Hearts and Minds (1974, documentary) - Davis' invaluable documentation of the US Vietnam War

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Two still images make up the majority of this poster for Peter Davis' Hearts and Minds

The American assumption of the French colonial war in Indochina with the domino theory and containment strategy as explanatory pillars becomes a new American war against Vietnam and its people, a war that, as it turns out, cannot be won.

 

Hearts and Minds is directed by debuting Californian master filmmaker Peter Davis (Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt (1986, documentary)).

It is a thorough and critical treatment of the Vietnam War that incorporates many viewpoints and perspectives, of which General Westmoreland's statement that life is without import for the 'Oriental' is especially horrifying. Hearts and Minds is strong also because Davis feels no need to stigmatize, exhibit nor rob the American soldiers of their own authority and stories. The film has terrible sequences of the monstrous war of terror that was pursued onto the poor Vietnamese.

Hearts and Minds is an invaluable film of an amoral and callous war.

 

This video features 9 minutes of outtakes from the film

 

Cost: Uncertain

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Hearts and Minds premiered 16 May (Cannes International Critics' Week) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place in New Jersey, Washington DC and in Vietnam. The film was embroiled in trouble prior to its release, with a temporary restraining order being issued against it, and then the issue of its rights holder Columbia Pictures refusing to distribute it, until the rights were purchased by Warner Bros. for 1 mil. $. It was eventually screened in Los Angeles, but details of its further theatrical releases - outside of festival screenings - are regrettably scarce. The film won the Best Documentary Oscar and was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Davis returned with South Africa: The White Laager (1977, documentary). Hearts and Minds is certified fresh at 91 % with an 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hearts and Minds?

The Great Gatsby (1974) - Great cast wasted in poorly directed adaptation

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A very classy, deliciously designed poster for Jack Clayton's The Great Gatsby

A bond salesman, who lives in a small Long Island apartment, becomes taken by his loaded neighbor Jay Gatsby, and he spends a good part of one 1920s summer in Gatsby's and other rich people's company.

The Great Gatsby is written by Francis Ford Coppola (The Rain People (1969)), adapting the same-titled 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Beautiful and Damned (1922)), and directed by Jack Clayton (Room at the Top (1959)).

The epochal novel is here transformed into a watered-down, boring, unreasonably long film. One presumption on the part of Clayton is that the grand party scenes are so lively and fascinating that we should just forget the characters and stare at the frivolities for large portions of time.

The four central characters are well-cast, and particularly Bruce Dern (The Big Town (1987)) is outstanding as the ornery bastard Tom Buchanan; but their experiences and feelings never really affect us as audiences. The costumes are lavish, but the direction here is more than dubious. In terms of cinematography The Great Gatsby has way too many zooms and travelings.

SPOILER The scenes of the last ten minutes, - the murder, meeting with Gatsby's father and the funeral, - are not bad, but they regrettably arrive at the end of a mess of a film.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $ 

Box office: 20.5 mil. $ (North America only)

= Box office success (returned 2.92 times its cost domestically alone)

[The Great Gatsby premiered 27 March (New York) and runs 146 minutes. Coppola replaced Truman Capote as screenwriter but later complained: "The script that I wrote did not get made." Shooting took place from June - September 1973 in Rhode Island, New York and England. The international gross numbers are regrettably not reported online, and so it is hard to say if its success was mostly an American occurrence. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars and won both: For Best Costumes and Score (Nelson Riddle). It also won 1/4 Golden Globe nominations and 3 BAFTAs. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The-Numbers.com assert that the film has made a further 4.9 mil. $ on a 2013 Blu-ray release domestically. Clayton returned with Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). Robert Redford (All Is Lost (2013)) returned in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975); Mia Farrow (Hurricane (1979)) in Peter Pan (1976, TV movie) and theatrically in The Haunting of Julia (1977). The Great Gatsby is rotten at 39 % with a 5.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Gatsby?

The Godfather Part II (1974) - The great, icy monolith

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The sharp image of heir-to-the-throne Michael Corleone is right-of-centre and also throws the title off balance in this text and symbolism-heavy poster for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II

Michael Coleone takes over the New York mob family empire after his late father in 1958. SPOILER He and his wife Kay survive an assassination attempt, and the hunt for the traitor begins, followed by a failure in Cuba, miscarriage and more death.

