A 20th Century Fox Retrospective Scrapbook: 1975

[CinemaInternational]

Please note: I am not going to include one film listed as a Fox release in 1975 elsewhere, because the film, Tarzoon, Shame of the Jungle, an X-rated animated spoof, was only handled by Fox in France and nowhere else in the world.

1975 began with Jason Miller, fresh off The Exorcist, in a neo-noir The Nickel Ride.

The Four Musketeers was the second half of the tale started the year prior in The Three Musketeers, but this time in a darker, more serious vein.

At Long Last Love was Peter Bogdanovich's attempt to pay homage to 30s musicals. It was firebombed at the time by critics, but a recut version has found more favor in subsequent years

Sean Connery was pitted against Ian McShane in the hijacking film The Terrorists

Ben Gazzara as Capone. Many mob battles would follow.

Gene Hackman was back as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection II, well-reviewed and somewhat successful, but not the box office smash that the first film had been.

WW and the Dixie Dancekings mixed crime, comedy, and country crooning, and with Burt Reynolds in the lead did quite well in audience attendance.

Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, and Loretta Swit ran afoul of a satanic cult in Race with the Devil

The Man from Hong Kong crossed Kung Fu with the Australian New Wave.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is perhaps the most successful cult film of all time. Screenings have never stopped since 1975.

Black Moon was an avant-garde fable from Louis Malle....

Who promply returned with another, Lacombe Lucien (actually released a year earlier in Europe)

Glenda Jackson appeared in the Italian offering The Devil is a Woman

Malcolm McDowell was an antihero in the period set Royal Flash.

Whiffs was a comedy set among the army, again with Elliott Gould

Down the Ancient Staircase took Italian cinema back to the US

Take a Hard Ride was another dip into the spaghetti western.

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother was a vehicle for the comic talents of Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn. 

Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman, and Burt Reynolds made for an unusual love triangle in the comedy-crime film Lucky Lady.

 

And Michael Caine investigated a very unusual case in Peeper, which found him entangled with a slightly dangerous woman played by Natalie Wood. It's amusing at times.

[LawrenceA]

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. French Connection II
3. Lacombe, Lucien
4. The Four Musketeers
5. Race with the Devil
6. Take a Hard Ride (which was a Blaxploitation/spaghetti western mash-up)

I've also seen The Nickel Ride, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, The Terrorists, Capone, A Royal Flash, Lucky Lady, and Peeper.

[TopBilled]

I haven't seen very many of these. Some I'd never heard of before.

I do like LUCKY LADY. It's very subversive and funny. Liza and Burt re-teamed in the 80s when they did RENT-A-COP.

PEEPER is one that TCM's never played, which is remarkable given how many tributes they've had for Natalie. She only made three films in the 70s-- this one, THE CANDIDATE (a cameo) and METEOR (which came at the end of the decade).

[DougieB]

I'd like to see At Long Last Love again. At the time, it was impossible not to see it under the cloud of so much condemnation. I didn't realize that it had been recut, so I'd love to give it another chance. Plus any opportunity to see Madeline Kahn is worth taking.

[Arsan404]

I never saw Rocky Horror Picture Show until years later, when my late wife and I were still dating. We went to a midnight show, without bringing any lighters, newspapers, rice, and whatever else the rest of the audience were bringing. Totally clueless. But we enjoyed all the craziness around us.