Blue Rita - 1977 - Switzerland

Blue Rita - 1977 - 5/10 
AKA - Das Frauenhaus

 
Blue Rita is the name of the club and the proprietress.
Serving a clientele of the sophisticated and jaded.
It is also a place where Blue Rita and her lesbian operatives capture and torture spies.
Extorting information and bank accounts.
Absurd Jess Franco flick is awash in nudity and Pop Art.
Interesting camera work and angles, although I suspect a targeted porn audience would grow bored.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3372671

Ants - 1977 - USA

Ants - 1977 - 5/10 
AKA - It Happened At Lakewood Manor

 
A construction crew upsets a gargantuan colony of ants.
Do they notice?  Ha, ha, silly.
A hundred-year-old hotel, is now under attack by crawlies, as well as a greedy property developer.
Preposterous in many aspects, but will make you itchy, nevertheless.
Most of the “rescue” strategies turn out to be unintentionally funny.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3372261

Shock Waves - 1977 - USA

Shock Waves - 1977 - 5/10

 
The boat carrying tourists starts having trouble.  Engine, navigation.
Matters worsen when they encounter an orange mist, and a derelict ship.
Captain goes missing (RIP Skipper) so they row towards a small island.
Lone inhabitant, a weathered SS officer, who realizes the derelict is a dangerous vessel.
Carrying unstoppable, unkillable Nazi zombies!
Cheap Horror outing suffers from budget constraints, poor plot, repetitive sequences, and it is dull.

Anna Karenina - 1977 - UK

Anna Karenina - 1977 - 7/10

 
Lavish (in its day) adaptation of Tolstoy’s doomed heroine.
Anna, in a loveless marriage to an older man, a count, meets the dashing Vronsky.
Sparks ignite, and they attempt to deny the physical attraction.  As if.
Lust, betrayal, romance, Fate, with a capital F.
Nicola Pagett and Stuart Wilson share electric chemistry.
At ten episodes, this breathes and goes deeply into the novel.
Gorgeous originally, this now appears a trifle faded.

Eraserhead - 1977 - USA

Eraserhead - 1977 - 7/10

 
I first screened this in 1977 as a midnight flick.
Henry’s love life is the stuff of nightmare.
A girlfriend who swiftly gets pregnant, births a monstrosity, then flees.
His apartment, merely a chamber in Hell.
Again and again, I feel like all of this is internal.
That Henry is either mad, or withdrawn into himself to the point of shutdown.
Mind you, there are dozens of theories / explanations / arguments for this film (horror, experimental, surreal).
Hopelessly funny at times.

Stigma - 1977 - UK

Stigma - 1977 - 6/10

 
Workmen voice they would leave the stone undisturbed, but the new owner wants it shifted.
Katherine, standing nearby when it is lifted, feels an ill wind course through her.
Afterward, she is increasingly out of sorts, blood weeping from her pores.
The landscape casts a timeless aura, and explanations are vague guesses.
Katherine is able to keep the blood secret from her family, which I found surprising.
(Note: My bride said females keep secrets from men all the time.  Point.)

Between The Lines - 1977 - USA

Between The Lines - 1977 - 6/10

 
Staff meeting at Boston’s local newsrag, Back Bay Mainline.
Stories pitched, circulation numbers discussed, ad revenue, squabbles.
The paper is struggling, and there are internal rumors of a buyout.
Main focus is on personalities and male-female relationships.
Very much a prescient time capsule of the late 70’s.
Capturing the last flickers of idealism, showing the approaching greed of the 80’s.

Curse Of The Dog God - 1977 - Japan

Curse Of The Dog God - 1977 - 6/10
AKA - Inugami no Tatari  // 犬神の悪霊

 
Three men, racing down the backroads, Geiger counter suddenly clicking like mad.
So excited, they accidentally smash into a small shrine, then run down and kill a dog.
Yes, they brought this on themselves.  Even though they are ignorant for a while.
Nevertheless, one marries a village girl who soon realizes her husband is under the curse.
Trying to protect him drives her insane, and she is possessed.
Above, the husband about to succumb to the intruder inhabiting his wife.
Twin evils throughout: ancient curse, modern uranium.  Village superstitions, motorcycle thugs.

