group from rescuing a girlfriend a soldier points the way and reveals the playbook: in four hours NYC gets nuked. When they get the girl, the military even attempts to airlift these losers out of battle. I would have left them there.