Ticket 2 Ride

Crime film came into their own in the first half of the 1970s as directors felt more artistic freedom to mix violence with themes of societal decay, shadowy government, the blurred line of right and wrong, vigilantism, anti-hero protagonists, and the ambitious ending.

I could spend all day and get lost in the kaleidoscopic world of crime and the pursuit of justice. Such films as Bullitt, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Bonnie and Clyde, Point Blank, The Thomas Crown Affair and Coogan’s Bluff of the 1960s opened the door to the possibilities of what would follow.

First, I’ll list those films that came out 50 years ago, in 1973. What a year it was!

Badlands (1973) Written and directed by Terrence Malick, in his directorial debut. The film stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, as young killers on the run. Inspired by the Charles Starkweather story.

Charley Varrick (1973) Directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon, this is a heist film where the small-time leader of the crime robs a bank, where mob money is laundered.

Mean Streets (1973) Directed by Martin Scorsese, co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin, and starring Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Life is tough and confusing for a young Italian involved in lower-level crime.

The Sting (1973) Directed by George Roy Hill. With Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning. Two grifters seek revenge on a mobster by pulling a huge con.

Serpico (1973) Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino in the semi-autobiographical story of an honest cop who is driven from the New York City police force because he won’t take bribes and is seriously wounded.

Magnum Force (1973) Dirty Harry is back, tracking a series of mob murders, he discovers it involves rogue police officers. Written by John Milius and Michael Cimino.

The Long Goodbye (1973) Directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett, who co-wrote the screenplay for Chandler’s The Big Sleep in 1946. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe, out to solve the disappearance of a friend accused of killing his wife.

The Laughing Policeman (1973) Directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, who are on the trail of a machine gun killer who wasted a bus full of passengers.

The Seven Ups (1973) Stars Roy Scheider as a policeman who is the leader of the Seven-Ups, a squad of plainclothes officers who use any method to nail hoods who get prison sentences of seven years or more. One of the wildest car chases ever.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) Directed by Peter Yates, starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. A small-time hood tries to keep out of jail by turning informant, but it backfires.

Dillinger (1973) Written and directed by John Milius. The life and criminal exploits of notorious bank robber John Dillinger. Stars Warren Oates, Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman

Walking Tall (1973) Joe Don Baker stars as Buford Pusser who exacts revenge on criminals with his club, and becomes sheriff.

The Last of Sheila (1973) Directed by Herbert Ross and written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim. Starring Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason, Ian McShane, and Raquel Welch. A murder mystery involving those who knew the victim, with one of them the actual murderer.

The Day of the Jackal (1973) Directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. A plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.

Shamus (1973) Starring Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon. Hired to find some stolen diamonds, the trails leads in surprising directions.

The others:

Dirty Harry (1971) Directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood. Detective Harry Callahan tracks a sniper and steps outside the law in doing so. The model for generations of crime films.

Dollar$ (1971) Written and directed by Richard Brooks. Starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. A bank security consultant who develops a scheme with a prostitute to steal several criminals’ money from a bank vault.

Klute (1971) Directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. A high-priced hooker assists with a missing person’s case while becoming involved with the lead detective and putting herself in danger.

Shaft (1971) Directed by Gordon Parks and written by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black. A private detective, John Shaft, is hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from the Italian mobsters who kidnapped her. The film stars Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John and Lawrence Pressman. A hugely successful blaxploitation film.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Malcolm McDowell. A futuristic story of a gang of violent delinquents. The leader is captured and undergoes rehabilitation via an experimental psychological conditioning.

The French Connection (1971) Directed by William Friedkin and adapted by by Ernest Tidyman. Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, and Fernando Rey. Cops on the trail of heroin smugglers. One of the top cop films and awesome car/train chase.

Get Carter (1971) Written and directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine. A mobster investigates the death of his brother and exacts revenge.

Vanishing Point (1971) Directed by Richard C. Sarafian, starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, and Dean Jagger. Former cop and race driver agrees to drive a Dodge Challenger across country, triggering a multistate police chase.

The Anderson Tapes (1971) Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam and Alan King. An ex-con plots to rob an entire apartment building, while their actions are under electronic surveillance.

The Godfather (1972) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, and starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. Traces the Corleone crime family and the rise of son Michael as the new godfather.

Prime Cut (1972) Directed by Michael Ritchie. Starring Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman and Sissy Spacek. A mob enforcer from the Chicago Irish Mob sent to Kansas to collect a debt from a meatpacker boss.

The Hot Rock (1972) Directed by Peter Yates from a screenplay by William Goldman. The film stars Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Leibman, Paul Sand, Moses Gunn and Zero Mostel as bad thieves who keep stealing the same diamond.

The New Centurions (1972) Directed by Richard Fleischer, from the novel by Joseph Wambaugh. Stars George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, Jane Alexander, Rosalind Cash, Erik Estrada, and James Sikking. Rookie police officers are each teamed with a veteran training officer as they adjust to life as patrol officers.

