Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Picks of 1973


At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, the overall quality and variety of films made in 1973 puts recent years to shame. I'm not alone with this opinion, either. It should come as no surprise that many films from 1973 have been celebrating their fiftieth anniversary via national events at the cinema and expensive home format releases.

Some of these films are regarded as masterpieces amongst chin-stroking cinephiles, while others are considered cult classics to genre afficionados; what's more important is the fact that they're invaluable entertainment for your host:

And Now the Screaming Starts (Roy Ward Baker)

Badlands (Terrence Malick)

Black Caesar (Larry Cohen)

A Candle for the Devil (Eugenio Martin)

The Candy Snatchers (Guerdon Trueblood)

Carry on Girls (Gerald Thomas)

Charley Varrick (Don Siegel)

Coffy (Jack Hill)

The Crazies (George A. Romero)

The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis)

Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)

Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse)

The Exorcist (William Friedkin)

Fantastic Planet (René Laloux) 

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Shunya Itō)

Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey)

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Gordon Hessler)

Hell Up in Harlem (Larry Cohen)

High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood)

The Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Horror Hospital (Anthony Balch)

The Hourglass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has)

Immoral Tales (Walerian Borowczyk)

The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin)

Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita)

The Legend of Hell House (John Hough)

Live and Let Die (Guy Hamilton)

The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)

Magnum Force (Ted Post)

Maletasta's Carnival of Blood (Christopher Speeth)

Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)

Messiah of Evil (Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck)

The Night Strangler (Dan Curtis)

Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner)

Revolver (Sergio Sollima)

Scream Blacula Scream (Bob Kelljan)

Serpico (Sidney Lumet)

Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer)

Steptoe and Son Ride Again (Peter Sykes)

Terminal Island (Stephanie Rothman)

Theatre of Blood (Douglas Hickox)

Torso (Sergio Martino)

The Vault of Horror (Roy Ward Baker)

Westworld (Michael Crichton)

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)

Only film I copped during the fiftieth anniversary celebrations was Messiah of Evil as it finally got a proper release in my country. The whole design of this blog takes obvious style inspiration from the film:

Messiah of Evil (Radiance Films Trailer)
Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck, 1973

12 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

A year so magical even Terrence Malick somehow managed to make a great movie.

Is the banner up top from Messiah Of Evil?

Spartan said...

Only other Malick film I've seen is Knight of Cups. Felt a two hour cologne ad.

Yes, the banner is from the movie theatre scene from Messiah of Evil.There are some decent uploads of the film on YouTube which are in better in quality than the grainy 4:3 version currently available on Plex.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Cheers.

If only Ithithkle were browsing these comments to defend his boy Malick.

Spartan said...

Would rather face the wrath of the Ithe Man than Greg's rebirth as a Letterboxd reviewer. No way a bloke writes this stuff. ��

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

😂 what a wet lettuce.

Spartan said...

It's like the pod people have taken over.

Unrelated: I finished watching the Dalek Invasion Earth storyline. Found it funny how Susan was left behind to live in a post-apocalyptic world by The Doctor.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Iconic moment. Carole Ann Ford was sick of being being given nothing to do except scream and run so she decided to leave the show. She had a point tbf since they dialed her character back after the first episode where she's basically the focal point.

Spartan said...

I watched the two-parter The Rescue and Susan's replacement appears to be Vikki, who seems a bit more interesting being from the 25th century. I'm hoping for Ian and Barbara to scarper soon as they look a bit bored half the time. Looking forward to Blue Peter's Peter Purves being on the show.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Did you watch Planet Of Giants? That's a bit of a deep cut personal fave story from that season.

Avoid The Web Planet from that particular season.

Spartan said...

Skipped Planet of Giants. Went from Reign of Terror to Daleks Invasion Earth to The Rescue. Probably go the The Time Meddler like you suggested before checking out The Tenth Planet.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

🙏 Now that's a Good Combination™.

Spartan said...

Technically did end up seeing Napolean last month on account of that Reign of Terror story arc.