Duck, You Sucker! (Italian: Giù la testa), also known as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time… the Revolution (Italian: C'era una Volta la Rivoluzione), is a 1970spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn.
It is the second part of a trilogy of epic Leone films including the previous Once Upon a Time in the West and the subsequent Once Upon a Time in America, released thirteen years later. The last western film directed by Leone, it is also his most overlooked.
The setting is 1913 Mexico at the time of the Revolution. Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), a Mexican outlaw leading a bandit family, meets John Mallory (James Coburn), an early Irish nationalist explosives expert on the run from the British. Noting his skill with explosives, Juan relentlessly tries to make him join a raid on the Mesa Verde national bank. John in the meantime has made contact with the revolutionaries and intends to use his dynamite in their service. The bank is hit as part of an orchestrated revolutionary attack on the army organized by Doctor Villega (Romolo Valli). Juan, interested only in the money, is shocked to find that the bank has no funds and instead is used by the army as a political prison. John, Juan and his family end up freeing hundreds of prisoners, causing Juan to become a "great, grand, glorious hero of the revolution".
Airport 1970 DVD
Airport is a 1970 American film based on the 1968 Arthur Hailey novel of the same name. This film, which earned over $100,000,000 at the box office at a time when achieving that milestone was rare, focuses on an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicidal bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 in flight. The story takes place at the fictional Chicago-area Lincoln International Airport. The film was written for the screen and directed by George Seaton. Seaton was assisted by Henry Hathaway, and Ernest Laszlo photographed it in 70 mm Todd-AO. The film cost $10 million to produce. This was the last film scored by Academy Award winning composer Alfred Newman.
Airport paved the way for the 1970s disaster film genre, establishing the widely-followed convention of "microcosmic melodrama combined with catastrophe-oriented adventure".
The film stars Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin and George Kennedy.
Patton 1970 DVD
In early 1971, the Academy Awards saluted Patton. Capturing eight Oscars- including best picture, best director, best actor, best screenplay, best editing, and best production design - the movie won every major battle of the evening. Such acclaim was richly deserved, for Patton remains to this day one of Hollywood's most compelling biographical war pictures.
With its larger-than-life, yet at the same time singularly human, portrayal of Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., Franklin Schaffner's picture is an example of filmmaking at its finest. From production design and battle choreography to simple one-on-one dramatic acting, Patton has it all. There is no scene in all one-hundred seventy minutes that doesn't work on some level.
Love Story 1970 DVD
Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail. Oliver and Jenny continue to build their life together. Relying only on each other, they believe love can fix anything. But fate has other plans. Soon, what began as a brutally honest friendship becomes the love story of their lives.
M*A*S*H 1970 DVD
Ostensibly set during the Korean War (1950-53), M*A*S*H is a black comedy about life in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit located only three miles from the front lines. The primary mission of the MASH unit is to provide immediate medical treatment to Americans wounded in combat, and the young surgeons are often up to their elbows in blood and guts for long periods of time. But when they're off duty, the MASH unit personnel keep their sanity by pursuing a wacky, irreverent lifestyle that leads to some hilarious adventures.
The Aristocats 1970 NTSC Laserdisc
The beloved, pampered housecat of a retired opera star in 1910 Paris finds herself stranded in the countryside with her three children, the victims of a plot by their owner's butler to cheat them out of a huge inheritance. They must find their way back to their home and owner, with the help of an independent-minded tomcat and other animal accomplices, while evading the butler and foiling his plan. Duchess and her 3 kittens are experiencing the high lifetime with their devoted human mistress right up until the wicked butler Edgar, with his eyesight on the big inheritance, decides to dope them and get them out using the picture. How can these fragile creatures cope in the unfamiliar countryside as well as meaner streets of Paris?