The Valachi Papers (1972) Directed by Terence Young and from the book by Peter Maas. Stars Charles Bronson as Joseph Valachi and follows his rise in the Mafia before being imprisoned and turning informant.

The Mechanic (1972) Directed by Michael Winner from a screenplay by Lewis John Carlino. It Stars Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, and Jill Ireland. The story of a hitman who is eventually replaced by the young man he trains.

The Getaway (1972) Directed by Sam Peckinpah, written by Walter Hill, and stars Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, and Sally Struthers. A career criminal is paroled to pull one more job, but he pulls a double-crosses and flees with the money.

Frenzy (1972) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted by Anthony Shaffer. Stars Jon Finch, Alec McCowen and Barry Foster. A man is falsely implicated as a serial killer.

Super Fly (1972) Directed by Gordon Parks Jr. and starring Ron O’Neal. A drug dealer tries quitting the drug business, but is more difficult than he imagined. A very successful blaxploitation film.

Across 110th Street (1972) Starring Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Franciosa and Paul Benjamin. The film is set in Harlem and takes its name from 110th Street, the traditional dividing line between Harlem and Central Park. Posing as police officers, thieves attempt to steal money from a mob bank, but everything goes wrong.

Death Wish (1974) Directed by Michael Winner and stars Charles Bronson as a vigilante who seeks revenge for his wife’s murder. He goes on a campaign to punish criminals until he is asked to leave town.

Foxy Brown (1974) American blaxploitation film written and directed by Jack Hill. Stars Pam Grier who takes on a gang of white drug dealers who murdered her boyfriend.

The Sugarland Express (1974) Directed by Steven Spielberg in his feature film directorial debut. Stars Goldie Hawn and William Atherton as husband and wife who take a police officer (Michael Sacks) hostage and flee across Texas while they try to get to their child before he is placed in foster care.

The Godfather Part II (1974) Directed and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Morgana King, John Cazale, Mariana Hill, and Lee Strasberg. A continuation of The Godfather, tracing the family roots and their later move to Nevada.

McQ (1974) Directed by John Sturges. Starring John Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and Al Lettieri. A Seattle cop investigates the murder of several other cops, discovering dirty cops and the theft of confiscated drugs. The green hornet Trans Am and the MAC-10 machine gun are the real stars.

The Conversation (1974) Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robert Duvall. A sound man records a murder. What does he do with it?

Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Rachel Roberts, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Richard Widmark and Wendy Hiller. Based on the Agatha Christie novel. Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot is asked to investigate the murder of an American business tycoon aboard the Orient Express train.

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) Stars Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, and Vic Morrow. Small-time race drivers extort money and flee the law driving a souped-up car. They are doggedly pursued by a determined policeman.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Ddirected by Joseph Sargent and adapted by Peter Stone from his book. Stars Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, and Héctor Elizondo. Thieves take a subway train hostage and hold it for ransom.

Chinatown (1974) Directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. A private detective is tricked into finding dirt on the water department director, who later turns up murdered. Part of a larger plot to buy up farm land that will become a part of the growing city.

Mr. Majestyk (1974) Directed by Richard Fleischer, written by Elmore Leonard and starring Charles Bronson. A mellon grower gets caught up in the escape of a mob hitman, when he only wants to bring in his mellon crop.

White Lightning (1974) Directed by Joseph Sargent, written by William W. Norton, and starring Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Billingsley, Ned Beatty, Bo Hopkins, R. G. Armstrong and Diane Ladd. A moonshine runner is released from prison to gather evidence on a crooked sheriff.

The Parallax View (1974) Directed by Alan J. Pakula, and starring Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss. A reporter goes undercover to gather evidence on a corporation involved in political murders.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) Written and directed by Michael Cimino and starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, and Geoffrey Lewis. Thieves regroup and pull a robbery for the second time, although the second time things go badly.

Night Moves (1975) Directed by Arthur Penn, and starring Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark, Melanie Griffith and James Woods. A distracted private detective is hired to find the missing daughter of former film star.

The Drowning Pool (1975) Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald’s novel of the same name. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa. Lew Harper. A private investigator agrees to find the blackmailer of his old flame.

Farewell My Lovely (1975) Robert Mitchum as private detective Philip Marlowe, who is hired to find the girlfriend of a bank robber.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Directed by Sidney Lumet starring Al Pacino, John Cazale as failed bank robbers.

Taxi Driver (1976) Directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel and Peter Boyle. A Vietnam Vet, who is losing touch with reality, drives a taxi and terrorizes the neighborhood as a vigilante.

The Enforcer (1976) The third Dirty Harry film. This time he is on the trail of militants blackmailing the city.

Family Plot (1976) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris and William Devane. An interconnected story of kidnapper and a psychic trying to find a missing heir.

Marathon Man (1976) Directed by John Schlesinge and adapted by William Goldman from his 1974 novel. Stars Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane and Marthe Keller of stolen Nazi diamonds and bad dental work.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Written and directed by John Cassavetes, starring Ben Gazzara. A nightclub owner gets back in debt to the mob. They offer an out if he will kill a bookie for them.

assistance from Wikipedia