1971 - LONG LIVE ROBIN HOOD, aka Archer of Fire

The macaroni version of the story of Robin Hood as filmed by the Italians.  It's the Robin Hood story told with a few different twists but it's still Robin Hood, I.E. he robs from the rich and gives to the poor etc.  

There's nothing particularly bad about this film.  The action is fairly decent and it's got big sets. The women are attractive in a sort of over made up 70's glamour gal kind of way.  Giuliano Gemma makes is a fairly lively Robin Hood.  American actor Mark Damon is Allan-a-Dale.  Damon is kind of an interesting character in the world of film.  He was an actor and appeared in some Roger Corman films and lots of spaghetti westerns.  He eventually moved into the world of film production and has many credits as a producer and executive producer.

 

Long Live Robin Hood has that kind of for lack of a better word "odd" feel to it.  Robin Hood is essentially an English legend but as this is an Italian film production so everything just seems a little off.  It reminds me of the Grace Kelly line to Cary Grant in Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief, "you're like an American character in an English film, you simply don't fit in."

There's a decent copy of Long Live Robin Hood on YouTube if you are so inclined and as they say, I've seen worse.

The film was written by Ennio De Concini, Mauel Torres Larreda, Giorgio Stegani and Andre Tranche^.  That 's a lot of writers for another rehash of the Robin Hood Legend. The running time is 103 minutes.

1971 - AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, a film of recreated Monty Python sketches.

A recreation on film of the supposedly best comedy sketches from the first couple of seasons of the Monty Python's Flying Circus tv series. The original group is here, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin.  Terry Gilliam's animated transitional sketches are also featured to tie the sketches together.

I would have to report that 50 years later most of these sketches don't really seem to hold up.  I also hate to say it but the lack of a laugh track is actually kind of missed as well although it really shouldn't be.   What seemed funny on their 30 minute shows is now kind of unending in this 90 minute film. The Python comedy group's once revolutionary style of anything goes humor has been so copied that a lot of their famous sketches now seem rather tired.  The humor actually seems on the stupid and unfunny side.  

"The Funniest Joke in the World" the "Dead Parrot" and the "Camp Square Bashing" bits simply don't work at all anymore.  "Kilimanjaro Expedition", "Bank Robber" and "The Dirty Fork" are a real ordeal to sit through.

 

Probably the most entertaining elements of this film are the Terry Gilliam animated sequences which are still pretty funny in their surrealist kind of way.  They almost make this dated comedy film seem kind of funny at times.

The film was written by the Monty Python group, the running time is 88 minutes.

1971 - RED SUN, international cast, mediocre film

Charles Bronson and Alain Delon are the leaders of a gang of outlaws.  Bronson is a bad guy with a few redeeming qualities.  Delon is a bad guy with no redeeming qualities. Anyway the gang pulls off a train robbery loaded with a bunch of gold.  Also on the train is samurai Toshiro Mifune who is on his way to delivery a priceless sword to the President of the United States.  The bad guys steal the priceless sword and Delon double crosses Bronson.  So Bronson and Mifune team up to take down Delon and the gang.

 This is a western set in the United States but filmed in Spain.  It has an international cast. American Charles Bronson, Frenchman Alain Delon, Swiss actor Ursula Andress and from Japan Toshiro Mifune all bundled together in a movie that only a bunch of lawyers and agents could put together.  The film was directed by Englishman Terence Young who wasn't exactly known for filming westerns and probably was available.  

If you think this film might have a rather disjointed and contrived quality to it you would be right.  The film also has a lot of action and for 1971, blood.  If Bronson and Delon aren't shooting someone Mifune is dissecting them with his sword.   

 

Red Sun is for the very discriminating viewer who has caught up on all those old Hopalong Cassidy movies on YouTube which are frankly more entertaining than this poor man's version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  

 

The film was written by Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts and Lawrence Roman, the running time is 112 minutes.

