Whipped Cream Difficulties

Okay, not really. But Insta had a link up to a list of “memorable movie hitmen“, and that list prompted some discussion with Lawrence.

I’d never heard of “Charley Varrick” until I read that list, and I find myself intrigued; directed by the same guy who directed “Dirty Harry“, and starring both Walter Matthau and Mitchell? This sounds like a must-see. (However, as Lawrence pointed out, this looks like a crappy transfer with a screwed-up aspect ratio.)

Anyway, that got us talking about a potential lineup for a “70s Crime Film Fest”. My rules for this were:

1. I wanted to pick somewhat less celebrated films. “The French Connection” and the two “Godfather” movies are wonderful, I’m sure, but I was looking for stuff people hadn’t seen before.
2. One film per director.

Here’s a tentative list we came up with:

• “Prime Cut“: Gene Hackman? Lee Marvin? Michael Ritchie? I’ve heard good things about this one.
• “The Friends of Eddie Coyle“: now available from the Criterion Collection, no less.
• “A New Leaf”: the availability of this on DVD seems somewhat iffy, but I’d like to see it if we could find it. Walter Matthau again, directed by Elaine “Ishtar” May, in an adaptation of a short story by the great mystery writer Jack Ritchie. (If you’ve never heard of Jack Ritchie, well, one, you’re unfortunate, and two, he was basically the Howard Waldrop of mystery writing.) I’m thinking this would be a nice, light, funny film; sort of a sorbet to clean the palate.
• “Mean Streets“: neither one of us has seen this, and the reasons for including it should be obvious.
• “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot“: Clint Eastwood! The Dude! Michael Cimino before “Heaven’s Gate“!
• “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three“: the original one, not the crappy remake. Matthau again; I’m worried this list might have too much Matthau.
• “The Laughing Policeman“: especially if I include this one, which is a bizarre adaptation of one of Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Swedish police procedurals, moved to San Francisco.
• “Family Plot” or “Frenzy“: I bow to nobody in my love for Hitchcock, but I’d always heard “Family Plot” was…well…not good. Lawrence informs me, however, that Roger Ebert gave it three stars. So how bad could it really be? “Frenzy”, on the other hand, gets four stars from Roger. Plus violence and nudity! But “Family Plot” has Karen Black! Decisions, decisions…

Something I stumbled across while researching this list, and feel a need to mention here, is “Made in U.S.A.“. Wow, this is…odd. Jean-Luc Godard directing an adaptation of one of Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark’s Parker novels. And not the first one, but one from later in the series (“The Jugger“). Except the amoral thief Parker seems to have been replaced by a leftist writer named Paula. And the characters have names like “Richard Widmark”, “Donald Siegel”, “David Goodis”, and “Richard Nixon”. And apparently, Godard adapted Westlake’s novel, but didn’t feel any need to, you know, actually pay Westlake anything for the rights. So Westlake sued (Pay the writer you a–hole!) and had the film suppressed in this country until after his death.

This movie prompted me to ask the question: “What the f–k was Godard smoking?” However, as a 1966 film, it falls outside the scope of our planned 70s crime film festival.

Anyone got any other suggestions for 70s crime films I missed? Leave them in the comments. Those of you who are local and who we know personally, we’ll let you know if we pull this together as a real event.

Edited to add: Lawrence pointed out that I forgot the original “Get Carter” on our list.

Edited to add 2: I think it is required by the Internet police that any reference to Karen Black has to include a link to The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.

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