59 Fun Facts About 70s Movies

Who directed The Godfather (1972)?

Bogdanovich was among the directors who turned the job down; Coppola co-wrote the script with novelist Mario Puzo.

Marlon Brando declined his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather and sent whom to the podium instead?

Sacheen Littlefeather, an actress and activist, took the stage in Brando's place at the 1973 ceremony and refused the statuette, citing Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.

The Godfather Part II (1974) made Academy Awards history how?

Robert De Niro played the young Vito Corleone, the role that had won Brando his Oscar two years earlier.

Who directed Jaws (1975)?

Steven Spielberg directed Jaws at 27; shooting at sea off Martha's Vineyard ran months over schedule, and the film became the highest-grossing release to that point.

Why does the shark appear so little in Jaws?

He suggested its presence instead, helped by John Williams's two-note theme.

Which 1973 hit gave George Lucas the leverage to secure the merchandising and sequel rights to Star Wars?

Made for $777,000, American Graffiti became one of the most profitable films ever.

Star Wars was distributed in 1977 by which studio?

Twentieth Century-Fox financed and distributed Star Wars after Universal and United Artists passed; studio head Alan Ladd Jr. championed the project.

Who wrote and starred in Rocky (1976)?

Sylvester Stallone wrote the script in a matter of days and insisted on starring, turning down larger offers; made for about $1 million, Rocky won Best Picture.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) was only the second film ever to do what at the Oscars?

Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Adapted Screenplay; It Happened One Night did it first and The Silence of the Lambs later.

Which film beat Star Wars to the Best Picture Oscar for 1977?

Woody Allen's Annie Hall took four Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Diane Keaton, in a role written for her.

Who plays Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)?

Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, the insomniac Vietnam veteran turned cabbie; the film won the 1976 Palme d'Or and later inspired John Hinckley Jr.'s 1981 attack on Reagan.

Chinatown (1974) is loosely inspired by which real-life conflict?

Robert Towne's script transposes the California water wars, the early-1900s diversion of the Owens Valley's water to Los Angeles, to a 1930s murder mystery.

In Grease (1978), Sandy is a transfer student from which country?

Sandy comes from Australia; the character was American in the stage show and was rewritten after Olivia Newton-John, who was raised there, was cast.

Saturday Night Fever (1977) was based on a magazine article that turned out to be what?

Nik Cohn's 1976 New York magazine piece 'Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night' was mostly fictional; he admitted in 1996 that he had invented its disco-king protagonist.

Who plays Ripley in Alien (1979)?

Sigourney Weaver, in her first lead role, plays Ellen Ripley, the warrant officer who outlasts the crew; she returned for three sequels.

Apocalypse Now (1979) is loosely based on which novella?

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness supplied the river journey toward a renegade named Kurtz; the film moves it from the Congo to wartime Vietnam and Cambodia.

Which star suffered a near-fatal heart attack during the Apocalypse Now shoot?

Martin Sheen, playing Captain Willard, suffered a heart attack in March 1977 during the Philippines shoot, at age 36, and was back filming within weeks.

The Sting (1973) reunited which two stars of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

Paul Newman and Robert Redford, the 1969 Butch Cassidy pair, play con men Gondorff and Hooker; George Roy Hill directed both films, and Robert Shaw is their mark.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) was adapted from a novel by which author?

Anthony Burgess published A Clockwork Orange in 1962, inventing its Nadsat slang; Stanley Kubrick wrote, produced and directed the 1971 adaptation.

In The French Connection (1971), Gene Hackman plays a detective with what nickname?

Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle was based on real narcotics detective Eddie Egan.

Which French director acts in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as scientist Claude Lacombe?

François Truffaut, the New Wave director of The 400 Blows, plays Claude Lacombe, the French scientist leading the UFO investigation, in his only appearance in an American film.

Who directed Superman (1978), starring Christopher Reeve?

Richard Donner directed Superman, shooting it back-to-back with much of Superman II before he was replaced on the sequel by Richard Lester.

Michael Myers's mask in Halloween (1978) was made from a $1.98 mask of which TV character?

The mask was a Captain Kirk mask, molded from William Shatner's face, bought for $1.98 and spray-painted white with the eyebrows and sideburns removed.

Who plays Willy Wonka in the 1971 film?

Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay from his own novel; five Golden Tickets are hidden in Wonka Bars.

Who was Mel Brooks's original choice to play Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles (1974)?

Pryor co-wrote the script but the studio reportedly refused to insure him; Cleavon Little took the role.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) was partly financed by which rock bands?

Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd each put money into the film when no studio would; Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson and record labels such as Charisma also invested.

In The Deer Hunter (1978), the steelworkers are from a town near which city?

The characters live in Clairton, a steel town just south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela; the film won five Oscars including Best Picture and Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken.

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) won Best Picture and acting Oscars for Dustin Hoffman and whom?

Meryl Streep won Best Supporting Actress as Joanna Kramer, her first Oscar; Hoffman took Best Actor, and eight-year-old Justin Henry became the youngest nominee in any competitive category.

Dirty Harry (1971) drew on the real case of which murderer?

The Scorpio killer is modelled on the Zodiac Killer, who murdered at least five people around San Francisco in 1968–69 and taunted police with ciphers.

Enter the Dragon (1973) was notable as what for Bruce Lee?

He died on 20 July 1973, aged 32, weeks before its release.

Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) was partly inspired by which real murderer?

Ed Gein, the Wisconsin killer arrested in 1957 who made furniture and masks from human skin, inspired Leatherface's skin mask; the plot itself is fictional.

Carrie (1976), starring Sissy Spacek, was adapted from whose debut novel?

Stephen King's Carrie, published in 1974, was his first novel; Brian De Palma's film earned Oscar nominations for Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie.