1971 - DON'T TURN THE OTHER CHEEK aka LONG LIVE YOUR DEATH

This Spaghetti Western wants to be a light hearted action comedy.  It's got three reasonably entertaining leads.  Lynn Redgrave is an Irish revolutionary in Mexico trying to help the revolution.  Mainstay Italian actor Franco Nero ( really hamming it up) is a con man named Orlowsky who may be a deposed Russian prince.  Eli Wallach is also in the film basically recreating his "Tuco" character from The Good The Bad and The Ugly, although this time his name is Max Lozoya.

This is strictly very undemanding action film making.  The actors do what they can with an uninspired script, but the film just plods along until the viewer finally gets to the big battle scene at the end which is kind of entertaining.  The film clearly had a decent budget, the photography isn't bad but the reality is that this has been done before and probably with a lot more inspiration than this director could muster.  Only an okay time killer at best.

The film was written by Masimo De Rita,Gunter Ebert, Dino Maluri and Joan de Orduna.  That's a lot of writers for such an inconsequential film. 

 The running time is 103 minutes. 

1971 - THE BURGLARS, aka Le Casse

This is Jean Paul Belmondo film about a team of burglars who rob a home full of a lot of jewels,  A corrupt police inspector played by Omar Sharif stumbles onto the robbery and wants a piece of the stolen goods.  Cue the action because after the robbery there aren't a lot of dull moments in this film.

To call this film a light-weight crime thriller is an understatement.  The film is such a trifle that it's basically a bunch of well executed action scenes.  The car chase in the middle of this film has absolutely no reason to be in the story but it gives Rémy Julienne and his stunt team a chance to stage some spectacular stunt driving.

 

 Jean Paul Belmondo was kind of an interesting actor.  He wasn't above doing a lot of his own stunts and he was always a very likable personality in films.  In fact it's safe to say that Belmondo is probably the major reason to even sit through this film because it sure isn't about the plot.  However the film does have a good ending.  Overall this is an entertaining action film.

 

 The film was written by Henri Verneuil and Vahé Katcha, the running time is 126 minutes.

1971 - DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, Connery returns to Bond

With the incredibly stupid decision by George Lazenby not to continue in the role of James Bond after On Her Majesties Secret Service.  United Artists went into overdrive to get Sean Connery back into the fold.  Connery had gotten sick of the role and had not been happy with the money he was receiving from the producers Broccoli and Saltzman.  But after some negotiations Connery received one of he highest salaries an actor had ever gotten for a film at that time.  Diamonds Are Forever with Sean Connery was on.

The film had the old production team back, production designer Ken Adam, cinematographer Ted Moore,  director Guy Hamilton and writer Richard Maibaum. Since the film was primarily set in Las Vegas it was decided they needed an American writer.  Tom Mankiewicz son of legendary director/writer Joseph Mankiewicz also has screen credit.

 

In spite of the behind the camera talent and the usual good looking production the film has a messed up plot line caused by some rather severe editing that clearly went on after filming.  The other problem is that nobody takes anything seriously in this film.  Encounters with a couple of "women's lib" amazons kind of went nowhere and the casting of sausage king and singer Jimmy Dean really didn't work all that well

Even with the return of Sean Connery, the producers were taking no chances on this film.  Diamonds Are Forever has two comedic car chases a big shoot out on an oil rig and Jill St John running around in hot pants or a bikini.  Charles Grey brought kind of a detached amusement as Bond's nemesis Blofeld.  However the whole gangsters in Las Vegas plot line that leads into a science fiction plot which is really contrived. 

Well for better or for worse this is the transitional film with the departure of Connery and the entrance of Roger Moore as a more lightweight and jokey James Bond.  For all the problems with the film it's still fun to see Sean Connery back as James Bond, no one could deliver a clever quip like Connery and he has an undeniable movie star presence.

The running time is 120 minutes

1971 - A BAY OF BLOOD, Bava's murder classic

Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood kills a lot of actors in fact it's safe to say the entire cast. The film set a new standard for grisly killing and was obviously important to the modern slasher movie which if that group of filmmakers didn't downright plagiarize from it were certainly influenced by it.

