It was distributed by American International Pictures and began De Palma’s solid string of quirky hits in the 1970s and early ’80s, followed by PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, CARRIE, THE FURY, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW-OUT, and SCARFACE. Directed by Roy Ward Baker.īrian De Palma established a name for himself with this innovative, piercing Hitchcock-inspired thriller with performances by Jennifer Salt, Margot Kidder and Charles Durning, and a distinctive music score by Bernard Herrmann, who’d done seven films for Hitchcock (and represented a Hollywood comeback for Herrmann, who’d been previously exiled after his dramatic break with Hitchcock in 1966).

There’s a great vampire story in this one co-starring two acting siblings, Daniel Massey and Anna Massey (children of Raymond Massey). Comics stories from the 1950s after the previous year’s successful TALES FROM THE CRYPT. The second British film to be composed of dramatizations of classic E.C. Diana Rigg as his eager helpmate of a daughter leads an all-star supporting cast of British acting greats. Vincent Price as a demented actor taking gruesome revenge on all the critics who’d panned him. (It was the same theater where I saw PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID.)īrian Roper, Margaret O’Brien, Dean Stockwell in the Technicolor finale of THE SECRET GARDEN (1949, MGM) As far as I can tell, the family audience all stayed for the AIP double feature and a good time was had by all. Interestingly, this double bill played right after a children’s matinee of the MGM classic, THE SECRET GARDEN (1949) starring Margaret O’Brien and Dean Stockwell. Directed by Lee Frost for American International Pictures.Ī typically atmospheric Mario Bava horror thriller from Italy starring Joseph Cotten and Elke Sommer. Starring a rugged male cast led by Rod Taylor, Richard Harris, Neville Brand, Al Lettieri, and William Smith.Īlthough both of these films were officially 1972 releases, I saw them on a double bill in February 1973 during the week they opened in New York:Ĭomedy sci-fi thriller with former football star Rosey Grier as a convict who gets the head of dying tycoon Ray Milland implanted alongside of his own in order to give Milland continued life, but spelling eventual doom for Grier. This brutal western shot in Spain was started by Sam Fuller, who was replaced early in the production by Barry Shear (ACROSS 110TH STREET). I saw this on a double bill at a grindhouse theater on Market Street, San Francisco’s equivalent of the Deuce. I had it on VHS once and I hope I still do.Ī Clint Eastwood vengeance classic and the second film he directed (after PLAY MISTY FOR ME, in 1971), showing the influences of his two key mentors, Sergio Leone and Don Siegel (to whom he dedicated his Oscar-winning 1992 western, UNFORGIVEN).Ī standard John Wayne vehicle directed by Burt Kennedy.

I’m still eager to see this version again. That’s how great the film was, even in its re-edited form, and how appreciative of westerns this South Bronx audience was. The audience was noisy and restless during MELINDA, with kids running up and down the aisles, but everyone was dead quiet for PAT GARRETT. I remember seeing PAT GARRETT on a Saturday afternoon in a Bronx theater where it played with the previous year’s blaxploitation hit, MELINDA. Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan in PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID I also remember seeing a TV cut in the 1980s, which doesn’t seem to exist anymore, which had some of the missing scenes. I watched the most recent cut for this piece, which includes scenes that were cut from previous versions. The version released to theaters was disowned by Peckinpah and new versions were crafted long after his death, one in 1988 and again, from Turner Entertainment, in 2005. One of Sam Peckinpah’s western masterpieces, this one stars James Coburn as Garrett and Kris Kristofferson as Billy, with a high-powered supporting cast of western veterans. (There was more of a slow roll-out in those days and films that opened in two or three theaters in Manhattan sometimes stayed there for months.) Here are more films I saw in their original release either in 1973 or 1974, when they finally showed up at neighborhood theaters. Since I covered so many cop and crime films, Blaxploitation and kung fu in Part 1, I decided to post a second entry for everything else from 1973: westerns, horror, sci-fi, animation, critical favorites, and some of the great 1973 releases of all genres I discovered much later in revival theaters, on television, or home video.

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