Norman Conquests: Round And Round The Garden - 1977 - UK

The Norman Conquests: Round And Round The Garden - 1977 - 7/10

 
Final part of the trilogy, this one set in the back garden.
This opens earliest, with Tom arriving for an injured cat, then Norman, then Reg and Sarah.
One ought NOT watch this first, however, as subsequent proceedings stem from indoor incidents.
Any sympathy for Norman collapses in this outing.
Norman is an emotional huckster with a smooth lie, “I can make you happy.”

 
He comes off as a pathetic sleaze.  One wonders at the desperation quotient of females drawn to him.
Norman is a charade, miserable himself, with radar for similar sufferers.
Ayckbourn comedy mixed with poignancy may rouse your ire.

Norman Conquests: Living Together - 1977 - UK

The Norman Conquests: Living Together - 1977 - 7/10

 
Concurrent with events in the dining room are those within the living room.
Norman seems more subdued here, perhaps guilty over his treatment of veterinarian Tom.
Reg has devised a new board game that no one is interested in.
Less explosive than the dining room, yet one senses undercurrents of quiet despair and ennui.
These are sad people, perhaps depressed, perhaps in denial.
Save for Tom, poor thing, who simply possesses no social skills, no radar for negativity.

Norman Conquests: Table Manners - 1977 - UK

The Norman Conquests: Table Manners - 1977 - 7/10

 
Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy of manners of strained marriages.
Disappointed wives, a “kept” husband, a spinster sister who seems destined for a dullard.
Norman may be “kept” but he makes lecherous advances.
He is obnoxiously juvenile, gratingly so.
Still, never overlook the female prerogative to get soppy for fools.
This looks very much like British telly of the era. (eg: Are You Being Served?, Good Neighbors.
I found it amusingly odd to see Margo and Tom as a couple.

Summer City - 1977 - Australia

Summer City - 1977 - 5/10

 
Sandy is about to get married, shackled as mates would say, so the lads head to the coast for a fling.
Arguments, flirty women, the dance hall, endless pints of beer, jailbait, surfing.
All seem game for a laugh, save for Sandy, a more reserved, thoughtful type.
Counter-balanced by Boo, a loud, obnoxious throwback who antagonizes everyone.
Underrated Oz flick, where it’s not the slow pace, it’s the characters one observes.
As above, John Jarratt and Mel Gibson.
Subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3361067

Damnation Alley - 1977 - USA

Damnation Alley - 1977 - 5/10

 
World War III ignites and much of Earth is annihilated, one exception being a Mojave Desert Air Force Base.
And yet … there are radio signals from Albany, New York.
A handful of survivors set forth in armored land vehicles (which might have inspired Aliens).
Obstacles include scorpions the size of pool tables, swarming killer cockroaches, and hillbillies.
I tell you this, those vehicles got damn good mileage.  I never saw them refuel.
Every place they stopped, Vegas or nonworking gas station, every place had been hit with feather duster.
Altogether mediocre SciFi, that participants might have been foolishly optimistic about.
Unaware that, across the Atlantic, George Lucas was guiding a project in England.

Private House Of The SS - 1977 - Italy

Private House Of The SS - 1977 - 5/10
AKA - Casa Privata per le SS

 
Breasts and swastikas - for many, that will be inducement enough.
Following the botched assassination of Hitler, the SS decides to investigate the military command further.
The recruit a dozen high class prostitutes and train them (judo, fencing, ballet, shooting).
Then invite the top Wehrmacht brass to their brothel for a night of debauchery and orgies.
And when that group expends itself, the SS invites another batch.
You’d think with all the nudity and larking about this would be kinky fun.
While decadent elements recall Salo (1975), this one grows tiresome.