The Godfather Part II is written by Mario Puzo (Superman (1978)), based partially on his novel The Godfather (1969), and Michigander master filmmaker, co-writer/producer/director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather (1972)). It is the second part in the Godfather trilogy, which ends with The Godfather: Part III (1990).
Coppola boldly attacks his sequel to one of the biggest hits in 1970s cinema and fearlessly places everything on black, as he opens the film similarly to The Godfather with a large family celebration, but here a First Communion party for Michael and Kay's son with an atmosphere that is in stark contrast to the warm festivity at the Godfather wedding party. This icy-cold, highly different mood continues to seep from Part II, SPOILER which in large part centers on Michael's realization and dealing with the fact that his brother Fredo is the traitor.
Warmth and glow are found in the epic film in its sequences that follow Michael's father, Vito's childhood and youth in Sicily and New York, stylized and delicious visually (cinematography by Gordon Willis (Zelig (1983)) with Robert De Niro (Everybody's Fine (2009)) innovative and terrific as Vito.
None of the performances in Part II are less than great; and Nino Rota's (Roma (1972)) music is central to the film's power.
It is a matter of taste whether one prefers the first film or the drastically different tone of The Godfather Part II, which is very dark, full of bitterness and loss of values, certainly a very cold great achievement in film.

Related posts:

Francis Ford Coppola: Twixt (2011) - Coppola's dreamlike Gothic is a late-night gem 

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Coppola goes for the jugular with unsubtle, overlong adaptation

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Apocalypse Now (1979) redux version - The horror of war  

The Godfather (1972) - Coppola and Co.'s epic cinema magic
Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 13-15 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: Reportedly 88 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned at least 5.86 times its cost)
[The Godfather Part II premiered 12 December (New York) and runs 200 minutes. Puzo started writing the screenplay in 1971, before the release of the first film. Coppola was given great freedom following Godfather's enormous success, and the initial 6 mil. $ budget was allowed to more than double during production. James Cagney refused a part in the film. Coppola had to change the script to appease Pacino's misgivings just prior to production. Shooting took place from October 1973 - June 1974 in California, New York, Las Vegas, Nevada, Miami, Florida, Washington DC, Italy and the Dominican Republic. Marlon Brando failed to appear for his one day of shooting (a flashback scene), and the script was immediately changed to accommodate the no-show. Paramount opposed the 'Part II' in the title, as this had not been put in the title of a mainstream movie before, but Coppola had his way, and the practice was soon commonplace afterwards. The film grossed 47.5 mil. $ in North America (54 % of the total gross). Both domestically and internationally the film did far less business than its landmark predecessor, but it was still Paramount's highest-grossing movie of the year and the 7th highest-grossing film of the year in North America overall. The film won 6 out of 11 Oscar nominations. It won Best Picture (the first sequel to achieve this), Supporting Actor (De Niro), Director, Adapted Screenplay, Art-Set Direction and Score. It lost Actor (Pacino) to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto, two more Supporting Actor nominations (Michael V. Gazzo and Lee Strasberg), Supporting Actress (Talia Shire) to Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express and Costume Design to The Great Gatsby. It was also nominated for 6 Golden Globes, won 1/4 BAFTA noms and several other awards. Roger Ebert initially gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one, but later changed it to a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. IMDb's users have voted the film in at #3 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Godfather (1972) and The Dark Knight (2008). Coppola returned with Apocalypse Now (1979). Pacino returned in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). The Godfather Part II is certified fresh at 97 % with a 9.62/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Godfather Part II?

The Front Page (1974) - Wilder's hilarious Chicago newspaper comedy

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This funny poster for Billy Wilder's The Front Page highlights its nostalgic period setting and the comic delights of its two stars' interplay

Hildy Johnson is the star reporter on the Chicago Examiner in 1929, who wants to exit the business to go marry his girl in Philadelphia. But his fiery editor refuses to let him go, especially since the two suddenly have an escaped convict facing the death penalty on their hands!

The Front Page is an adaptation of the same-titled 1928 Broadway play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur by I.A.L. Diamond (Let's Make It Legal (1951)) and Austrian-Hungarian master co-writer-director Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity (1944)), whose 24th feature it was. It follows previous big-screen adaptations of the same play, The Front Page (1931) and My Girl Friday (1940).
The dialog in this thoroughly wonderful film is so sharp, witty and keen that every second of it is relished for this quality in itself, something Wilder's direction and respectful dealing with the play vouches for.
Walter Matthau (Mirage (1965)) and Jack Lemmon (Save the Tiger (1973)) suit each other as good as they ever did as a comedic dream duo here. The Front Page runs on a story that takes crazy turns, - which always remain credible within its universe, - filled with witty inventions and outrageous characters; among them is a Viennese doctor and Vincent Gardenia (The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975)) who is hilarious as an incompetent sheriff. Not many may agree with me, but in my book, Wilder's The Front Page is a comedy masterpiece.

