11. A Woman Under the Influence
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: John Cassavetes
Actors: Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands, Katherine Cassavetes, Matthew Laborteaux
Plot: One of American cinema's most treasured masterworks about a suburban housewife's descent into alcoholic oblivion.
12. Way of the Dragon, The ( Meng long guo jiang )
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: Mandarin
Genre: Action/Crime
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Bruce Lee
Actors: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Ping-Ao Wei, Chung-Hsin Huang, Robert Wall
Plot: Bruce Lee's character is sent to protect a man and his restaurant in Rome. As he shows his skill to the rest of the team, the mafia try to kill him. With little success, they bring in the ultimate fighter, Chuck Norris!
13. Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The ( Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle )
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: German
Genre: Drama/Crime
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Werner Herzog
Actors: Walter Ladengast, Bruno S., Brigitte Mira, Michael Kroecher, Gloria Doer, Willy Semmelrogge
Plot: Based on the true story of Kaspar Hauser, a man who appeared in 1828 in Nuremberg - with scant ability to speak or walk - with a note attached claiming he had spent his life in a dungeon of a sort and was recently released for unknown reasons. A benefactor attempts to reintegrate him into society with startling results.
14. Murder on the Orient Express
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Mystery
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Sidney Lumet
Actors: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel
Plot: Famed detective Hercule Poirot finds himself on the Orient Express when a
passenger requests his protection. Declining the offer, Poirot then finds
himself investigating a murder when the passenger is found dead the next
day. While the train is stopped due to snow, Poirot has a few hours to
figure out the passengers true identity, interview many passengers and
figure out why it all seems to lead back to a 5-year-old kidnapping case.
15. Black Christmas aka Silent Night, Evil Night
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Horror/Mystery
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Bob Clark
Actors: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin
Plot: A sorority house is terrorized by a stranger who makes frightening phone calls and then murders the sorority sisters during Christmas break.
16. Death Wish
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Action/Crime
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Michael Winner
Actors: Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats, William Redfield, Stuart Margolin
Plot: While New York City architect Paul Kersey is away from home, drug addicts break into his house and brutally murder his wife and rape his daughter until she's comatose. Once wary of guns, Kersey takes matters into his own hands, seeking vigilante justice against not only the culprits, but other wrongdoers as well.
17. The Longest Yard
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Crime
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Robert Aldrich
Actors: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad, James Hampton, Bernadette Peters
Plot: A sadistic warden asks a former pro quarterback, now serving time in his prison, to put together a team of inmates to take on (and get pummeled by) the guards.
18. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Adventure/Comedy
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Michael Cimino
Actors: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, Geoffrey Lewis, Catherine Bach, Gary Busey, Jack Dodson
Plot: Seven years ago, a group of thieves pulled off an audacious bank robbery
with the help of an anti-tank gun. Yet when the loot goes missing, the
crew gets back together to repeat the robbery.
19. Harry and Tonto
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Adventure/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Paul Mazursky
Actors: Art Carney, Cliff De Young, Larry Hagman, Philip Bruns, Josh Mostel, Dolly Jonah
Plot: This road movie follows a retired man and his cat on a cross-country journey, on which they encounter a number of quirky characters.
20. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Year of Release: 1974
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Thriller
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Actors: Isela Vega, Warren Oates, Gig Young, Kris Kristofferson, Donnie Fritts, Robert Webber
Plot: A wealthy Mexican rancher puts a $1 million bounty for the head of Alfredo Garcia. With every bounty hunter on the trail, a piano-player is questioned and, doing his own investigations, learns his girlfriend knows the whereabouts of Garcia's place of burial. Striking out together, with dreams of untold wealth - the two have no idea the misery they will encounter.
