You Are What You Were. Celebrate Retro Pop Culture At Retroland.
Two of America’s most beloved funnymen, Tim Conway and Don Knotts, had appeared plenty of times together on television, but it wasn’t until 1975 that they began starring together in feature-length comedy films. Their first foray was as a pair of bumbling crooks in The Apple Dumpling Gang, one of the biggest live-action successes for the Walt Disney Company in the 70s decade.
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For their first animated feature without Walt at the helm, Disney introduced audiences to a lovable collection of felines in the 1971 film, The Aristocats. Featuring an all-star cast of voices including Eva Gabor, Phil Harris. Scatman Crothers and Sterling Holloway, this entertaining romp through Paris and the surrounding countryside proved that, with or without their leader, the Disney name would remain synonymous with quality animated films.
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Written by Bill Lancaster (Burt's son) and directed by Michael Ritchie (who had helmed adult fare like The Candidate and Smile), this winning 1976 film worked on a lot of levels-and not just the "hey, those naughty kids are cussing" level either. There was the underdog triumph story at the movie's core; there was the satire of the uniquely American institution of Little League and its overly-involved bench parents (in the year of our country's bicentennial, no less). There was also a redemptive character piece at work, as Buttermaker, via his group of misfits, tried to get his shambled life together once and for all.
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One needn’t be Dr. Doolittle to communicate their animal counterparts. Given an equal dose of time, patience and trust, the ability to speak words are unnecessary to form bonds, to form meaningful friendships. Such was the case with young Alec and “the black” in the beloved 1979 film, The Black Stallion, a touching story of boy and horse who discover each other under the most trying of circumstances and form a friendship that will last a lifetime.
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From the director who brought the world such classic Disney films as The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit and The Apple Dumpling Gang, came this cute 1978 comedy about a talking kitty from outer space - a premise not meant to be pondered, just enjoyed. While it didn't quite get (nor deserve) the acclaim of, say, a Mary Poppins, The Cat from Outer Space is still one of those entertaining live-action Disney movies that so many of us flocked to the theaters to see in the 70s.
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There are plenty of scary films worthy of mention, but none that shocked the population at large quite like The Exorcist. The story of a young girl possessed by the devil was the highest-grossing film of 1973 and is still considered one of the scariest horror movies ever made.
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Steve Martin, once a writer for the Smothers Brothers, became a household name thanks to his comic antics on Saturday Night Live, his sell-out concerts and comedy albums, and the hit single "King Tut." He had made an appearance in the musical flop Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but Carl Reiner's The Jerk, released in 1979, was Martin's first starring role, co-written with Martin to emphasize his unique smart-but-stupid shtick.
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The idea of escaping the pressures of civilized society in favor of a solitary life in the wilderness is a captivating one. In the 70s, the poster child for such an adventurer was a bearded mountain man with a smiling face named Grizzly Adams. First introduced by way of a a novel in 1972, the cinematic version of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams came out in theaters two years later and captured the hearts of millions, making Grizzly Adams a household name throughout the remainder of the decade.
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After years of honing his skills on such characters as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Chuck Jones decided to turn his directorial skills towards his first feature film, The Phantom Tollbooth. Based on the popular 1961 children’s book, written by Norman Juster, the 1970 film combined live-action and animation to weave this fanciful tale, the first animated feature film ever released by Warner Brothers.
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Few “B” movies have ever enjoyed the cult-like following that continues to surround The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Released in 1975, part musical, part horror flick (with a good dose of retro science fiction thrown in), it is a film that might have been quickly forgotten had midnight theater audiences not embraced it with their hearts and made it their own. But they did - and for decades now, generations of young people have made a late-night viewing of the film a rite of passage, and in some cases, a lifestyle. Let's take a look back.
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