Kelly's Heroes 1970 DVD Laserdisc
During World War II a German Colonel is captured by the Americans but before he can be interrogated an artillery barrage hits the camp. However, Ex-Lieutenant Kelly (Clint Eastwood) manages to reach the Colonel, get him drunk and learn that he is on a secret mission to ship $16,000,000 of gold to a base in France. Kelly is determined to get the gold and plans for himself and a few of his fellow soldiers to slip into enemy territory and steal the bullion.
Little Big Man 1970 Pal Laserdisc
Little Big Man, the film adaptation of Thomas Berger's epic comic novel, is Arthur Penn's most extravagant and ambitious movie, an attempt to capture the essence of the American heritage in the funny, bitter, uproarious adventures of Jack Crabb, an irritable, 120-odd-year-old gentleman who may or may not have been the sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand.
Little Big Man is Mr. Penn's tough testament to the contrariness of the American experience as witnessed by the durable Mr. Crabb, played mostly by Dustin Hoffman in various amounts of makeup, and by two younger actors who impersonate Crabb while growing up.
It was Crabb's quite extraordinary fate to be captured by the Cheyennes at the age of ten, raised by them as a brave, rescued by the whites at the age of fifteen, and then to spend the next twenty years surviving two marriages, bankruptcy, sometime careers as an Indian scout and con artist, alcoholism, a brief period as a suicidal hermit, and, finally, General Custer's ill-timed decision to push on into the territory of the Little Big Horn.
Five Easy Pieces 1970 DVD
Five Easy Pieces (1970) is a moody, thoughtful character study of an alienated, misfit drifter and drop-out. It tells the story of a rough-neck California oil rigger Robert Dupea (Nicholson) who has turned his back on his well-to-do upbringing and his musical talent. After a period of self-imposed exile, discontent and restlessness for twenty years as a blue-collar worker, he returns to his home for a final reconciling visit when his father is on the verge of dying. There, he finds love with the sophisticated, musical wife of his brother (Anspach), turns his back on his vulgar but well-meaning girlfriend (Black), and then abandons everything by taking flight northward.
The film is most famous for the classic scene of Nicholson's outburst while ordering a chicken salad sandwich in a diner - symbolic of the 60s generation's rebellion and alienation during the Vietnam War Era. A second key scene is the one during traffic gridlock on a California highway, when the oil-rigger leaves his vehicle, jumps up on a truck stalled ahead, and plays a concerto on an upright piano located there.
This was director Bob Rafelson's second film (and his best work) after he had directed the television pop band the Monkees in the mind-blowing Head (1968), a surrealistic and psychedelic film that was co-written with unemployed actor Jack Nicholson, the major star in this film, and emulated the European New Wave pictures of the era. The film was nominated in four categories without Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Supporting Actress (Karen Black), and Best Story and Screenplay (Bob Rafelson and Adrien Joyce).
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Beneath the planet of the apes 1970 DVD
The film opens with the conclusion of the previous film, with a voice-over quotation read by ape/chimpanzee Cornelius (voice of Roddy McDowall), from the 29th scroll, the 6th verse, where it was prophetically written by the Lawgiver and man's nature:
Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him (drive him back into his jungle lair) for he is the harbinger of death.
Primitive mute human Nova (Linda Harrison) and US astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston) left on horseback to follow the shoreline in the quarantined "Forbidden Zone" - "once a paradise" according to orangutan Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) which the human breed made a desert ages ago. Taylor was still determined to find out why there was "a planet where apes evolved from men - there's gotta be an answer." Zaius cautioned: "Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find." Zaius told chimpanzee Zira (Kim Hunter) that Taylor would soon find "his destiny." The opening credits played above Taylor and Nova riding along the beach, and the shocking conclusion (of the previous film), now abbreviated, in which Taylor dismounted to stare upwards, drop to his knees, and pound his fist into the sand: "Damn you all to hell!" (Note: the original was "Goddamn you all to hell"), at the sight of the spiked crown of a battered Statue of Liberty buried waist-deep in beach sand. They continued to ride through the arid desert area.