Related post:

Billy Wilder: Double Indemnity (1944) - Wilder's noir classic

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 15 mil. $
= Big hit (3.75 times its cost)
[The Front Page premiered 18 December (USA) and runs 105 minutes. Wilder was averse to remakes and stated to his biographer that he wasn't 'particularly proud' of The Front Page. The idea to make the film appealed to him because of his early days as a newspaperman. Shooting took place in California, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, from April - June 1974. Diamond and Wilder insisted on the dialog being spoken clearly and exactly as written, without overlapping, to Lemmon's detriment. Wilder's economical shooting and editing 'in-camera' meant that a rough cut was assembled just four days after shooting had ended. The film made 7.4 mil. $ (49.3 % of the total gross) in North America. It was reportedly Wilder's first profitable film since Irma la Douce (1963), (there are four films between the two), although he regretted doing it. It was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and won 2 David di Donatello awards (Italy's Oscar). Roger Ebert interviewed Wilder in 1974 about the film, which can be read here. Wilder returned with Fedora (1978). Lemmon returned in The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), and Matthau in The Sunshine Boys (1975). The Front Page is fresh at 73 % with a 5.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Front Page?

Effi Briest/Fontane Effi Briest (1974) - Fassbinder makes film a novel in cold, divisive passion project

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Hanna Schygulla as the titular character of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Effi Briest looks rather doomed on this somewhat theatrical poster for the film

 

In late 19th century Germany, young Effi Briest becomes the wife of a boring but wealthy aristocrat, who forces her life up by its roots. But for a time her heart beats for another ...

Effi Briest is a very odd film, probably among the most literary feeling films of all time. It is overloaded with intertitles, letters, narration and dialog and as a result comes across as exhaustingly text-oriented. In addition, its original title has a symptomatically exhaustingly convoluted extra-title, and if the two are accepted as one long title, the film has one of the longest titles in cinema history. It goes; Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen, which translates to; 'Fontane Effi Briest or Many People Who Are Aware of Their Own Capabilities and Needs Just Acquiesce to the Prevailing System in Their Thoughts and Deeds, Thereby Confirm and Reinforce It'.

It is the 11th theatrical feature from great German writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974)), adapting Theodor Fontane's (Grete Minde (1880)) same-titled 1895 novel. Fassbinder redeems Effi Briest with the film's visual power, which rests on undeniable photographic qualities, (B/W cinematography by Jürgen Jürges (Time of the Wolf/Le Temps du Loup (2003)) and Dietrich Lohmann (The Innocent (1993))). 

Effi Briest is an exceedingly uncompromising film in its strict ascetic sense, - narratively as well as aesthetically, as emotionless acting and stylistically distancing efforts go hand in hand for a so-called 'Verfremdungseffekt', an alienating effect which should make audiences think beyond the film. It certainly makes its nastily cold characters seem all the more distanced from us, and its story's tragedy impotent. Watching it I couldn't help wonder, whether Effi Briest might have somehow proved stronger, had it been set in France instead of Germany.

 

Related posts:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder:  The Marriage of Maria Braun/Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979) - Fassbinder blows up post-WWII Germany

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974) or, Ali und Emmi und die Anderen

Watch a scene from the film here

Cost: 750k DEM
Box office: 38.5 mil. ITL (Italy only)
= Uncertain - but reportedly a hit
[Effi Briest premiered 21 June (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 140 minutes (135 minutes in the US version). Fassbinder was deeply impassioned about making the film, but funding it took three years. His involvement stretched to his narrating it himself as well as casting his own mother in the role as Effi Briest's mother. He has said of his deep connection with the material due to his perception that Fontane “rejected everybody and found everything alienating and yet fought all his life for recognition.” Filming took place in Germany, Vienna, Austria and in Ærøskøbing on the Danish island Ærø. The film follows Fontane's words closely in its narration, dialog and letters. The film was reportedly a hit in West Germany (according to Elke Siegel in A Companion to Rainer Werner Fassbinder) but only reached a US release in 1977 and an Italian in 1982. The novel and film's implicit critique of patriarchy was viewed as highly topical to the 1970s German audiences following student revolts and women's rights fights from 1968 onward. Fassbinder followed the film with Fox and His Friends/Faustrecht der Freiheit (1975). Effi Briest is fresh at 70 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Effi Briest?

Dunderklumpen/Thundering Fatty/Dunder Klumpen/Dunderklumpen! (1974) - Åhlin's part-animated jabberwocky psych-out

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Some of the key animated characters of Per Åhlin's Dunderklumpen against the picturesque, Swedish mountain landscape

QUICK REVIEW:

A boy in the Swedish wild country gets his toy magically turned to life by the fat, animated Dunderklumpen character, who then sails away with the boy and his father in tow.

