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The History of American Cinema: 1972

January - June

10/1 -

CBS announces that it will stop producing films for the cinema through its Cinema Center Films division after making a loss of $10 million on the 27 films it has produced to date. [MORE]

3/2 -

A Los Angeles Superior Court rules that the late Bela Lugosi is so closely identified with the film role of Count Dracula that his heirs can inherit and make money from it.   The decision comes as a result of legal action taken by the actor’s widow Hope I. Lugosi and her son Bela George Lugosi against Universal Studios for licensing producers of Dracula merchandise.   The studio is ordered to hand over any licensing agreements it made since 1964 to the Lugosis [ADD]

5/2 -

A nomination for Charles Chaplin to be awarded a star on the 19-block Walk of Fame is rejected by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Executive Board. [ADD]

6/2 -

CBS receives 500,000 letters of complaint after broadcasting an edited-for-television version of the X-rated film, The Demand. [ADD]

13/2 -

Bob Fosse’s Cabaret premieres in New York.   Liza Minnelli delivers a career-making performance as Sally Bowles, singer in a sleazy nightclub cabaret in 30s Berlin with whom Michael York’s innocent Englishman falls in love.   Joel Grey also appears as the lewd master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Club. [ADD]

27/2 -

An article by Stanley Kubrick defending his film A Clockwork Orange against its critics is published in the New York Times.   Kubrick argues that the film illustrates that it is man who corrupts society and not the other way around. [ADD]

10/3 -

Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up Doc? is released.   Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand star in a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 30s. [ADD]

24/3 -

Francis Ford Coppola’s epic gangster film, The Godfather, is released.   Based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name, the film injects the story of one Mafia family’s life of crime in mid-century America with a melancholic tone.   Al Pacino stars as Michael, the war hero son of Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) who finds himself sucked into the family business against his wishes.   James Caan and John Cazale also star as Michael’s brothers – one hot-headed, the other ineffectual – and Diane Keaton appears as Michael’s love interest and moral anchor. [ADD]

25/3 -

Fighting breaks out after 21 demonstrators release white mice and throw stink bombs at the screening of Humberto Solas' Lucia at the opening night of New York’s first Cuban Film Festival. [ADD]

1/4 - 

Burt Reynolds appears nude in the April issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. [ADD]

10/4 -

82-year-old Charles Chaplin receives a special Oscar for his ‘exceptional and invaluable contribution to the art of cinema in the twentieth century,’ at the 44th Annual Academy Awards ceremony.    Winner of Best Picture is William Friedkin’s thriller The French Connection. [MORE]

17/4 -

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather take $26 million in the first few days of its release. [ADD]

26/6 -

George Lucas begins filming American Graffiti for Universal on location in San Rafael.   $90,000 of the $750,000 budget is set aside to buy the rights to the 25 tracks featured on the film’s soundtrack. [ADD]

29/6 -

Michael Ritchie's The Candidate, in which Robert Redford plays a Californian lawyer who becomes a senator only to become disillusioned by the demands of the position, is released.   Karen Carlson and Peter Boyle also star. [ADD]

Jun -

The notorious sex film Deep Throat, starring Linda Lovelace, is released. [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1972