Two Mules for Sister Sara 1970 DVD
Set in Mexico, a nun called Sara is rescued from three cowboys by Hogan, who is on his way to do some reconnaissance, for a future mission to capture a French fort. The French are chasing Sara, but not for the reasons she tells Hogan, so he decides to help her in return for information about the fort defences. Inevitably the two become good friends but Sara has a secret..
Soldier Blue 1970 DVD
A cavalry unit in Colorado is conducting two important cargoes to Fort Reunion, home of the 11th Colorado Volunteers: Cresta Marybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), the fiancée of an officer in the unit until two years ago, when she was taken by the Cheyenne, and who just escaped; and Captain Battles (Dana Elcar), the paymaster, with a strongbox containing gold. The men are tired -- almost asleep in their saddles -- and frustrated, and doubly so by the presence of Cresta, whose beauty and reputation (by virtue of living two years with savages) is driving them to distraction; all except for Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), a neophyte trooper and wide-eyed innocent. The detachment is ambushed by a Cheyenne war party and the only survivors are Cresta and Honus, who learn to tolerate each other as they struggle across the wilderness and the desert in search of help. An encounter with white trader Isaac Q. Cumber (Donald Pleasence), a profiteer who is running guns to the Indians, nearly results in their deaths, and Honus is seriously wounded. Cresta goes off in search of help and is picked up by a cavalry scout and brought to the 11th Colorado, whose commanding officer, Col. Iverson (John Anderson), is planning a punitive strike against a peaceful Cheyenne encampment over the massacre of the paymaster's party. Cresta tries to secure help for Honus but Iverson is too busy planning bloodshed, and her fiancé, Lt. McNair (Bob Carraway), is just too eager to pick up where he left off with her to listen to her warnings. She rides out on her own and returns to the village where she'd spent the previous two years, while Honus manages to survive to reach Iverson. He ends up along for the assault on the village, which takes place despite the chieftain Spotted Wolf (Jorge Rivera) flying a flag of truce and an American flag given him at a previous negotiation with the whites. The Native Americans defend themselves when fired upon with artillery and rifles, and all hell breaks lose -- virtually all of the men in the village are killed in the first assault, and then the soldiers spot the women, children, and old men, and there begins an orgy of rape, mutilation, beheadings, dismemberment, and torture before Honus' horrified eyes by joyously shrieking soldiers. Cresta kills a soldier who tries to rape her and intends to die with her Native American family but is pulled out, only to watch the slaughter continue. In the end, Honus is left to be marched back to Fort Reunion as a prisoner for trying to stop the killing, and Iverson expresses pride and satisfaction at what he's done, while Cresta and a tiny handful of survivors -- almost all old men and women -- watch in mute horror and anger.~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 1970 NTSC Laserdisc Special Edition
Director Billy Wilder here gives an affectionate comic spin to the great detective partnership, casting a wonderfully theatrical Robert Stephens as Holmes and a bemusedly stolid Colin Blakely as Dr Watson. Wilder was enraged when studio executives insisted on whittling the proposed four stories in the screenplay down to two as the idea for the film had always been a favourite of his. Holmes in Love (with Genevieve Page), though, is a sight to behold and The Adventure of the Mini-Submarine, featuring Queen Victoria, is bizarre and even wistful fun. The Baker Street set by the great Alexander Trauner is a superb piece of craftsmanship — an architectural metaphor for the film itself.
The Railway children 1970 DVD
The film opens in a happy, comfortable upper middle-class home in Victorian London. One night the three children see their father usher two strangers into his study. After an argument he leaves with them and does not return. They and their mother fall on hard times and eventually move to a cottage in the country. Yet they keep their spirits up and find ways to help others. Fascinated by the nearby railroad, they wave to the passengers faithfully every day, and their vigilance and courage prevent an accident. Their kindness makes friends of some important people who can help solve the mystery of their missing father.