Dunderklumpen is written by Beppe Wolgers (Ur En Kos Dagbok (1985)), adapting his own 1969 children's book, and directed by by Per Åhlin (Hundhotellet (2000)). It is a very 1970s-infused psychedelic piece of nonsense. SPOILER - Its climax is a didactic speech on how money is not something to strive for.
Most of the film is narratively highly eccentric, - Dunderklumpen or Thundering Fatty, which he has been named in some English versions, and his (seemingly) acid-affected friends talk to, among other things, a waterfall and a house, - or just plain bunk.
The mix of live action and animation in Dunderklumpen provides some fun and is fairly successful, and more than one of the film's music pieces are good. But overall I find the film very hard to stand.

Here's an English-language trailer for the movie

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Reportedly 5.8 mil. SEK (Sweden only)
= Unknown
[Dunderklumpen was released September 26 and runs 97 minutes. 552k people reportedly paid admission to the film in its native Sweden, which must have made it a local success, although it might still count as a flop theatrically. It is thought of as Sweden's first animated feature, although it is actually only partly animated. Åhlin won a Special Achievement award at the Guldbagge Awards (Swedish Oscar) for the film. It was released in 1977 in the US, Hungary, East Germany and the Netherlands. It was rereleased in 1999 in Germany, in 2013 in the Netherlands and in 2014 in Sweden. 1,216 users have given Dunderklumpen a 7.0 average rating on IMDb.]

What do you think of Dunderklumpen?
Any curious 1970s film/s that you find it hard to take?

The Cars That Ate Paris/The Cars That Eat People (1974) or, Small Town, Big Hell

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Weirdly furnished WV Beetle on the Australian poster for Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris

QUICK REVIEW:

In the Australian outback lies the small town of Paris, where Arthur has a mysterious car accident with his brother, who perishes as a consequence. Slowly, Arthur is then incorporated into the everyday life of the small town community, which mostly spins around them getting wayward strangers to crash their cars, so that the 'good' people of Paris can steal them and the belongings of the unfortunate strangers.

 
Original and idiosyncratic, Weir proposes a mini civilization here that has somehow plummeted into a state of complete disintegration and depravity. The bizarre place that is Paris climaxes most astonishingly SPOILER in the carnival at the end, where madness streams out of the mayor, (played by John Meillon (Walkabout (1971))) and the mad doctor (played by Kevin Miles (A Cry in the Dark (1988))). 
The creeping sense of disillusion in The Cars That Ate Paris is closer to John Carpenter's Christine (1983) than to Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 (1976), which was inspired by Paris, which Corman owned a private print of, (and was thinking of distributing, which he ended up not doing, and New Line Cinema handled the American distribution instead.)
It is directed by the great Australian director Peter Weir, before he became a major movie-maker. His finest credits include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Dead Poet's Society (1989), The Truman Show (1998) and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). He has (it appears) ended his career now with the mildly disappointing The Way Back (2010).

In the US, the title for Peter Weir's film was altered to the less strange, yet still strange The Cars That Eat People

The long, original trailer for the film

Cost: 0.25 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of The Cars That Ate Paris?
What other car movies do you know that are recommendable?

Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski's masterpiece

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Irresistible German poster for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

QUICK REVIEW:

Private detective J.J. Gittes is first taken by his nose on a job of revealing a powerful water board scientist's possible adultery. He then learns that he's got a risky and much bigger, complex case before him.
Chinatown is a masterful film treasure that can be watched again and again to equal pleasure and stupefaction each time. It is a film noir mystery plot with many twists, full characters, great scenes, great lines and fascinating localities. A sophisticated masterwork through and through that marks Polish master director Roman Polanski's (Rosemary's Baby (1968)) only return to film in the U.S. following the brutal murder of his pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate by the Manson Family in Los Angeles in 1969. (Polanski was in Europe at the time.)
You get the sense that, besides the great script by Robert Towne (The Two Jakes (1990)), - which is what brought Polanski back to painful Los Angeles, and, outrageously, is the only Oscar-winning aspect of Chinatown, - in the direction there's no fooling around, no playing about: The tone is so consistent, the general feeling so deliberate, so controlled and elegant, all leading up to the overwhelming finale that still is a heart-stopper. The plot moves forward without pause throughout Chinatown as in steps that each of them reveal some more of the truth of the corruption for us; right until the finale in, where the structural code of the film is broken, so to speak, and all the ghouls come out of the closets in a rush of drama and violence and horror. If you let yourself be immersed in the film, the result is quite shocking, and it was the personal insistence and brilliance of Polanski that gave us the ending that we all now know and treasure so, (Towne's script SPOILER had a happy ending.) You feel Polanski's personal involvement in making this film and that is why Chinatown is his best film. He is there in the flesh throughout, (not only in the scene in which he's actually there and cuts open Jack Nicholson's nose), required by a profound personal wound to get this one right down to the letter.
Nicholson (The Shining (1980)) is great and gives one of his career's best performances as the smart, cheeky, ambitious Gittes. Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) is perfect as the mysterious femme fatale with a horrible secret. And John Huston (The African Queen (1951) director) is a great villain, the leather-faced master sinner, Noah Cross, whose religious-symbolic name seems to contribute to Polanski's fantastically dark, gloomy commentary and world view that suits this great noir perfectly and will make you shudder.
Chinatown also has an Oscar-nominated Jerry Goldsmith (Mulan (1998)) score which is recognized as one of the greatest of all time.
If you haven't seen Chinatown yet, you've got a hell of a movie in store, so take your time to sit down with some good coffee and perhaps a pack of cigarettes to watch it in one stretch. - You'll thank me later!

