Category Archives: 1978

La Cage aux folles
Directed by Edouard Molinaro
Written by Edouard Molinaro etc from a play by Jean Poiret
1978/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Simon Charrier: Louise, I’m the General Secretary of a political Party named Coalition for a Moral Order, whose President just died in the arms of a prostitute. Wait to see the journalists in a few hours.

Despite the egregious gay stereotyping, this remains a very funny film all these years later.

Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and his long-term boyfriend Albin (Michel Serrault) own a nightclub featuring drag acts together.  Renato acts as manager and Albin is its temperamental star. Things seem to be in chaos there.

Renato has a son, Laurent, from a fling.  The boy has been raised by Renato and Albin. Lauren wants to marry the daughter of an ultra-conservative who is President of the Coalition for Moral Order.  The fiancee tells him that her husband-to-be’s father is a cultural attache.  The Coalition has been getting bad press and the fiancee’s family insists on meeting the parents.

Renato and Albin try various ways of fooling them into thinking they are a heterosexual couple.  All end in disastrously hilarious ways.

The gags are all pretty hilarious but the subject matter was difficult and the film straddles the fine line beyond which it would simply be making fun of the characters.  What makes everything work is the genuine love between the gay couple despite their bickering.   This was one of the highest grossing foreign language films ever released in the US. Worth seeing if the subject matter appeals.

La Cage aux Folles was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director,  Best Costume Design and Best Adapted Screenplay.  Ennio Morricone wrote the charming score.

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American Boy: A Profile of – Steven Prince
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Julia Cameron and Mardik Martin (treatment)
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it. – Margaret Atwood

Martin Scorsese gets together with a few friends and crew to listen to war stories from the eventful life of the multi-faceted Steven Prince.

Steven Prince is probably most famous for his role as Easy Andy the hot gun salesman in Taxi Driver (1976).  He also served as road manager for Neil Diamond, had a number of odd jobs, and became a heroin addict.  He’s entertaining whether he’s talking about his guns, a spectacular overdose revival, or his Jewish-American upbringing in New York City.

Prince is an engaging storyteller and the movie is quite watchable.  Not essential however.

The full hour-long film is available for free on YouTube.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
Directed by John De Bello
Written by Costa Dillon, John De Bello, and J. Stephen Peace
1978/US
IMDb Page
First viewing/Amazon Prime

Commerical voice: Last year, more people were killed by automobile accidents, heart attacks, lung cancer, and natural causes combined than by any one tomato.

I came for bad movie gold.  Instead I got an unfunny horror spoof with the worst songs ever written.

Ordinary grocery store tomatoes begin a rampage across the nation.  A bunch of bumbling idiots from the government try to stop the onslaught.  Their task gets harder when the tomatoes mutate into giant form.  The plot does not deserve a single extra word.

OK, I simply could not resist a movie with this title.  But it is stupid, the jokes are groaners, the songs are unbearable and its 83 minutes are interminable.  Avoid.

The Lovers’ Wind
Directed by Albert Lamorrisse
Written by Roger Lachant
1978/France/Iran
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Experiencing the director’s vision of pre-Revolution Iran was rendered almost impossible by a very bad YouTube print.

The film looks at the landscape and life of Iran, mostly by helicopter.  It is narrated by a benevolent wind who is fighting with his malevolent brother.  We see the effects of wind in the Iranian desert and on the Iranian people.

The film was commissioned by the Shah of Iran who was a fan of Lamorisse’s great films White Mane (1953) and The Red Balloon (1956).  The documentary was filmed in 1970.  Reportedly, the Shah was not pleased with the result. The Shah was more interested in showing off his modernization efforts than the beauty of his country.  In the event, it was futile to try to find beauty in the YouTube print I watched.

Lamorrisse was killed in a helicopter accident during filming.

Up in Smoke
Directed by Lou Adler
Written by Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Pedro: Hey how am I driving, man?
Man Stoner: [looks around] : I think we’re parked.

This stoner comedy was lacking any big laughs for me.