The gory killing effects were courtesy of Carlo Rambaldi who later on would build the cute little E.T. creature for Steven Spielberg amongst others.  The story such that it is involves people getting knocked off at a home on a bay.  It all comes down to a will that would leave property to whoever is left alive in order to build a luxury resort. Oh and whatever you do don't have sex in this movie if will not have a happy conclusion,

 

If you are looking for a serious catharsis of violence in your life this is probably the film for you, after 84 minutes of people getting their heads chopped off or spears run through their bodies or axes dismembering body parts you probably won't have a violence impulse for a while, at least a week anyway.

 

A Bay of Blood is some kind of classic I guess.  Bava a talented cinematographer and director was obviously attracted to this genre and he clearly had a lot of influence on many filmmakers.  The ending is actually kind of sick but seems to work for the film.

1971 - BIG DOLL HOUSE, Roger Corman's famous exploitation film

It's amazing what the passage of time does for some movies.  Fifty two years ago when Roger Corman released this "women in prison" exploitation flick it was considered a piece of crap.  However Corman had the last laugh, director Jack Hill shot the film for around $200,000 dollars and the film went on to gross around $3,000,000 dollars, probably mostly from the drive in movie circuit.

Corman sent Jack Hill to the Philippines to shot the film the reasoning being that he could stretch a dollar a lot further over there.  Hill has stated that he rewrote the script as they filmed because it was very bad.  He claims he tried to add more humor to it.  But no one watching this film is viewing it for it's comedic scenes.

The film features a lot of women in various states of undress as they like to say.  The film has lots of torture scenes, some weird attempts as lesbianism, a mud fight and towards the end a whole lot of shooting.  The action scene is actually kind of well done.

 

 The cast is the usual "bevy of beauties" who can't act one lick.  The standout is Pam Grier in one of her first major roles.  Grier plays some kind of lesbian but it's difficult to tell because nobody was really going to go there in the early 1970's.  Grier sings the title song and she's really off key.   Roberta Collins is an inmate who is so horny she makes a guy have sex with her at knife point.  Sid Haig and Jerry Franks are Harry and Fred a couple of guys who deliver food to the prison,  they have the most amusing scenes in the film.

 

Today Big Doll House is considered a classic in the "Women in Prison" exploitation feature, that's what the passage of time can sometimes do for a movie I guess.  I will have to give Corman and Jack Hill credit, it's sort of entertaining in a demented kind of way.

Written by Don Spencer, (Jack Hill?), the running time is 95 minutes. 

1971 - THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, one of the best films of the 1970's

Peter Bogdanovich's follow up to Targets.  This film is about the lives of the  people in a small town, Anartene Texas. Filmed in black and white by old Hollywood veteran Robert Surtees, the film really captures the depressing feeling of watching a small town in the middle of nowhere slowly dying. The story follows mainly three characters, Sonny Crawford, Duane Jackson and the town beauty Jacy Farrow. 

 Whoever cast this film certainly made some excellent choices, Timothy Bottoms played Sonny Crawford a senior graduating from high school with absolutely no direction.  Jeff Bridges is his friend Duane Jackson a hot head.  Cybill Shepherd is Jacy Farrow the town beauty queen just about as lost as everyone else in the town. In a supporting role is Ben Johnson as "Sam the Lion."  Ellen Burnstyn plays Farrow's mother a fading beauty queen herself, frankly the film could have explored more of her story.

Bogdanovich an admirer of the old Hollywood system and the filmmakers who worked in it has absorbed their lessons and gets good performances and stages the scenes very well.

 

The film was almost immediately recognized as a classic and it set an impossibly high bar for Bogdanovich to follow and probably sent him down the road of remaking old Hollywood movies.

The film was written by Bogdanovich and the author of the novel which it was based on Larry McMurty it runs 118 minutes.

1971 - PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW, welcome to the 1970's

A nubile bunch of coeds are dying at Oceanfront High School in California.  A young man who isn't doing well with the teenage girls in his class is about to get an education from substitute teacher Angie Dickinson.   Rock Hudson is the football coach/guidance counselor who is bedding about every other short skirted teenage girl who comes into his office. Finally Telly Savalas basically playing his Kojak detective character is brought in to sort out exactly what is going on at this rather horny high school.  Oh yea, throw in Roddy McDowell and Keenan Wynn and you have this strange AIP studio like sex exploitation film made on a big budget by MGM no less.

 Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek and French director Roger Vadim are responsible for this film if you can call it a film.  Both Roddenberry and Vadim had reputations to put it mildly as men who weren't above exploiting women in front of the camera.  In fact Vadim was quoted as saying the casting of the film was his favorite part of making the film.  Since the film is basically a parade of mini skirted young women you can see where Vadim's interests lie.

 

If anyone comes off decently in this film it's probably Savalas and Roddy McDowell as the clueless principal.  Angie Dickinson was apparently cast as a replacement for Brigitte Bardot.

 

I suppose it goes without saying that this type of film wouldn't be made today but then again can anyone be sure about that nobody went broke underestimating the taste of the movie going public.

 Gene Roddenberry wrote the script and the running time is 95 minutes.

1971 - ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED aka Night of the Big Heat

 Hammer films director Terence Fisher directed a few low budget films away from Hammer, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, The Earth Dies Screaming and this film Island of the Burning Damned.  None of these films can really compare with Fisher's best Hammer films although The Earth Dies Screaming isn't bad.  

The film is about an extraterrestrial invasion of earth with the vanguard of space aliens landing on an island.  The space aliens are unique in that they are to put it mildly warm blooded.  They begin to heat   the island up to temperatures of 100 degrees plus.  Into this situation comes Christopher Lee as a scientist trying to stop them and Peter Cushing as a doctor on the Island.

 

For a science fiction film a lot of time is spent on some love triangle between an author, his secretary  who parades around in a bikini and his wife who is the manger of the local pub.  After a while one hopes they will get back to the actual problem at hand instead of having to watch them work out their personal problems during an alien invasion.  

 

Terence Fisher was a good director of horror films but this low budget effort did not seem to bring out the best in his story telling despite the presence of old acting colleagues like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Towards the end of the film they finally show the alien invaders but the cheapo production apparently didn't have the money to make them convincing alien monsters.

Anyway, the running time is 94 minutes, the writers were Pip and Jane Baker and Ronald Liles.

1971 - SKIN GAME, a western comedy about slavery

 Looking over the credits of Skin Game you will see the name of screenwriter Pierre Marton.  This is a an alias for the writer Peter Stone who took his name off of the final screenplay.  Obviously a sign that all was not well during the production of this film.

The plot involves a couple of con men posing as a slave owner and slave.  They travel from town to town where the white con man played by James Garner sells his partner as a slave who he later helps escape.  This sets them up with a clever scheme where they are able to exploit the racism and prejudices of white slave owners while making some money at the same time as they travel throughout the south.

 

Although released to theaters, the film has that kind of cheap studio back lot look to it almost like a 1970's made for TV film. Unsurprisingly the  director Paul Bogart primarily worked in television.  To further brand it like it was a TV movie, Garner played the part of the con man pretty much like his character Bret Maverick from his old TV show.  

 

The film has some amusing situations and some decent dialog courtesy of Peter Stone.  This is an okay western/comedy about slavery provided you think slavery is funny.

The running time is 102 minutes.

1971 - THE MUSIC LOVERS, another life of a composer story courtesy of Ken Russell

I generally enjoy Ken Russell's over the top films on the lives of composers but this one may be a little too over the top even for me. Russell has been quoted as saying The Music Lovers was "about a homosexual who fell in love with a nymphomania," and that's probably not far from the truth in this version of the life of Tchaikovsky.

With over the top visuals, lots of nudity although no gay stuff, (which I'm certain no audience could have handled in 1971) and lots of Tchaikovsky's music, it's certainly a very unusual experience watching it. The film could have almost been shot as a silent film with the composer's music as the soundtrack.

As always in a Ken Russell film the actors are encouraged to go for it.  Richard Chamberlain plays Tchaikovsky as a very tortured artist.  Glenda Jackson is his crazed wife.  Jackson is really a fearless performer in this film exposing her self in just about every conceivable manner physically and emotionally.

Usually Ken Russell for all his craziness stays reasonably close to the facts in the lives of the composers however this time he plays a little loosey-goosey with the life of Tchaikovsky even for him. Still the film is a visual treat.  Nobody knows how to combine music and image like Russell did when he was in his prime.