The Vampire Lovers 1970 DVD
The Countess is called away to tend a sick friend and imposes on the General to accept her daughter Marcilla as a houseguest. Some of the villagers begin dying, however, and the General's daughter Laura soon gets weak and pale, but Marcilla is there to comfort her. The villagers begin whispering about vampires as Marcilla finds another family on which to impose herself. The pattern repeats as Emma gets ill, but the General cannot rest, and seeks the advice of Baron Hartog, who once dealt a decisive blow against a family of vampires.
The Molly Maguires 1970 DVD
Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage and murder. A detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired to infiltrate the group and report on its members. But on which side do his sympathies lie?
Taste the Blood of Dracula 1970 DVD
Three elderly distinguished gentlemen are searching for some excitement in their boring borgoueis lives and gets in contact with one of count Dracula's servants. In a nightly ceremony they restore the count back to life. The three men killed Dracula's servant and as a revenge, the count makes sure that the gentlemen are killed one by one by their own sons.
Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält aka Mark of the Devil 1970 NTSC Laserdisc
Udo Kier is a witch hunter apprentice to Herbert Lom. He believes strongly in his mentor and the ways of the church but loses faith when he catches Lom strangling Reggie Nalder to death for calling him impotent. Kier begins to see for himself that the witch trials are nothing but a scam of the church to rob people of their land, money, and other personal belongings of value and seduce beautiful big breasted women. In the end, the towns people revolt, Herbert Lom escapes and poor Udo is tortured to death by the towns people with the his own torture devices. This film contains very strong graphic torture including a women's tongue being ripped out of her head, nuns being raped(in the opening credits), and lots of beatings.
They call me MISTER Tibbs! 1970 DVD
With the emphasis on the Mister, it's Sidney Poitier, back again as the black detective after his love-hate relationship with sheriff Rod Steiger worked so well in In the Heat of the Night. Here he's investigating the killing of a hooker who was close to his friend Martin Landau, and the usual clichés about a cop's fraught domestic life form a counterpoint to the main action. Poitier is impressive in his ruthless integrity, but the the character contrast of the original is slightly missed.
Scream and scream again 1970 DVD
This highly regarded but occasionally confusing sci-fi horror tale is tinged with political allegory. Vincent Price (in one of the few present-day pictures he made) is a scientist creating an artificial super-race via gruesome transplant surgery for a foreign fascist power. Peter Cushing is an ex-Nazi and Christopher Lee a British agent in veteran genre director Gordon Hessler's imaginative blood-curdler, but the three leads' highly publicised (at the time) have virtually no scenes together. Giving a more straightforward performance than normal, Price lends dignity and class to some credible chills.
Scars of Dracula 1970 DVD (R2 and R1)
Christopher Lee thinks this is his weakest Dracula sequel, but Hammer horror fans like it because the Count has more screen time here than in any other episode. There's also a palpable dark fairy-tale atmosphere achieved by director Roy Ward Baker as Dracula tries sinking his fangs into naive Transylvanian travellers Dennis Waterman and Jenny Hanley. Propping up the formula vampire tale are a memorable death by lightning climax, and more blood, sadism and rubber bats than ever before.
Too Late the Hero 1970 DVD
Cliff Robertson stars as U.S. Navy interpreter Lt. Sam Lawson, assigned by Captain John G. Nolan (Henry Fonda) to join a British Commando unit tasked with destroying a Japanese communications center in preparation for a coming major Allied push in the South Pacific. Led by the incompetent Captain Hornsby (Denholm Elliott), the unit is made up of burnt-out soldiers -- personified by caustic medic Pvt. Tosh Hearne (Michael Caine) -- who want no part of the false glory inherent in this suicide mission for which they have been "volunteered."
Just as the in-fighting within the team begins to build to a head, the unit comes in contact with the enemy and all prior disagreements give way to primal survival instincts as the commando unit is brutally reduced to just two men -- Lawson and Tosh. The reluctant heroes must now not only fight for their own survival against the very capable Japanese Major Yamaguchi’s (Ken Takakura) forces, they must also decide whether to complete their mission or run for safety.