Peter Finch won Best Actor for Network (1976) in what circumstance?

His Howard Beale was his final role; Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight also won for the film.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) dramatises a real 1972 robbery of a bank in which New York borough?

The August 1972 hold-up hit a Chase Manhattan branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn; Al Pacino plays a version of robber John Wojtowicz, profiled in Life as 'The Boys in the Bank'.

In All the President's Men (1976), Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play which journalists?

Bob Woodward (Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Hoffman) are the Washington Post reporters whose Watergate coverage the film follows; William Goldman's screenplay won an Oscar.

Who plays the hunchbacked assistant Igor in Young Frankenstein (1974)?

Marty Feldman, the bug-eyed British comedian, plays Igor, who insists it is pronounced 'Eye-gor' and whose hump keeps switching sides.

Animal House (1978) is set at which fictional campus?

Faber College, whose motto 'Knowledge Is Good' opens the film, is the fictional 1962 campus where Bluto and the Deltas battle Dean Wormer; it was shot at the University of Oregon.

Mad Max (1979) was the directorial debut of which Australian filmmaker?

George Miller, a former emergency-room doctor, made Mad Max as his first feature with producer Byron Kennedy; Mel Gibson stars as the vengeful highway patrolman.

Who wrote The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and plays Riff Raff in it?

Richard O'Brien wrote the 1973 stage musical, co-wrote the screenplay with director Jim Sharman, and plays the hunched handyman Riff Raff.

George Lucas's 1973 cruising film is set on one night in 1962 in which California city?

The film is set in Modesto, Lucas's hometown in the Central Valley, though it was shot mostly in Petaluma and San Rafael; Harrison Ford has a small role.

The 1970 tearjerker starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal is famous for which line?

'Love means never having to say you're sorry' is spoken by Jenny (MacGraw) and later echoed by Oliver (O'Neal) in Love Story, which was also Tommy Lee Jones's screen debut.

George C. Scott won Best Actor for Patton (1970) and did what?

George C. Scott declined the award, having called the Oscars a 'two-hour meat parade' and asked in advance not to be nominated; the Academy awarded it anyway.

Which 1974 disaster movie teamed Paul Newman and Steve McQueen?

The Towering Inferno, produced by Irwin Allen, put Newman's architect and McQueen's fire chief in a blazing 138-storey tower; it won three Oscars including Best Song.

Cabaret (1972) holds which Academy Awards record?

It won eight, including Best Director for Bob Fosse and Best Actress for Liza Minnelli, but lost Best Picture to The Godfather.

Which 1970 film, led by Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin, kicked off the decade's disaster-movie genre?

Airport, adapted from Arthur Hailey's 1968 bestseller, spawned three sequels and won Helen Hayes a Supporting Actress Oscar; its success set the template for the decade's disaster cycle.

In Smokey and the Bandit (1977), what are the Bandit and Snowman smuggling from Texarkana to Atlanta?

The bet is to haul 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta in 28 hours; Coors was then unavailable east of the Mississippi, making the run bootlegging.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) is set aboard a liner on its final voyage from New York to which city?

The SS Poseidon is on a final run from New York to Athens, to be scrapped, when a tidal wave capsizes it on New Year's Eve; its cast included five Oscar winners.

In The Omen (1976), Gregory Peck plays the father of which child?

Damien Thorn is the Antichrist raised by Peck's ambassador after the couple's own baby was said to have died at birth; the child bears a 666 birthmark.

Deliverance (1972) follows four city businessmen canoeing a remote river in which state?

The fictional Cahulawassee River lies in the north Georgia mountains; the film was shot on the Chattooga, which forms the Georgia–South Carolina border, and launched Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox.

Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975) is celebrated for interior scenes lit only by what?

Kubrick shot the interiors lit only by candlelight, with no electric light, using Zeiss f/0.7 lenses developed for NASA; John Alcott won the cinematography Oscar.

The China Syndrome (1979) opened just twelve days before which real nuclear accident?

Three Mile Island's partial meltdown near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, came on 28 March 1979, twelve days after the film's 16 March release; Jack Lemmon later won Best Actor at Cannes.

Which former Beatle formed HandMade Films to finance Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)?

George Harrison mortgaged his house to fund the film after EMI withdrew days before shooting, a deal Eric Idle called the most expensive cinema ticket in history.

Which song from The Muppet Movie (1979) earned Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher an Oscar nomination?

'Rainbow Connection', sung by Kermit on a banjo in the opening swamp scene, was nominated for Best Original Song; the score by Williams and Ascher was nominated too.

Colin Higgins's screenplay for Harold and Maude (1971) began life as what?

Colin Higgins wrote Harold and Maude as his master's thesis at UCLA's film school; the script reached Paramount through a producer whose family employed him, and Hal Ashby directed.

Who took over directing Serpico (1973) after John G. Avildsen was dismissed?

Lumet chose locations and organised scenes on short notice, shooting Al Pacino's whistleblower drama in just July and August.

Fiddler on the Roof (1971) shot its village scenes in what is now which country?

The village scenes were shot in Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia, in Lekenik and Mala Gorica near Zagreb; the film was 1971's top grosser and won three Oscars.

The title of the 1973 prison drama Papillon, starring Steve McQueen, is French for what?

Papillon means butterfly, the nickname Henri Charrière took from his chest tattoo; Dustin Hoffman co-starred as the forger Louis Dega.

In Logan's Run (1976), at what age must every citizen of the domed city die?

The film sets the limit at 30, when citizens' palm crystals turn black and they enter Carrousel; the 1967 novel set it at 21.

Robert Altman's Nashville (1975) is famous for juggling how many main characters?

Nashville weaves 24 main characters through five days around a rally for Replacement Party presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker, ending at the Parthenon concert.