Christmas Movies of 1978

1978 was a good movie year but moviegoers must have been on the grouchy side during the Christmas holidays as many of the high profiled releases were box office flops. Only 10 movies were released over the holiday season and one (Walt Disney's Pinocchio) is not included but was a bonafide success as all Disney re-releases of the classic animated films were. Of the remaining nine only four of them were hits and only one was a true smash at the box office. Only two of the movies would go on to Academy Award nominations though neither would get higher then a supporting actress nod.

Here are the Christmas releases from 30 years ago, an era where my movie going was rampant. Of the 10 released I saw 6 of them. As usual here they are in alphabetical order and I hope they bring back good memories.

BRASS TARGET (MGM; Director - John Hough) A top notch cast heads this political thriller about the plot to assassinate General George S. Patton (George Kennedy) with a gold stock transfer on a train being used as a diversion. It's up to the authorities to race against the clock to figure out the plot and prevent the assassination. This is a gripping, well made thriller co-starring Sophia Loren, John Cassavetes, Robert Vaughn, Max Von Sydow and Patrick McGoohan. Fans of political thrillers will thoroughly enjoy this film but it is hard to find and rarely seen these days. The reviews were mixed but the film flopped making only $5 million.

CALIFORNIA SUITE (Columbia; Director - Herbert Ross) Neil Simon adapted his popular stage play about 4 different couples staying at the same hotel. Jane Fonda plays the visitor from New York who comes to argue out an agreement with ex-husband Alan Alda on custody of their teenage daughter. Michael Caine and Maggie Smith play visitors from England coming to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards where Smith's character is a nominee. Simon's writing is terrific here as the layers of their relationship come undone and we learn the true meaning of their life together. Walter Matthau plays a guest who comes for his nephew's bar mitzvah and gets into a world of trouble when his brother pays to have a hooker stay the night and then is passed out in the morning having drunk a whole bottle of Tequila. Matthau's problem? Wife Elaine May has just arrived and is in the lobby awaiting the next elevator to the room. Lastly there is Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor, visitors from Chicago with their wives who end up practically killing one another over two days. Simon nicely mixes dramedy (Fonda/Alda) with true drama (Caine/Smith) with farce (Matthau) with slapstick (Cosby/Pryor) so as to not tie down the viewer too much with one emotion. The film would receive 3 Academy Award nominations (including one for Simon's script) and would win Maggie Smith the Best Supporting Actress Award thus becoming the only performer to win an Oscar for playing a character nominated for an Oscar. The film received mixed reviews but was a solid hit making $28 million.

EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE(Warner Bros; Director - James Fargo) Clint Eastwood was one of the biggest stars of the decade for his action and western films but he proved to be a viable comedian in this surprise hit about a trucker/fist-fighter whose best friend is Clyde, an orangutan. While searching for new fights for money he falls in love with a country-western singer and is pursued by some vengeful but stupid bikers. Whoever came up with the idea of putting Eastwood in a comedy with an ape no doubt got a huge raise and promotion as the film appealed to adults and kids and made an astounding $52 million (thus trumping the words of negative critics) to easily be the sleeper of the season. The film also inspired an equally successful and more enjoyable sequel in 1980,

Any Which Way You Can.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS(United Artists; Director - Philip Kaufman) An odd film to release at Christmas was this remake/continuation of the classic 1956 original about the infiltration of aliens who consume humans and take them completely over once they sleep. The one way to detect the new person? They show no emotion whatsoever. Hot on the case is health inspector Donald Sutherland who begins noticing odd changes in people he knows and Brooke Adams as his co-worker who notices something odd with her husband. Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright and a young Jeff Goldblum co-star with a nifty cameo by Kevin McCarthy, star of the original. The new film offers thrills and chills and leads to a surprising and eerie climax. The film received mixed reviews but proved that audiences like to be scared no matter what time it is as it grossed over $25 million.

KING OF THE GYPSIES(Paramount; Director - Frank Pierson) One of the most acclaimed films of the holiday season was also one of its biggest failures. The film shows the life of a family of gypsies with Sterling Hayden as the patriarch, Judd Hirsch as his hot tempered son awaiting the gypsy throne, Susan Sarandon as his wife and Eric Roberts (in his film debut) as the grandson. We see every day life and the cons they do on normal every day people in every walk of life and we see the struggles for power within the family, the worst of it being when Hayden decides to pass over Hirsch and give the head of the family role to the grandson. Shelley Winters and Annie Potts also star in this marvelous but little scene drama that deserved better then it received.

MOMENT BY MOMENT (Universal; Director - Jane Wagner) After the blockbuster successes of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, this was the film that brought John Travolta (and his fans) back down to Earth. Widely considered one of the absolute worst films of that or any year was the story of an ill-fated romance between an older woman (Lily Tomlin) and a beachcomber named, get this, Strip (Travolta). The film doesn't attempt to take a serious look at the May/December romance but uses it as an excuse for the two to be together. Travolta looks especially embarrassed here and obviously the only reason it was made was that Jane Wagner, writer and director, is Tomlin's manager and life partner. Critics went to town on this film and audiences stayed away.

OLIVER'S STORY (Paramount; Director - John Korty) Was it really necessary to make a sequel to the phenomenally successful Love Storyin as much as Ali MacGraw died at the end anyway? Did we really need to spend 100 minutes watching Ryan O'Neal be morose as others urge him to get on with his life but he just can't? Did we really have to see O'Neal get fixed up with a lemon of a girl before meeting and falling for Candice Bergen? The answer to every question was "No" and audiences sniffed out this stinker and few went to see it. Good for them.

SUPERMAN (Warner Bros; Director - Richard Donner) The most hyped film of the year was also the one true blockbuster of the Christmas movie season. The movie is told in three parts starting with life on Krypton, growing up in Smallville with the Kent family and finally going to Metropolis to become a reporter with the Daily Planet, fall in love with Lois Lane and battle the dastardly Lex Luthor. The all-star cast was headed by Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Glenn Ford, Valerie Perrine and Susannah York with Christopher Reeve becoming a Superman for the ages in the title role. The epic film was rushed into release thus depriving director Donner of perfecting the special effects and it shows, especially at the end when we have an earthquake and tidal wave. Still many of the visuals are terrific and the film is pure entertainment. Not surprisingly the film was critic-proof (the reviews were mixed) and went on to make $83 million. The film would be nominated for only 3 Academy Awards (Editing, Sound, Score) but won none. The film would lead to 3 sequels and a remake thus far.

UNCLE JOE SHANNON(United Artists; Director - Joseph C. Hanwright) From the mind of actor Burt (Rocky) Young came this sappy script that manipulates you into emotions based on the situation and not the earnings of good screenwriting which, obviously, Young cannot do. Young stars in the title role as a horn player and in the first ten minutes he leaves for work, plays at a club, comes home to find his house burnt down and his wife and daughter have died. Cut forward and Shannon is living on the streets where he is befriended by a boy who is dying of cancer. Now doesn't that sound like a movie you want to rush out and see after drinking some Christmas eggnog? It only got worse from there. The film barely got a theatrical release playing art houses in many cities but the devastating reviews and the bad business prevented wider release.