Christmas Movies of 1972

This is a continued look at the big Christmas movies of a certain year. Now I'd like to take you back to 35 years ago, 1972.

In 1972 suburban mall theaters were starting to pop up all over with two screens at many of these complexes. The movie palace was beginning its dying days but some managed to last a decade longer. Audiences stopped driving upwards of an hour to see a movie they could see locally at a cheaper price with no charge to park.

1972 saw the release of 11 major movies for the Christmas season. Only one was made specifically for children and only one of them would make the list of Best Picture nominees. Four other films would receive a nomination of some sort.

If you can remember these movies being released then I hope this article is a fond remembrance of those days. The movies are listed alphabetically.

ACROSS 110^th STREET (United Artists - Director: Barry Shear) Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto star as cops, one a rookie and the other a corrupt veteran, assigned to track down some small time hoods who pulled off a daring robbery and got more then $300,000 in Mafia money. It's up to the cops to track them down before the Mafia does. Though the film's story is hardly innovative, even for 1972, it is a solid action film that has often been mistaken as part of the blaxploitation series of films that were popular at that time. This film is by no means an Award caliber film but is a tense, straightforward action film that pleases fans of the genre. The film was a small hit in its day but not as big a hit as its title song sung by Barry Womack. Movie lovers will recognize it as the song over the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.

THE GETAWAY (Warner Bros - Director: Sam Peckinpah) Another solid action hit that Christmas came from action director extraordinaire Peckinpah and starred Steve Mc Queen as a recent parolee forced into action again with a daring robbery. After the event the criminals go separately on the run while McQueen is hunted. Ali MacGraw co-stars in what would become Peckinpah's biggest box office hit grossing over $27 million on a budget of just $3.3 million.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON (Warner Bros - Director: Sydney Pollack) Robert Redford stars in one of his most popular films of that era in the title role as a soldier who goes into the rugged mountains to live a peaceful life in nature only to find his plans disrupted by Indians. Director Pollack mixes beautiful scenery and photography with his story and creates a most entertaining movie that would gross over $22 million.

THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS (Columbia Pictures - Director: Bob Rafelson) Probably the one film the fewest readers will have heard of this re-teaming of Five Easy Pieces director Rafelson with star Jack Nicholson. Here Nicholson and Brice Dern play brothers trying to find the American dream by saving money to buy land to build on. Ellen Burstyn co-stars in this character study that is slow moving but well acted and written and provides many rewards to the patient viewer. The film opened and closed almost unnoticed but today is considered an overlooked gem.

THE MAN OF LaMANCHA (United Artists - Director: Arthur Hiller) This lavish, big budget musical based on Don Quixote stars Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren in this lush but overlong film that was one of the last of its kind thanks to disastrous box office results. The film had a whopping $12 million budget and barely made $7 million. It received only one Academy Award nomination - for the now defunct category of Best Song Score Adaptation. It lost, much like the fortunes of its hopeful producers.

PETE N TILLIE (Universal - Director: Martin Ritt) The sleeper hit of the Christmas season was this serio-comic look at the relationship of an older couple (Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett) from the first date through marriage and beyond. The film is a frank look at the realities of love and the tragedies of life and is buoyed by two terrific performances from its leads. Geraldine Page picked up one of the film's two Academy Award nominations (the other was for Best Screenplay) as Burnett's best friend.

THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (20^th Century Fox - Director: Ronald Neame) One of the year's biggest hits was this disaster film following on the heels of the huge success that was Airport. Here an all-star cast find themselves on a luxury liner on New Year's Eve that is overturned by a huge wave forcing the survivors to try and get to the bottom of the ship from the top. The cast includes past Academy Award winners such as Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Red Buttons and others including Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Pamela Sue Martin and Leslie Nielsen. The film was an absolute sensation grossing over $84 million and was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning one for best song, The Morning After.

SLEUTH (20^th Century Fox - Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz) Anthony Schaeffer adapted his brilliant play into a brilliant movie involving a cat and mouse game between two men at odds over the same woman. Mystery writer Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier) announces to everyman Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) that Milo can have his wife if he pretends to rob his house so Andrew can collect the insurance. From then on it becomes a game of who trusts whom and who has the upper hand. Watching the two great actors bounce off each other is worth the price of admission and both were deservedly nominated for Best Actor. The film grossed $6 million, most of it in art house limited engagements.

SNOWBALL EXPRESS (Walt Disney - Director: Norman Tokar) The one true family film of the holiday season was this live action hit from Disney about a family that inherits a ski resort and moves from the city to the mountains only to find the place in worse shape then believed. They began rehabbing it only to get interference from a rich landowner who wants the property for himself. Dean Jones, Nancy Olson, Harry Morgan and Keenan Wynn star in this family comedy that was a solid hit despite poor reviews.

SOUNDER (20^th Century Fox - Director: Martin Ritt) Director Ritt scored his second hit of the Christmas season with this powerful study of a black family in the 1930's and how their lives are torn apart when the father is sent to jail for a petty theft. Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson (both Oscar nominated) anchor a good cast giving great performances in a film for the family. This was the only film of the season to be nominated for Best Picture that year.

UP THE SANDBOX (Warner Bros - Director: Irvin Kershner) At the tine of its release Barbra Streisand was one of the biggest starts in Hollywood and probably the most popular actress. Despite that this film was the biggest disappointment of the Christmas season. In it Streisand stars as a bored housewife who begins fantasizing outlandish events as a way of spicing up her life and escaping the boredom of reality. The film never quite makes up its mind whether it is supposed to be funny or serious and suffers for it. The film only grossed $4 million but today Streisand sights this as one of her best performances.