 

The screenplay was by Melvyn Bragg who had worked with Ken Russell before so he must have known what he was getting into.  The running time is 124 minutes

1971 - THE DEVILS, Ken Russell's crazed film about god knows what.

The Devils is based on a historical incident involving a convent of nuns in 17th century France who claimed to be possessed by the devil.  Since Ken Russell directed it you can be sure he will really take his outrageous style to the extreme.  The movie was subjected to a lot of censorship and considering the scenes of sex and violence, its amazing the whole film wasn't repressed.

Interestingly enough the film does appear to follow the general historical situation of what happened in Loudon, France where a group of nuns accused the  bishop, Urbain Grandier of witchcraft.  Grandier played by Oliver Reed was apparently a rather independent fellow and had a lot of conflict with everyone's favoring Catholic villain Cardinal Richelieu.  Looking for an excuse to get rid of Grandier, Richelieu used the trumped up charge of witchcraft to ultimately have him burned at the stake.

 

Russell really pours it on in this film with lots of nudity, blood, torture and just plenty of sick stuff in general. The acting is very good.  Reed actually manages to create some sympathy for Grandier, and Vanessa Redgrave is just nutty as the head of the convent walking around with a hunchback of all things.

 

The Devils will never be endorsed by the Catholic Church  and I doubt it will ever be on a double bill with Going My Way.

Russell wrote the screenplay, the running time is 111 minutes

1971 - THE ANDERSON TAPES, a New York City based crime thriller

New York City filmmaker Sidney Lumet directed this rather clever crime thriller.  The film stars Sean Connery as master criminal Duke Anderson who is planning a big heist in an upper class Manhattan apartment complex.  Unknown to Anderson, his every move is being monitored by lots of illegal government wiretaps. As Duke Anderson plans the heist every move he makes is being recorded.

 

As usual Sidney Lumet has a good feel for the New York City atmosphere. This is unsurprising since he was a native New Yorker.  Lumet is also working with a pretty good screenplay from Frank Pierson.  

 The actual heist itself is very exciting as the criminals have to match wits with the NYPD.

 

The film runs 99 minutes, it was a critical and financial disappointment but I think time has improved it's reputation.

1971 - STRAW DOGS, a violent mess of a film

Sam Peckinpah's film is usually called controversial.  However so much time has passed since the film was released and film violence has seen the bar raised to new levels about the only thing controversial about this film is the rather shoddy story structure.  I still wouldn't let the kids watch this film if you are looking for a fun family night at the movies.

Dustin Hoffman plays the wimp college professor living in Cornwall England with his little too sexy for her own good wife played by Susan George who specialized in these trampy parts.  After lots of what can only be called sexual harassment leading too non consensual sex (maybe) the film hits its climax with a violent attack on Hoffman's home by a bunch of the locals.  The point of this all appears to be that Hoffman discovers his ability to kill while defending his home.

For a guy who started his career as a writer and who took a writer's credit on this film.  The story structure is really a mess.  Hoffman's character is a very unpleasant guy so you can't work up much sympathy for him.  Susan George has the truly thankless role of being the tease who starts all the trouble.  Peckinpah is apparently trying to make some point about violence and sex but what?  Being a naughty girl can get you in trouble?

Even as a director this is a disappointing film.  There is none of his famous slow motion violence and the Cornish countryside is certainly not filmed to exploit it's scenery.  But who am I to say this film is considered a classic.

117 minutes written by Sam Peckinpah and David Zelag Goodman.

1971 - VANISHING POINT, on Blu Ray

Put a guy in a car and have him chased by the police for about and hour and a half for no particular reason and you have the film Vanishing Point.

This film is a real 70's counter culture antique.  The driver Kowalski, played by Barry Newman for some reason decides to piss off the police and the race is on.  We never learn what ultimately pops Kowalski's cork.  However one thing seems to be for sure, Kowalski is rebelling against any type of authority.

The film is loaded with hippies, naked girls on motorcycles and a barely talkative leading man.  It all means something but what?

The film is a major influence on many filmmakers.  Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino are big fans of Vanishing Point.  Nice photography of the western United States by the way.

98 minutes, screenplay by Guillermo Cabrera Infante.