Category Archives: 1978

Interiors
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing?/Amazon Prime rental

Pearl: You only live once, and once is enough if you play your cards right.

After the massive success of “Annie Hall” (1977), Woody Allen was given free reign by his producers. He used it to make this super grim homage to Ingmar Bergman.

Eve (Geraldine Page) is an interior decorator aged about 60. Her aesthetic embraces the subtle, the pale, and the exquisite. She is negative and critical. She has reared three daughters, all adults and two married. The daughters could not be more different. Joey (Mary Beth Hurt) is in advertising and is married to Mike (Sam Waterson). She is the most lively and positive of the sisters. Renata (Diane Keaton) is a poet who is married to Fredrick (Richard Jordan). She sees an analyst and is introspective, self-critical, and feels her own poetry is not good enough. Flyn (Kristin Griffith) is an actress and is the closest of the three to their mother.

As the movie begins, Arthur (E.G. Marshall) the girls’ father, asks Eve for a separation. Eve is distraught and is sent to a mental hospital for a short time. She returns home and simply refuses to believe the separation is anything but temporary.

When Arthur returns from a long vacation in Greece, he has Pearl (Maureen Stapleton) by his side. Pearl is the polar opposite of Eve. She is warm, easy-going, and fun-loving. Arthur announces their engagement. This does not go over well with any of his female relatives as can be imagined. It forces even more introspection in this crowd

I like Woody Allen and I love Ingmar Bergman. I think “Interiors” fails as homage and fails as a film. Allen might have done a fabulous job parodying Bergman but this story is deadly serious. He takes the homage to the limit though almost to the point where it might be funny if half the characters weren’t suicidal. He is also superficial where Bergman would be complex.  I was not a fan.

Straight Time
Directed by Dustin Hoffman and Ulu Grosbard
Written by Alvin Sargent, Edward Bunker and Jeffrey Boam from Boam’s novel
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Jerry Schue: Get me outta here. They’re killing me. I can’t make this scene anymore, get me outta here… You got something, I know you got something…
Max Dembo: Yeah, I got something.
Jerry Schue: Well, let’s do it.
Max Dembo: Don’t you wanna know what it is?
Jerry Schue: I don’t give a damn what it is, let’s just do it… What is it?

Solid action flick and study of life on the outside for ex-convicts.

Dustin Hoffman performs a bit out of his comfort zone as Max Dembo, an ex-con newly out of prison. For a few days he attempts to fullfil the conditions of his parole – living in halfway house, not associating with former friends, no driving and no drugs. The only thing this wins him is a romance with Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell) his employment counselor.

He has a hard-nosed parole officer (M. Emmet Walsh) who is on his back every minute. When the parole officer discovers some drug paraphernalia in Max’s room, Max goes back to prison until his drug test comes back clean.

This makes Max so angry that he assaults the parole officer and begins a crime spree with former cohorts in crime Willy (Gary Busey) and Jerry (Harry Dean Stanton). They go straight for the big money with a highly risky bank robbery and daylight jewelry store robbery. It’s almost like Max wants to get caught.

I enjoyed this movie. Its stellar cast does itself proud and the story is interesting. It is more violent than romantic despite its dreamy poster.

The Five Deadly Venoms
Directed by Che Chang
Written by Kuang Ni and Che Chang
1978/Hong Kong
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Scorpion: [laughs] Let me tell you: once an evil deed is done, then it never ends. It goes on, and it will go on forever.

I surely could have died without seeing this one.

Yang Tieh is the last pupil at the Venom House. His dying master makes him promise to locate five former pupils – Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard and Toad – and destroy any that are using their powers for evil. Since Yang’s training has been cut short he will need to find a good ally among them. But who?

This film is non-stop kung-fu action and is considered a classic of the genre. The version I watched was badly dubbed, not that there is a whole lot of dialogue. I was not in the mood to watch a kung-fu movie so I shall say no more about it.

Heaven Can Wait
Directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
Written by Elaine May and Warren Beatty from a play by Harry Segall
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Mr. Jordan: Haven’t you learned the rules of probability and outcome? Aren’t you aware that every question of life and death remains a probability until the outcome?

Confusingly this is not a remake of “Heaven Can Wait” (1943) but of “Here Comes Mr. Jordan” (1941). Warren Beatty takes the Robert Montgomery part but is a football player instead of a boxer.

Joe Pendleton (Beatty) is the very talented and committed quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams. He is in a head-on collision and is taken by angel Buck Henry before he is actually dead, thus depriving him of 50 years more life. His body is cremated.

Naturally, Joe is not happy and persuades heaven’s gatekeeper Mr. Jordan (James Mason) to find him another body so he can take the Rams to the Superbowl. The body is that of multi-millionaire Charles Farnsworth. That body is not going to last long if his wife (Dyan Cannon) and her lover (Charles Grodin) have their way. Joe/Farnsworth buys the Ram on the condition he can play quarterback.

