1972

[7] In this TV movie co-written by Truman Capote, a prisoner (Alan Alda) and a guard (Clu Gulager) start life in prison on the same day and quickly learn what a dangerous and corrupt environment it is. Both men seek to shed light on the injustice, but will either of them survive to see the system reformed? Its production values are relatively unvarnished, but The …

[3] This faux documentary featuring people’s alleged encounters with a sasquatch-like monster in the Louisiana woods made millions at drive-ins across America when it was released. It was a remarkable fete for a G-rated homegrown independent flick featuring non-actors. And that’s the most remarkable thing about The Legend of Boggy Creek — it’s gumption and box office success. While the story is narrated by a …

[7] Ralph Bakshi’s first animated feature is an X-rated adaptation of Robert Crumb’s Fritz the Cat. Fritz is a college student who likes to have a good time by way of weed and women, but manages to cram a lot of philosophical and existential musings between vices. After an orgy is busted by the pigs (the police are all actual pigs in this world), Fritz …

[6] Margot Kidder (Superman: The Movie) and Jennifer Salt star in director Brian De Palma’s blatant love letter to Alfred Hitchcock. De Palma starts the movie off in a Psycho-like fashion, introducing us to an actress (Kidder) who takes a man home for a one-night stand. After we spend a good twenty minutes or so with the lovers, a woman in an apartment across the …

[7] Dogs and cats have been wiped out in a plague and apes have replaced them as pets. More like slaves, actually. Conquest is the least feasible scenario in the original Apes saga, but if you can swallow the setup, the movie turns out to be another solid sci-fi flick. Roddy McDowall returns, not as Cornelius (who died in the last movie), but as his …

[5] If you like your tunnel-dwelling cannibals all distraught and sobbing, Raw Meat might be for you. Donald Pleasence stars as a quirky detective trying to solve a missing person case that leads to an even bigger fish. Turns out there are inbreds living in the London subway tunnels, and oh deary my, they like to eat people. The film spends fully half its time …

[5] At her sister’s funeral, an eccentric woman meets her uptight nephew and takes him globe-trotting to find an old flame. The combination of the great George Cukor and the ever-acerbic Maggie Smith doesn’t add up to anything compelling in this Auntie Mame wannabe. The screenplay, based on Graham Green’s novel, is distractedly episodic and Smith’s performance is over-the-top even for her. The tone is …

[7] A gaggle of Oscar-winners go topsy-turvy and fight to survive when a luxury liner capsizes at sea in the trend-setting disaster flick, The Poseidon Adventure. The film delivers on producer Irwin Allen’s desire to blow shit up (think of him as the proto-Michael Bay), but also manages to give its venerable cast plenty to chew on. The characters are engaging and no one is …

[7] Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing play rival scientists trying to contain a defrosted prehistoric creature aboard the Trans-Siberian Express in this moody, well-paced midnight horror flick. You’ll have to suspend your disbelief where science is concerned, and also in the casting of Telly Savalas as a crazed Cossack, but the film has quite a bit to offer otherwise — including Lee and Cushing at …

[7] An ex-con and his wife are on the lam after a heist goes bad in this flick from Sam Peckinpah (Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch). Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw star as the central couple. She has to sleep with supporting baddie Ben Johnson to get McQueen’s character released from prison, and when McQueen finds out about it at the movie’s mid-point, it makes …

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