This type of war movie was quite popular in the 60s and 70s and there is really nothing unique in this portrayal of disgruntled warriors at the brink of physical and mental exhaustion. While Cliff Robertson shares top billing and does a fine job, it’s Michael Caine who delivers the grittiest performance as the wise-cracking Everyman soldier Tosh. This is the type of role that Caine once owned on the silver screen and it’s a delight to watch him in his full-on Cockney glory.
Cry of the Banshee 1970 DVD
s a kind of follow up to the successful Witchfinder General, Price plays another witch-hunter in this film set in old England. This time, he's also the town's Lord and is even more sadistic and corrupt than the character he played in "Worm."
His character is kind of an amalgamation of the one he played in that film and the evil prince he played in "Masque of the Red Death." But, unlike Witchfinder General he's back to hamming it up, going overboard on the sadism and, later, despair, as a witch's curse starts killing off members of his family.
Hessler also directed the superior "Scream and Scream Again." For this critically panned movie, Hessler really ups the nudity quotient, so much so that it's a surprise to see Price in such a sex-laden picture. It seems like just about every female character in the film has a nude scene. Like "Scream and Scream Again," "Banshee" doesn't have a very strong plot. Unfortunately, it doesn't have that films swingin' '70s sensibilities and rock/jazz score to propel it to a high level. Price also isn't in the movie much, leaving most of the action to his sons in the movie.
Carry on Loving 1970 DVD
During the late 60s/early 70s, the Carry On team put out two movies a year, and a Christmas special. Given that all the stars also had other work on as well, it's remarkable that the standards remained as high as they did. 'Loving' is no exception.
Sid James and Hattie Jacques run the Wedded Bliss Marital Agency, where they use the most high-tech equipment to ensure their clients meet the partner of their dreams. Only it's not so simple. For starters, Sid and Hattie aren't actually married – whilst Sidney Bliss refers to her as his loving and devoted wife, Hattie is actually Miss Sophie Plummer. All they have is an 'understanding' - and one that lets Sid keep back all the best girls on the books for himself, including Joan Sims's Esme Crowfoot. Even the computer is a fake - the card input slot feeds straight through to the next room, where Sophie selects the best 'match' from a card index and shoves it through another slot back to Sid.
Their clients are no better – especially Terry Scott, who is obviously only looking to get his leg over, and Richard O'Callaghan, who is looking to impress his girl with his collection of model aircraft made from milk bottle tops.
Cold Sweat 1970 DVD
A guilt-ridden hitman Joe (Bronson), who bailed out of a job seven years before, has become an expatriate living in France. Now married, with wife (Liv Ullman) and stepdaughter, he runs a charter boat and at the same time one of his former cohorts shows up. A fight ensues and Bronson kills him. Unfortunately, the victim is only a vanguard for three new adversaries who make Bronson a deadly proposal. It is now Bronson's turn to take the initiative. He kidnaps his adversary's (James Mason) wife (Jill Ireland), steals his money, and stashes both for a trade. The ball is now in Mason's court and treachery is well within his grasp . Yet, a third player appears unbeknownst to either man...
Carry on Up the Jungle 1970 DVD
Of the two Carry On misadventures featuring the fantastic Frankie Howerd, "Carry On Up the Jungle" is often forgotten in favour of the excellent Carry On Doctor three years earlier, and there's a reason for this.
The boundaries of bawdy humour were pushed to the extreme for the manic Carry On Camping, losing the innocence of the series that was still present in Carry On Doctor, so we hit the 1970's and everything seems to be out in the open.
And to continue the long-running series, director Gerald Thomas and producer Peter Rogers chose to set the nineteenth film in the heart of the African jungle, but of course the cast and crew never left Pinewood Studios!