Pedro (Cheech Marin) picks up Man Stoner (Tommy Chong) hitchhiking.  They find they have an insatiable love for marijuana and other drugs in common.  There is currently a shortage in LA.  So they head for Mexico.

Dumb narc Sgt Stedenko and his even dumber associates are on the trail of a drug smuggling operation that disguises marijuana in the form of different objects.  Unbeknownst to Pedro and Man they are selected to drive a van entirely made of the stuff back to Los Angeles.

The film ends with a punk rock contest in which Pedro’s band participates.

It may have been the wrong day to watch this, but I didn’t find it particularly funny. Maybe if I had been high?  One of the more baffling entries on the List.

The Last Waltz
Directed by Martin Scorsese
1978/US
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

Levon Helm – Drums: [Talking about the region around Memphis, Tennessee where Levon grew up] That’s kind of the middle of the country, you know. back there. So, when bluegrass or country music, you know, if it comes down to that area and if it mixes there with rhythm and dances, then you’ve got a combination of all those different kinds of music. Country. Bluegrass. Blues music.
Martin Scorsese – Interviewer: The melting pot.
Levon Helm – Drums: Show music.
Martin Scorsese – Interviewer: What’s it called then?
Levon Helm – Drums: Rock-n-Roll.
Martin Scorsese – Interviewer: Rock-n-Roll, yes, for sure, exactly.

Scorsese’s beautiful rockumentary captures some of the best musicians of the 70’s, i.e. of all time.

This is a record of The Band’s farewell concert.  It is hardly needed to write a review.  Let’s just take a look at just part of the line-up:  The Band, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Van Morrison.  All these performers and more were in their prime and the music is fantastic.  They play together and alone.  The members of The Band tell Scorsese war stories of the road in between.

Here is Levon Helm of The Band belting out “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (`1978).

Joni Mitchell backs up Neil Young as he sings “Helpless”.

The entire line-up gets together with Bob Dylan for “I Shall Be Released”.

As far as I am concerned this is a must-see.

The Band performs “The Weight” with The Staple Singers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Directed by Philip Kaufman
Written by W.D. Richter from a novel by Jack Finney
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
One of 1,000 Greatest Horror Films on They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?

Jack Bellicec: It’s a big conspiracy.
Matthew Bennell: What’s a conspiracy?
Jack Bellicec: Everything.

Comparisons are odious.  But they can’t be avoided.  This movie, however, stands up on its own two, unique feet.

Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is a food safety inspector for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  He seems to be sweet on his pretty lab technician Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams).  But she is living with sloppy self-absorbed dentist Geoffrey Howell.  She is a plant lover and picks an unusual flower and takes it home to study it. Before she knows it, Geoffrey seems to be an entirely new person.  For one thing, he takes out the garbage.  He also starts attending mysterious meetings non-stop.  She is convinced something very strange must be going on.

Elizabeth has a hard time convincing anybody, including Matthew, that she is not delusional.  He wants her to talk to his friend, famed psychiatrist and author Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy).  She does so at a book signing where he reassures her this is just a sign that she is unhappy with Geoffrey.  Funnily enough, there is another woman at the party with the same problem.  We are introduced to poet Jack Bellecec (Jeff Goldman) at the same party.  He hates Kibner and is mad at the world.

Jack and his wife Nancy make their living running a spa, specializing in mud treatments etc.  Jeff takes a nap and soon Nancy sees a horrible thing taking shape that is looking more and more like Jeff.  The Bellecec’s dodge that bullet but soon Elizabeth is under grave threat.  Things get worse and worse and more and more terrifying as the quartet try to escape possession by the unknown force.  With director Don Siegel as a cab driver and Kevin McCarthy, who starred in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), as a man with a message.

I found this far more downright terrifying than the original, largely due to the revealing nature of color and the advancements in special effects.  The acting here is superior.  I particularly enjoyed the performances of Sutherland and Goldman.  There is more of Big Brother vibe to this, as befits a late 70’s movie.  Recommended but folks really should see the original, which is iconic, as well.