Betty Logan (Julie Christie) is an activist who breaks up the Farnsworth company’s board meeting. Turns out she and Joe actually agree on politics and they are soon a couple. With Jack Warden as Joe/Farnsworth’s trainer.

I saw this in the theater back in the day and thought it was just OK. The years have not improved it. The highlights for me were Mason and Cannon, who is hilarious as the greedy wife. This film was up for numerous Oscars so what do I know?

Heaven Can Wait won the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Warden), Best Supporting Actress (Cannon), Best Adapted Screenplay (Elaine May and Beatty); Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.

The Silent Partner
Directed by Daryl Duke and Curtis Hanson
Written by Curtis Hanson from a novel by Anders Bodelsen
1978/Canada
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Harry Reikle: I’m just going to give you a little time… to try to be reasonable. If you decide you’re not going to be reasonable, then one night when you come home, you’ll find me *inside*, waiting for you. And that will be the night you’ll wish you’d never been born.

This prototypical 70’s thriller gets an extra star for the performance of Christopher Plummer.

Elliott Gould plays chief bank teller Miles Cullen. He is outwardly quiet and nerdy with his main interest being aquarium fish. Fellow employee Julie (Susannah York) is dating her married boss. Miles takes an interest in Julie too.

One day Miles finds a deposit slip that has a stick up instructions on it. He figures out that the writing on the slip is the same as that of a Santa Claus in the mall. So he slips $40,000 of the bank’s money into his lunchbox before Santa has a chance to do his robbery. He hasn’t counted on the wrath of the sadistic psychopath bank robber Arthur Reikle (Christopher Plummer) who stalks and terrorizes Miles relentlessly until the explosive climax.

Christopher Plummer is absolutely the best thing about this movie. He is scary, charming, cunning and deadly by turns. Otherwise, I found this to suffer from a bad case of seventy-itis. The whole plot is about sticking it to the man and the bank robbery is treated as just another way of accomplishing this. There is a fair amount of cursing and sex just because they could. The whole story takes place at Christmas time possibly making it a worthy entry in your offbeat Christmas movie list.

Trailer (spoiler)

Superman
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by Mario Puzo et al from a character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Superman: I’m here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.
Lois Lane: [laughs] You’re gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!

I’m not a fan of modern day comic book movies but I must admit enjoying the hell out of this one mostly for the comedy.

Everyone knows the Superman origin story, right? Anyway, the baby superman was sent to earth by his parents (Marlon Brando and Susannah York) immediately before the planet Krypton was destroyed. When he arrives he is adopted by childless Ma (Phyllis Thaxter) and Pa Kent (Glenn Ford).

The child grows up to be Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) nerdy, clumsy newspaper reporter. But when trouble strikes he becomes Superman. Reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) rejects all of Clark’s advances but falls in love with Superman.

Criminal mastermind Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) figures out a scheme that will allow him to rule the world when he discovers that kryptonite will rob the caped crusader of his powers. Luthor is not as smart as he thinks he is and his assistant Otis (Ned Beatty) is even dumber. Secretary Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) is the voice of sanity in this little group but no one pays any attention to her.

Luthor puts his plan for mass murder into effect. Will Superman save the day? With Jackie Cooper as editor Perry White.

I just love Gene Hackman in this movie. He should have done more comedy. The dialogue in his parts of the film is delicious. I think Brando was massively under-utilized. The special effects seem clunky now but do not detract from the fun. The John Williams score is iconic. If you are looking for a good popcorn watch, look no further.

Blue Collar
Directed by Paul Schrader
Written by Paul and Leonard Schrader; source material Sydney A. Glass
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing; Amazon Prime rental

Smokey James: Why do you go to the line every Friday?
Jerry Bartowski: Well…
Smokey James: Because the finance man’s gonna be at your house on Saturday, right? That’s exactly what the company wants – to keep you on their line. They’ll do anything to keep you on their line. They pit the lifers against the new boys, the old against the young, the black against the white – EVERYBODY to keep us in our place.

This movie was just not for me.

Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto are assembly line workers in an auto plant. They are all family men who are barely scraping by. Their union seems to be in the pocket of management. They decide that robbing the union office is the thing to do but collect only about $600. But the union is claiming $10,000 from the insurance company. Now, the men are in a position to blackmail the union, or so they think.

Despite its high IMDb user rating, this movie didn’t grab me. The vibe is very 70’s with lots and lots of cursing and corrupt authority figures. Richard Pryor plays a dramatic role where he can pour out a lot of rage. It was reportedly a very unhappy set. Anyway, the movie lost me in the very beginning and never regained my attention.

Mysterious Castles of Clay
Directed by Alan Root
Produced by Joan and Alan Root
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

The temple of truth has never suffered so much from woodpeckers on the outside as from termites within. — Vance Havner

Orson Welles narrated this documentary about termite colonies and their mounds in Africa. Turns out that termite hive mind is just about as fascinating as bee hive mind. I enjoyed it. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.