Best Films Of 1974
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- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsAl PacinoRobert De NiroRobert DuvallThe early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.The more I watch these films, I realize that the original is the better film overall, but not by a huge margin. To me, this is the second best sequel of all time. 9/10
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJack NicholsonFaye DunawayJohn HustonA private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.8/10
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsNinetto DavoliFranco CittiFranco MerliIn ancient Arabia, a beautiful slave girl chooses a youth to be her new master, then she is kidnapped and they must search for each other. Stories are told within stories: love, travel and the whims of destiny.8/10
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsGene HackmanJohn CazaleAllen GarfieldA paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsMarilyn BurnsEdwin NealAllen DanzigerFive friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.The Greatest Ending In Horror History?
While a few parts of the film are a little weak execution wise, and in terms of overall believability. The film still overcomes these patchy problems; Mainly because of the drastic feel of strangeness and the all out chaos that the film so amazingly captures in other parts. Usually when a film has a few such weak parts, it never really works. However this film truly defies the average because the feel of the insanity factor and strangeness is far above most. The film is simply effective overall because of the feelings it can evoke from the viewer. I think the end is among the cinema's most bizarre, chilling and chaotic scenes ever captured. Perhaps because it makes little sense, and is basically just pure insanity on film. In 1974 you can sort of understand how scary this film likely was. Just watch it and see how disorienting and chaotic the ending still sort of feels to this very day. Overall it is a great horror. Strange, flawed for sure in parts, but definitely overall it truly is quite great. To me, the films status as a legend is well deserved.
Another interesting note, even Stanley Kubrick's daughter and others close to him have mentioned that he was a pretty big fan of the film. Personally I think you can sort of see Kubrick using some of the insane feeling moments of TCM, and at times injecting a little of that same sort of chaos into his horror masterpiece, The Shining.
8/10 - DirectorMichael CiminoStarsClint EastwoodJeff BridgesGeorge KennedyWith the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.See my list - Let's Rob A Bank
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsWalter MatthauRobert ShawMartin BalsamFour armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum: Even if it's paid, how could they get away?7.5/10
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsWarren BeattyPaula PrentissWilliam DanielsAn ambitious reporter gets in way-over-his-head trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.7.5/10
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsGeorge SegalElliott GouldAnn PrentissWhen a casual gambler (George Segal as Bill) befriends a professional one (Elliott Gould as Charlie), he begins to mirror his life, sending both deeper into the sleazy gambling world where the stakes keep getting bigger.
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsBurt ReynoldsEddie AlbertEd LauterA sadistic warden asks a former pro quarterback, now serving time in his prison, to put together a team of inmates to take on (and get pummeled by) the guards.
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsWarren OatesIsela VegaRobert WebberAn American barroom pianist and his prostitute girlfriend go on a trip through the Mexican underworld to collect the bounty on the head of a dead gigolo.7.0/10
- DirectorH.B. HalickiStarsH.B. HalickiMarion BusiaJerry DaugirdaWhen a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one is in the bag - thereby, the police precipitate in a desperate car chase against Pace and his Eleanor across Southern California.
- DirectorFrancis GirodStarsMichel PiccoliRomy SchneiderMascha GonskaA cunning French legal adviser teams up with an unemployed German girl and her sister to commit murders in Marseille.7/10
- DirectorBob ClarkStarsOlivia HusseyKeir DulleaMargot KidderDuring their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.7/10
- DirectorDuke MitchellStarsDuke MitchellVic CaesarLorenzo DardadoThe ruthless son of a Mafia kingpin blasts his way through Hollywood on a bloody crime spree.If you like cult films, and gangster films, you should definitely consider giving this film a look. It's one of those films that is both very good, and very bad all at the same time. I think early in the film I was thinking, what is this crap? But then by the end, there really ends up being enough interesting things in this film for me to rate it a... 7/10
- DirectorMichael WinnerStarsCharles BronsonHope LangeVincent GardeniaA New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad after his wife is murdered by street punks. In self-defense, the vengeful man kills muggers on the mean streets after dark.6.5/10
- DirectorJack StarrettStarsStacy KeachFrederic ForrestMargot KidderTwo rural West Virginia brothers leave home, rob an armored car and become fugitives.6.5/10
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsKeith CarradineShelley DuvallJohn SchuckWhen two men break out of prison, they join up with another and restart their criminal ways, robbing banks across the South.
- DirectorJohn PeyserStarsJaime Lyn BauerAldo RayDennis OlivieriA depraved religious fanatic sets out to punish all the "immoral" women who have posed for the center-fold of a men's magazine.This is basically an early slasher film. As far as low budget horror films of the time go, this really isn't bad. It's a sleazy drive-in style horror thriller. Basically all the male characters are perverted jerks and all the women are somewhat loose. If you're into these kinds of low budget exploitation films, this one's worth a look. 6.5/10
- DirectorJack HillStarsPam GrierAntonio FargasPeter BrownA voluptuous vigilante takes a job as a high-class prostitute to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.6.5/10
- DirectorPeter CollinsonStarsPeter FondaCornelia SharpeJohn Phillip LawThree young men take a young woman and a middleaged man to an isolated cabin, where they are terrorized in different ways.6.0/10
- DirectorSteve CarverStarsMargaret MarkovPam GrierLucretia LoveWhen the Romans force a group of sex slaves to become gladiatrices, two such fighters - a Nubian dancer and a Gaulish priestess - form an alliance to lead the others in rebellion.6/10
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsGoldie HawnBen JohnsonMichael SacksA woman attempts to reunite her family by helping her husband escape prison and together kidnapping their son. But things don't go as planned when they are forced to take a police hostage on the road.6/10