Related review: 

Roman Polanski: The Ghost Writer (2010) - A master at work

Great German poster for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

Another great poster, this one Spanish, for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 29.2 mil. $
= Big hit

Do you agree on Chinatown's excellence?
Anything you'd like to add?

Blazing Sadles (1974) or, The Black Sheriff of Rock Ridge

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Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Madeline Kahn and Mel Brooks himself on this poster for his Blazing Saddles

Black Bart is made sheriff in Rock Ridge, and together with the man who used to be the Waco Kid, he achieves popularity among the residents and beats the evil governor.

Blazing Saddles is a really racy, full speed ahead crazy comedy/western spoof, and perhaps the best absurd-anarchistic movie ever made. Its humor is zany, crazy, low and high brow in its mix of fart jokes (the first in a major American studio movie) with racial and cultural themes. It really holds no punches, which feels liberating, because its attacks on all kinds of hypocrisy and bigotry help to break these down. Its approach and style is so different from what was normal in comedies at the time that it takes a minute to get into its eccentric groove.

Cleavon Little shines in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles

It is all accomplished with style and class: Cleavon Little (Vanishing Point (1971)) with the vivacious, sparkling eyes is fun and hot as the sheriff, and Madeline Kahn (Young Frankenstein (1974)) is wonderful in her Marlene Dietrich-parody, with her I'm Tired song routine maybe the year's best (and funniest) movie song.
The film is one of the best by co-writer-director Mel Brooks (The Producers (1967)), who recently voiced Albert Einstein in DreamWorks' Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014).
Saddles is simply one of the funniest, best comedies of all time. Period.

Cleavon Little and his pal Gene Wilder on another poster for Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles

Watch the trailer for the film here, - and then watch the movie!

Budget: 2.6 mil. $
Box office: 119.5 mil. $
= Blockbuster

What do you think of Blazing Saddles?
Any other Cleavon Little-performances that you remember?
Or similarly zany, hilarious comedies?

Blood Money/The Stranger and the Gunfighter/El Kárate, el Colt y el Impostor (1974) or, The Tough Guys and the Fortune of the Butt Cheeks

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Lee Van Cleef's furry chest features prominently on this kitschy cool poster for Antonio Margheriti's Blood Money

QUICK REVIEW:

The pretty sleazy story of Blood Money is that a bank robber and a kung fu-heir from China pair up to get their hands on a great treasure, which is only possible to find through a series of four maps in four different cities, concealed as tattoos on the buttocks of hot ladies! Meanwhile they have to fight off a fanatical priest, who also wants the fortune.
The Stranger and the Gunfighter is an amusing genre-cook-down, but not a very successful film, and not very interesting for anyone besides fans of Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)), who plays the bank robber, and fans of obscure genre mixes as this.
It was made as a co-production between Spaghetti western Italians and the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers, who were behind Bruce Lee's films among others, as part of their effort at the time to branch out to new markets. They collaborated with the English Hammer studios the same year for The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a film that mixed Gothic horror with kung fu.
Blood Money also features Indonesian Hong Kong-based kung fu star Lieh Lo (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)). It was directed by Italian genre and exploitation director Antonio Margheriti, who also directed such appetizing titles such as The Long Hair of Death (1964),  Mr. Hercules Against Karate (1973), Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) and Commando Leopard (1985).

Click to enlarge this other poster for the film, which also features scarcely clad ladies!

Watch the super-cool, original exploitation trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Blood Money?
Do you know any better instances of trying to mend the western with the martial arts genre?