Category: 1970s

In a California desert town, timid Sissy Spacek begins working at a health spa and becomes charmed by somewhat more worldly and outgoing Shelley Duvall, whom she soon becomes roommates with. Though somewhat annoyed by her roommate’s naiveté and constant presence, Duvall also enjoys the fawning and attention she is denied in all her other relationships. Also in the women’s orbit are the womanizing owner of their building and his aloof, pregnant artist wife. Despite her incessant chatter and seemingly obliviousness to the opinions of others, Duvall’s character is rather adorable in her era fashions and homemaking. The film makes an interesting follow-up to The Stranger Within as they both explore women’s roles and experiences in the 1970s, here the three women exhibiting and trading between them extreme versions of traditional feminine roles.

The world is shocked when famous actress Fedora (portrayed by Marthe Keller), renowned for having retained her beauty throughout her long career, apparently commits suicide by running in front of a train. At her funeral, producer William Holden reflects on his recent meeting with the actress and tries to piece together why she died. The film has some bits that are heavy on the melodrama and strangeness, but it also provides an interesting reflection on Hollywood, its standards of aging and beauty, and their effects on mental health. It could somewhat work as a companion to Billy Wilder’s earlier Sunset Boulevard. There’s even a bit of stunt casting with Michael York playing a version of himself and Henry Fonda cast as the President of the Academy

Despite her husband’s vasectomy, Barbara Eden miraculously finds herself pregnant. Before long it becomes more obvious that this pregnancy is not a normal one. She craves vast amounts of salt, reads voraciously, and prefers unnaturally cold temperatures. Reruns of I Dream of Jeannie and Harper Valley P.T.A. didn’t prepare me for how great Eden is in the role. She fully commits to a script that asks her to act more and more ridiculous. The film takes its time building to its conclusion and it is not until the climax that there’s even a hint of the reasons behind all of the strange activity. 

Based on the novel of the same name by Flannery O’Connor, war veteran Brad Dourif returns to the remains of his family home a changed man and decides to head for the city. There he runs into a blind street preacher Harry Dean Stanton and his young daughter Amy Wright. The latter immediately develops a crush on him while the former inspires him to create his own antireligion church. An absurd indictment on religion, I had been really interested in seeing Dourif leading a film since he generally stands out in any of the works I’ve seen him in. I was not disappointed at all with his portrayal. He often plays characters just on the line between unhinged and sane and that works to great effect here.

Based on the novel by Chester Himes, the action begins at a Back to Africa rally being hosted by reverend Calvin Lockhart that is hijacked of tens of thousands of dollars. Soon after the hijacking, junk collector Redd Foxx runs across a large bale of cotton that fell of the hijackers’ truck. I’m still unsure how the cotton came to Harlem. It’s somewhat of a MacGuffin, but does provide an amusing centerpiece for a dance performance toward the end of the film. Though some dispute the categorization, it’s sometimes cited as an early Blaxploitation film. Regardless, it has many similarities to that genre with a mostly Black cast, a great urban setting, and some memorable characters. I really dig the Harlem detectives here, played by Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques, and would enjoy seeing the whole series had been filmed. A Rage in Harlem is the earliest story of the characters, but that film somehow doesn’t feel in the same universe.  

Little Women really seems to be a story that has to be re-filmed every decade if only to give that generation’s group of young actresses a chance to portray a classic, female-centric story. As fitting for a made for television film, this version has the sisters being portrayed by some well-known television actresses of the time: Meredith Baxter, Susan Dey, and Eve Plumb. Ann Dusenberry, whom I’ve never seen in anything else, as Amy is the weakest link of the bunch. Her accent is bizarre for the New England setting and her characterization is shrill even for normal Amy standards. I always find it weird when a production doesn’t actually bother having a burn mark on Jo’s dress, but I do like how hacked off her hair looked here and that it was shown to re-grow over the following years. It’s barebones, but certainly holds up as well as any of the other editions I’ve seen.

Oh! Calcutta! is rather infamous for its (at the time) risqué nudity. Because of this, I’ve been curious about it for a long time. Sadly it’s quite disappointing. The vast majority of the film consists of skits that are just a bit more blatant than any other variety show from the era. Think Hee Haw or The Carol Burnett Show with a bit more skin. Having the first one include rape as its central premise puts a downer on the whole proceedings and takes awhile to wash away with some of the funnier bits. And not all of the sketches are at all funny. For me, he most interesting parts of the whole production were the beginning and the end where the entire cast is naked together on a bare stage.