Horror of Frankenstein 1970 DVD
Viewers expecting a classic version of the Frankenstein story such as was seen in the Boris Karloff trilogy back in the 1930's are liable to be disappointed with "Horror of Frankenstein", however there is much to admire in this updated story. Hammer Studios always had a way of creating good looking productions out of small budgets and while this film does at times reveal some short cuts they are not ones that detract from the story. Ralph Bates, stepping into the shoes of the legendary Peter Cushing certainly had his work cut out for him here however he does a more than capable job in his one outing in this famous role. His Victor Frankenstein is all charm and good looks on the surface which hides a very corrupt and sinister character underneath that cares for neither family or friends. Ralph Bates was an extremely talented actor who was being groomed at this time for greater things with Hammer Productions just as their prolific output of horror efforts was slowing down. His combination of good looks, and talent for playing characters that were both good and bad made him a natural for these type of horror stories. The supporting actors surrounding Bates in this effort couldn't be faulted and represent a fine school of performers that were typical of these late Hammer era productions. Actress Veronica Carlson had already appeared in one of the earlier Peter Cushing Frankenstein efforts for Hammer, "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!", when she came on board here playing the role of Elizabeth Heiss, Baron Frankenstein's childhood friend who still carries a flame for him. Kate O'Mara really shines in the role of the seductive servant Alys who gets more than she bargains for when she tries to play Victor Frankenstein at his own game for which she pays dearly. Being a story about creating a human being out of used body parts obviously means that grave robbers would naturally feature prominently in the story. Here Dennis Price as the hard drinking grave robber of this story who supplies Victor with the corpses he needs for his "work", delivers an at times amusing perfomance and his scenes with his wife (Joan Rice), have a certain amount of macabre humour to them. Their best scene togethe ris when they are disturbing the fresh graves in the cemetary and the gentleman gets his poor wife to do the actual digging while he discusses the fortune they will make from a reported tragedy at sea that finds bodies being washed ashore along the coast! Jon Finch as Victor's childhood friend Lt. Becker who leads the investigation into the deaths and Bernard Archard as Elizabeth's father who becomes Victor's prey when a fresh brain is needed also score well in their respective parts. Much debate has always arisen over David Prowse as the Monster. Certainly his creature could never compete in appearance or personality with Boris Karloff's classic interpretation of the character however with each screening of "Horror of Frankenstein", I feel he makes an acceptable creature in his own right if you dont try and compare him to Karloff. Certainly his scenes where he is trying to break loose from his chains or is wandering around the countryside striking terror into the locals or tearing apart a bird to eat raw have their own horrific qualities. Visually "Horror of Frankenstein", could afford to be more explicit than many of the earlier versions given the year it was made. This is best illustrated in the gruesome scenes when Victor is assembling the creature from sawn off body parts and when he wipes his face with blood covered hands during the "operation", which gives this film a far more raw quality than in previous Hammer efforts. Period detail in all respects is certainly a strong point of "Horror of Frankenstein", with the attractive Victorian atmosphere well represented in costume and sets. Frankenstein's lab where he conducts his experiments is one that we have come to expect from Hammer Productions filled as it is with bubbling containers, test tubes and assorted wires, in short the classic mad scientist's lab in vivid colour.
The Man who haunted himself 1970 DVD
Sir Roger Moore is known primarily as everyone's favourite British secret agent 007 but has been involved in many other films, such as this little-known 1970 release which gives him a rare chance to flex his acting muscles. Directed by Basil Dearden - who was responsible for the classic romp The Assassination Bureau and an episode in one of the first anthology horror movies, the legendary Dead Of Night - The Man Who Haunted Himself is a psychological thriller with a supernatural edge.
Inspired by a short story from the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series the narrative centres on uptight businessman Harold Pelham. After a strange car crash & subsequent overseas convalescence he returns to work. But things start to take a bizarre turn when colleagues claim to see him in places he has not been and acting out of character. All this occurs amid the rather hostile takeover negations of his company and as the plot progresses and the activities of this other self increase Pelham feels his sense of reality slowly ebbing away. What begins, he thinks, as the childish prank of friends becomes a more dangerous game as he endeavours to discover the truth. But at what cost?
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