Swedish Nympho Slaves - 1977 - Switzerland

Swedish Nympho Slaves - 1977 - 5/10
AKA - Die Sklavinnen

 
Ignore the opening scene, set in a “police station” / gentlemen’s club,
The subsequent prison break frees the notorious Princess Arminda, just to snare her.
Under torture, she confesses to numerous misdeeds.
Seducing a multimillionaire’s daughter, drugging her, kidnapping, then turning her into a prostitute.
Being a Jess Franco film, there is gratuitous sex and nudity.
The story flirts with Noir, there is decent camerawork, exotic Portugal locations.
Nevertheless, this is a patched-together affair (check Lina’s hairstyles) cobbled from numerous shoots.

Slap Shot - 1977 - USA

Slap Shot - 1977 - 7/10

 
Homage to the sport I’ve always referred to as “wrestling on skates”.
Struggling minor league hockey team in a dying town.
To boost attendance, and profits, the coach tries publicity stunts.
Not much works, until he brings in the Hanson brothers.
Similar to goofy, likeable teens, except extraordinarily violent.
One of the funniest films, and depressing (where I grew up, the steel mill was finally demolished in 2021), this also revels in humanity’s bloodlust.
Paul Newman excellent in this (he ought to have done more comedies).
Mind you, once the Hanson’s arrive, they own the screen.

Blue Nude - 1977 - Italy

Blue Nude - 1977 - 6/10
AKA - Nuda Prohibida

 
Sleazy, smutty tale of Italian “actor” trying to make it in New York.
He is optimistic, good-natured, hopeful.
“If Pacino, de Niro, even Stallone can make it, so can I!”
Rocco pounds the pavement for roles, hustles for money.
Dog-walker, tour guide, gigolo, male stripper (clients are not models, but foul mouthed grannies).
Eventually, he drifts into porn.
As painful as things go for him, colleagues spiral into the violent, sadistic videos.
Cheap looking, unpleasant, with fabulous street scenes of pre-sanitized New York.

English subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3349448

Kingdom Of The Spiders - 1977 - USA

Kingdom Of The Spiders - 1977 - 5/10

 
Shatner alert.
A rancher’s calf is dead.  Calls the vet – first name Rack, please – who discovers it was killed by spider venom.
Right quick, an arachnologist hits the scene.  Female and attractive (remember, this is a Shatner flick).
Soon, more livestock is killed, and even A DOG!
A humongous spider mound is discovered, and our experts decide:
“Ooh, I guess some gasoline will take care of business.”
Definitely a cult winner, this holds up – IF – you don’t think too much.
Despite being a theatrical release, this feels like a TV movie.

High Anxiety - 1977 - USA

High Anxiety - 1977 - 6/10

 
Dr. Thorndyke arrives in Los Angeles to take over the Institute for the Very Nervous.
His predecessor had died under mysterious circumstances.
Throndyke suffers from acrophobia, which the Institute’s cliff location exacerbates.
Satire / parody of Hitchcock films is well done.
References include Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho, even Citizen Kane.
Jokes and sight gags land most of the time.  When they don’t, that’s OK because you are recalling other films, as well as the locations used.
As with much of Mel Brooks, some of his humor is tasteless or puerile, forever 12 years old.
Hitchcock was actually involved with this one, so there.

Annie Hall - 1977 - USA

Annie Hall - 1977 - 8/10

 
Through a series of flashbacks, Alvy tries to grasp how his romance with Annie collapsed.
City boy, small town girl new to the city, there is a Pygmalion element.
Childhoods differ vastly, as do outlooks and expectations.
Even the way they view each other, and worry how they are perceived.
Marvelous sequences break the fourth wall, especially with surprise cameos.
Gordon Willis cinematography elevates this from all preceding Allen works.
This is where Allen lost many old fans, expecting more silly farces.
A romantic comedy, wise and bittersweet, for adults.