It was the year that Richard Nixon quit the U.S. Presidency over the Watergate scandal. The year that Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman during the Rumble in the Jungle. The year was 1974. Stephen King published his first novel, Carrie. Erno Rubik invented his dastardly cube. And my wife, Ruta, was born. Also fellow beauties Penelope Cruz and Eva Mendes. And though the world said goodbye to the likes of Duke Ellington and Oskar Schindler, it was treated to several awesome movies in return.
1974 was an incredible year for comedy. Mel Brooks delivered his ultimate spoof, a perfectly hilarious, beautifully shot, black-and-white pastiche of Universal horror movies, Young Frankenstein. Cult director John Carpenter took us on a trippy journey through space in sci fi freakout Dark Star. And Burt Reynolds played ball in jail-set joke-fest Mean Machine (The Longest Yard). 1974 was an equally excellent year for crime flicks. From Roman Polanski came hard-boiled detective tale Chinatown. From Francis Ford Coppola, meanwhile, sprung flawless sequel The Godfather Part II. And though the remake left much to be desired, the original version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was a cracking, savvy, stylish, sensational thriller.
On the spooky side of things, from Hammer and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers came Kung Fu/Horror hybrid The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. Nic Roeg gave us chills with the rather more cerebral shocker Don’t Look Now, while Tobe Hooper took nasty up to 11 with blood-soaked psycho shocker The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And finally there was The Towering Inferno, an incredible, insanely entertaining, high-frying spectacle from the Master of Disaster, producer Irwin Allen. “I know what I'm going to do. Get quietly drunk.”
