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The History of American Cinema: 1971

July - December

2/7 -

Gordon Parks’ blaxploitation classic Shaft is released.   Former model Richard Roundtree stars as the black detective hired to find the kidnapped daughter of a Harlem gangster.   Musical score is provided by Isaac Hayes. [ADD]

25/7 -

An article written by New York Times film critic Vincent Canby exposes advertising agencies’ practice of using misleadingly edited excerpts from movie reviews to promote films. [ADD]

27/8 -

Governor Ronald Reagan writes to President Nixon requesting a more favourable tax law for the film industry. [ADD]

10/9 -

Actress Pier Angeli dies in Beverly Hills of a barbiturate overdose at the age of 39. [ADD]

1/10 -

The 27,000-acre Walt Disney World theme park – the second in the US – opens near Orlando in Florida. [ADD]

9/10 -

William Friedkin’s The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman as anti-hero drugs cop Popeye Doyle, is released.   Doyle is based on real-life NYPD detective Eddie Egan – who has a part in the film.   Roy Scheider also stars as Doyle’s sidekick. [ADD]

17/10 -

Louis Malle's French film Le Souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart), which tells the story of an incestuous relationship between a 15-year-old boy and his mother, is released in the States.   Benoit Ferreux and Lea Massari star. [ADD]

22/10 -

The Last Picture Show, 32-year-old director Peter Bogdanovich’s second film, is released.   Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, Sharon Ullrick, Sam Bottoms and Randy Quaid feature in this bittersweet depiction of life in a small, dying town in the early 50s. [ADD]

2/11 -

Richard D. Zanuck, former president of 20^th Century-Fox and former vice-president David Brown begin legal proceedings against the studio.   They demand $14.5 million and $7.5 million respectively for being illegally forced to resign in 1970. [ADD]

3/11 -

Norman Jewison’s adaptation of the stage hit Fiddler on the Roof is released.   Israeli actor Topol plays Tevye a Jewish milkman living in the pogroms of pre-revolutionary Russia. [ADD]

12/11 -

Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, Play Misty For Me, in which he also stars, is released.   Eastwood plays a late-night DJ stalked by a psychotic fan (Jessica Walter).   In a cute switch of roles, director Don Siegel appears in a small role as a bartender. [ADD]

19/12 -

National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures and National Council of Churches’ Broadcasting and Film Commission criticise the MPAA for its relaxing of its standards and withdraw their support. [ADD]

20/12 -

Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude, in which a 20-year-old Bud Cort embarks on a love affair with octogenarian Ruth Gordon, is released.   Vivian Pickles also appears as Cort’s mother, subjected to a series of fake suicides by her son. [ADD]

23/12 -

Clint Eastwood makes his first outing as Detective Harry Callahan in Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry.   Callahan, a maverick cop with enemies on both sides of the law, is on the trail of the Scorpio killer in San Francisco in a taut and violent thriller. [ADD]

28/12 -

Viennese-born composer Max Steiner dies in Hollywood at the age of 83. [ADD]

– NBC starts broadcasting 90-minute TV film series Columbo, McCloud and McMillan and Wife.  [ADD]

- The American Newsreel Collective produces The Woman’s Film, a leftist activist movie directed by Louise Alaimo and Judy Smith. [ADD]

- The Super 16mm system, providing a larger frame size, is introduced. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1971

The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise) [ADD]

Bananas (Woody Allen) [ADD]

The Beguiled (Don Siegel) [ADD]

Born to Win (Ivan Passer) [ADD]

Duel (TV) (Steven Spielberg) [ADD]

The Hired Hand (Peter Fonda) [ADD]

Janie’s Janie (Geri Arthur) [ADD]

Kotch (Jack Lemmon) [ADD]

Nicholas and Alexandra (Franklin J. Schaffner) [ADD]

Punishment Park (Peter Watkins) [ADD]

Sometimes a Great Notion (Paul Newman) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1971

Algeria - Italy