Karen Black

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Family Plot (1976)

    1971-1980Alfred HitchcockComedyThrillerUSA

    When a wealthy woman unwittingly hires a con man and a phoney psychic to find her missing heir, the results are diabolically funny in Alfred Hitchcock’s tongue-in-cheek mystery thriller.Read More »

  • Avery Crounse – Cries of Silence AKA Sister Island (1996)

    Avery Crounse1991-2000DramaUSA

    After a hurricane wreaks havoc on Sister Island, Mississippi, rescue parties find a young girl on the shore. The girl is alive and soon opens her eyes, but she is non responsive. Dorrie takes her to her mother’s home and goes back to the island to look for family. Although there were only 30 people on the island, none of the survivors claim to know her. Weeks go by and while Camille begins to show signs of conscience she remains mute. Dorrie redoubles her efforts to find her family. She soon finds that she will battle the state, people she trusted and those who lived on Sister Island. It will be a long twisting road filled with heartbreak for both Camille and Dorrie.Read More »

  • Dan Curtis – Trilogy of Terror (1975)

    1971-1980Dan CurtisHorrorTVUSA

    Synopsis:
    Three horror anthology stories of tormented women. In the first story, Julie Eldridge is a sexually-repressed college teacher who is blackmailed by one of her students for a past indiscretion in which she played an unwilling part. But the student is unaware that Julie plots to turn the tables on him the first chance she gets. In the second story, Millicent Larimore is a plain-looking, almost reclusive woman who lives with her amoral twin sister Therese whom delights in tormenting her. However, only their doctor who visits from time to time knows the real thing behind the scene. In the final story, Amelia in a solo horror story monologue is a mother-dominated woman who buys an African Zuni fetish doll for her latest boyfriend in which the doll comes to life and terrorizes her in her own apartment.Read More »

  • Jack Smight – Airport 1975 (1974)

    1971-1980ActionJack SmightThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:

    When the pilot of a small aircraft has a heart attack and crashes his plane into the cockpit of a Boeing 747, several members of the flight crew are killed and the pilot is blinded. Miraculously, the 747 stays in the air on auto-pilot with flight attendant Nancy Prior at the controls. Ground controllers, including her boyfriend Alan Murdock, try to teach her the basics but they soon realize they will have to get a trained pilot into the cockpit. Their first attempt fails and Murdock realizes he will have to do it. Meanwhile, various passengers have their own problems including a young girl who is destined to a life saving operation.Read More »

  • Robert Altman – Nashville (1975)

    1971-1980DramaMusicalRobert AltmanUSA

    Quote:
    Robert Altman’s brilliantly freewheeling satire on the country and western music industry made little impression on the American box office in 1975. This was the year, remember, when a giant shark in Jaws inaugurated the modern blockbuster era. But three decades on, Nashville feels like one of the outstanding accomplishments of ‘New Hollywood’. 24 characters – including singers, musicians, agents, publicists, journalists, and assorted wannabees and hangers-on – converge on the capital of Tennessee, as a confused nation prepares to celebrate its bicentenary.Read More »

  • Bob Rafelson – Five Easy Pieces (1970)

    Drama1961-1970Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtBob RafelsonUSA

    Quote:
    In an Academy Award -nominated performance for Best Actor, Jack Nicholson is outstanding in Five Easy Pieces, the acclaimed drama from director Bob Rafelson. Although a brilliant, classical pianist from an intellectual, well-to-do family – Robert Dupea has made a career out of running from job to job and woman to woman. Presently working in an oil field, Dupea spends most of his free time downing beers,playing poker and being noncommittal with his sexy but witless girlfriend Rayette. But when he is summoned to his father’s deathbed, Dupea returns home with Raette, where he meets and falls for a sophisticated woman. Now caught between his conflicting lifestyles, the gifted but troubled Dupea must face issues that will change his life forever. Deceptively simple, but one of the most complex and interesting films of its time – Five Easy Pieces garnered a 1970 Academy Award nomination for Best Picture – with Black receiving the 1970 New York Film Critics award for her excellent performance.Read More »

  • John Flynn – The Outfit (1973)

    1971-1980CrimeJohn FlynnThrillerUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    The Outfit is a 1973 film directed by John Flynn. It stars Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker and Robert Ryan. The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Richard Stark and features a character modeled on Parker, who was introduced in The Hunter.

    Career thief Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall) pays no mind to the mobster’s threat. He intends to put a big hurt on an L.A crime outfit. He, his girlfriend (Karen Black) and his partner (Joe Don Baker) will avenge the murder of Macklin’s brother by cutting down gangland operations bit by violent bit. Based on the novel by Point Blank author Richard Stark, The Outfit has a feel and grit that makes it a throwback to film noirs of the 1940s and ’50s. The casting of noir veterans underscores the tone: Robert Ryan, Jane Greer, Marie Windsor, Timothy Carey and Elisha Cook. Hollywood buffs will also enjoy seeing longtime Variety columnist Army Archerd in a bit role.
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