Underrated 70s
An evolving list of 70s films that I feel all deserve more love. Some of these movies make the list for having low average user ratings. Others are here for having very few user ratings. All of these are movies I like. (Though some are certainly better than others!) Here, then, is my list of the best unappreciated, misunderstood and/or unknown 70s films that I particularly enjoyed, films that surely deserve higher ratings and/or a bigger audience.
List activity
6.6K views
• 5 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
- 155 titles
- DirectorOssie DavisStarsGodfrey CambridgeRaymond St. JacquesCalvin LockhartTwo Harlem cops investigate a robbery, believing that a reverend has staged it in order to steal the money he's collected for a local fundraiser.
- DirectorsJack WoodsDennis MurenMark Thomas McGeeStarsEdward ConnellBarbara HewittFrank BonnerFour friends are attacked by a demon while on a picnic, due to possession of a tome of mystic information. Told in flashbacks by the sole survivor.
- DirectorRichard RushStarsElliott GouldCandice BergenRobert F. LyonsA Vietnam vet and former social radical is conflicted by his desire to become a teacher and his sympathy with anti-establishment student protests.
- DirectorAlan GibsonStarsJudy GeesonMartin PotterMichael RedgraveUnnaturally-close jet-setting twins become enmeshed in the Swinging London scene, where their relationship is strained after they befriend a predatory hustler and his girlfriend.
- DirectorPaul BogartStarsCalvin LockhartJanet MacLachlanJeff BridgesAn all-black inner city school has to become an integrated school. Few dozen white kids are transferred there, but the black students are aggressively opposed to this. The school then approaches a tough black teacher for help.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsGregory PeckTuesday WeldEstelle ParsonsHenry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his marriage, Henry falls in love with teenage Alma, who is the daughter of local criminal.
- DirectorRadley MetzgerStarsSilvana VenturelliFrank WolffErika RembergA decadent couple and their son invite a motorcycle stunt-woman - who resembles an actress from a blue movie they had recently watched together - to their castle for games of seduction.
- DirectorFrancesco MaselliStarsNanni LoyDaniele CostantiniNino Dal FabbroA rash letter of protest sparks a crisis for a group of affluent, Communist intellectuals in Italy who find themselves suddenly challenged to back up their incendiary rhetoric with action.
- DirectorRobert Downey Sr.StarsJoe MaddenJames GreenMariclare CostelloIn a pound, 18 dogs wait to be adopted.
- DirectorStuart HagmannStarsBruce DavisonKim DarbyBud CortAn apolitical college student joins a group of campus protesters to meet girls but gets swept up in their cause and involved in a violent confrontation with police.
- DirectorMelvin Van PeeblesStarsGodfrey CambridgeEstelle ParsonsHoward CaineJeff Gerber, a racist white man, wakes up one morning to discover that he has become black.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsWarren BeattyGoldie HawnGert FröbeBank security expert Joe Collins and call girl Dawn Divine plot to rob three safety deposit boxes containing $1.5 million in cash belonging to three very different criminals from a high-tech security bank in Hamburg, Germany.
- DirectorHenry JaglomStarsTuesday WeldOrson WellesJack NicholsonA strange young woman lives in a fantasy world where she can never grow up.
- DirectorsGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsStefano SibaldiSusan HampshireDick GregoryTwo documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South to film the slave trade.
- DirectorPete WalkerStarsSusan GeorgeBarry EvansChristopher SandfordSisters inherit assets from divorced parents. One receives evidence exposing corrupt judge father, the other seeks monetary gain. Escalating battle over desired possessions leads to deadly consequences.
- DirectorGordon HesslerStarsJason RobardsHerbert LomChristine KaufmannParis...at the turn of the century. Inspector Vidocq investigates a series of unexplained murders at a Grand Guignol-type theatre...where the players have suddenly become real-life victims. Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe.
- DirectorJohn 'Bud' CardosStarsJohn Davis ChandlerSteve EvansMark HopkinsVery rare and seldom-seen, youth-oriented racing movie. It is the story of a young man's dream to get a ride in a top-fuel dragster.
- DirectorJack NicholsonStarsWilliam TepperKaren BlackMichael MargottaThe star player of a college basketball team starts to go off the rails with an illicit love affair and his roommate going crazy to avoid the war draft.
- DirectorWilliam A. GrahamStarsBrenda SykesJohn NealsonMaia DanzigerSheila, an affluent black teenager, begins dating working class white teen Wayne, and asks him for help to sell a kilo of marijuana.
- DirectorJack LemmonStarsWalter MatthauDeborah WintersFelicia FarrIn order to avoid being consigned to a retirement home, former salesman Joseph Kotcher leaves his son's family home to embark on a road trip where he strikes up a friendship with a pregnant teenager.
- DirectorE.W. SwackhamerStarsBill CosbyGloria FosterLeif EricksonAfter the Civil War, a black ex-union soldier, his wife, and his son settle in Arizona Territory to homestead and build their lives. At first, Caleb Revers race doesn't seem to matter, but then things change.
- DirectorsWalon GreenEd SpiegelStarsLawrence PressmanConlan CarterIan McShaneA scientist explains how the savagery and efficiency of the insect world could result in their taking over the world.
- DirectorNicolas GessnerStarsCharles BronsonAnthony PerkinsJill IrelandA neurosurgeon with a cheating wife takes an amnesiac into his home and conditions him to believe that the cheating wife is his own and to take the "appropriate" action.
- DirectorRoger VadimStarsRock HudsonAngie DickinsonTelly SavalasCalifornia State Police Captain Sam Surcher investigates a string of teenage-girl murders at Oceanfront High School.
- DirectorRobert MulliganStarsMichael SarrazinBarbara HersheyArthur HillA college student goes to prison for vehicular manslaughter and unpaid tickets. He escapes with his girlfriend, becoming fugitives. The narrative explores the sustainability and consequences of their life on the run.
