Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)

Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)

[7] Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry produced and wrote the adapted screenplay for this supremely odd but beguiling movie directed by Roger Vadim (Barbarella). Rock Hudson headlines as a high school football coach and guidance counselor who gets intimate with…
The Zodiac Killer (1971)

The Zodiac Killer (1971)

[6] This movie has the distinction of being the first released film about the eponymous serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late '60s. While it has all the low production values you might expect from…
The French Connection (1971)

The French Connection (1971)

[7] A pair of New York city narcotics cops try to bust a big heroin deal being brokered between suspected mobsters and a French connection. But one of the cops, 'Popeye' Doyle (Gene Hackman), has a history of recklessness and…
Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971)

Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971)

[7] A young man named Smitty (Wendell Burton) goes to prison and immediately falls into a brutal struggle for power and supremacy. He reluctantly enters into a submissive relationship with one of his roommates, a tough guy named Rocky (Zooey…
McQ (1974)

McQ (1974)

[5] John Wayne gave up the lead in 1971's Dirty Harry and came to regret it. McQ is his attempt to get in on the vigilante cop craze, playing a cop who starts out investigating the murder of a friend…
Big Jake (1971)

Big Jake (1971)

[6] John Wayne stars as a crotchety loner cowboy who goes in search of the gang who kidnapped his grandson. Big Jake is not a serious western. It's more of a nostalgic love letter to old big-studio westerns. Sometimes that…
The Last Valley (1971)

The Last Valley (1971)

[3] It's the 1600s and Europe is torn apart by religious warfare. Omar Sharif plays a Catholic villager who must help his people get along with their Protestant occupiers, led by Michael Caine. Caine's militia have the power to wipe the…
The Mephisto Waltz (1971)

The Mephisto Waltz (1971)

[6] Jacqueline Bisset (The Deep, Bullitt) stars as the wife of a music journalist who becomes convinced her husband's body has been inhabited by another man, a famous concert pianist, through the use of dark magic. Alan Alda plays the…
Diamonds are Forever (1971)

Diamonds are Forever (1971)

[6] Sean Connery returns one more time (not counting his appearance in 1983's unofficial entry, Never Say Never Again) in what is easily the silliest of his Bond films. Charles Gray picks up the part of archvillain Blofeld, who this…
Drive, He Said (1971)

Drive, He Said (1971)

[6] Jack Nicholson directs this slice-of-life story adapted from the Jeremy Larner novel about a obstinate college basketball player (William Tepper) whose pretentiousness almost keeps him from being drafted into professional sports. But the film also centers on two other…