Best movies of 1974
by pauleta_mtr | created - 14 Jan 2017 | updated - 1 month ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The Godfather Part II (1974)
R | 202 min | Crime, Drama
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,359,797 | Gross: $57.30M
9/10
2. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 348,805
8/10
3. The Towering Inferno (1974)
PG | 165 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
At the opening party of a colossal, but poorly constructed, office building, a massive fire breaks out that threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway
Votes: 48,067 | Gross: $116.00M
9/10
4. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
R | 112 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An American barroom pianist and his prostitute girlfriend go on a trip through the Mexican underworld to collect the bounty on the head of a dead gigolo.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Robert Webber, Gig Young
Votes: 21,460 | Gross: $0.58M
8/10
5. Young Frankenstein (1974)
PG | 106 min | Comedy
An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle
Votes: 168,535 | Gross: $86.30M
8/10
6. Earthquake (1974)
PG | 122 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene
Votes: 17,831 | Gross: $79.70M
8/10
7. Alice in the Cities (1974)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama
A German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Yella Rottländer, Rüdiger Vogler, Lisa Kreuzer, Edda Köchl
Votes: 13,141
7.5/10
8. Lenny (1974)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama
The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the Establishment as too obscene for the public.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck
Votes: 17,501 | Gross: $8.43M
7/10
9. The Parallax View (1974)
R | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An ambitious reporter gets in way-over-his-head trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels, Walter McGinn
Votes: 21,681 | Gross: $2.15M
7/10
10. Harry and Tonto (1974)
R | 115 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
When his apartment building is torn down, a retired lifelong New Yorker goes on a cross-country odyssey with his beloved cat Tonto.
Director: Paul Mazursky | Stars: Art Carney, Ellen Burstyn, René Enríquez, Herbert Berghof
Votes: 6,199 | Gross: $1.26M
7/10
11. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann
Votes: 23,756
7/10
12. The Promised Land (1975)
Not Rated | 170 min | Drama
Three friends hope to build a factory but their plans are quickly jeopardized by local politics and one of the partner's dangerous love affair.
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Andrzej Seweryn, Anna Nehrebecka
Votes: 4,002
7/10. It was made in 1974.
13. Martha (I) (1974 TV Movie)
116 min | Drama, Thriller
After the death of her abusive father, the lonely librarian Martha marries an equally vile businessman - Helmut. The cruel and torturous nature of their relationship leads Martha to believe Helmut might be trying to kill her.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Böhm, Barbara Valentin, Peter Chatel
Votes: 2,999
7/10
14. The Gambler (1974)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
Axel Freed is a literature professor. He has the gambling vice. When he has lost all of his money, he borrows from his girlfriend, then his mother, and finally some bad guys that chase him. Despite all of this, he cannot stop gambling.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 6,534 | Gross: $1.31M
7/10
15. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
PG | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In December 1935, when his transcontinental luxury train is stranded by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before, with a multitude of suspects.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery
Votes: 68,914 | Gross: $0.07M
7/10
16. Blazing Saddles (1974)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Western
In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman
Votes: 152,006 | Gross: $119.50M
7/10
17. The Conversation (1974)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 121,384 | Gross: $4.42M
7/10
18. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Four armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum: Even if it's paid, how could they get away?
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo
Votes: 35,445 | Gross: $2.49M
7/10
19. Death Wish (1974)
R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad after his wife is murdered by street punks. In self-defense, the vengeful man kills muggers on the mean streets after dark.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats
Votes: 43,913 | Gross: $22.00M
7/10
20. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
R | 83 min | Horror
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Votes: 182,862 | Gross: $30.86M
7/10
21. It's Alive (1974)
PG | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The Davises are expecting a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing people whenever it is scared. And it is easily scared.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell
Votes: 8,949
7/10
22. California Split (1974)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
When a casual gambler (George Segal as Bill) befriends a professional one (Elliott Gould as Charlie), he begins to mirror his life, sending both deeper into the sleazy gambling world where the stakes keep getting bigger.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: George Segal, Elliott Gould, Ann Prentiss, Gwen Welles
Votes: 8,377 | Gross: $10.90M
7/10
23. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
R | 115 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis
Votes: 28,600 | Gross: $25.00M
7/10
24. The Night Porter (1974)
R | 118 min | Drama
A concentration camp survivor rekindles her sadomasochistic relationship with her lover, a former SS officer - now working as a night porter at a Vienna hotel - but his former Nazi associates begin stalking them.
Director: Liliana Cavani | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti
Votes: 14,654 | Gross: $0.63M
7/10
25. Borsalino and Co. (1974)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Marseille. Heaps of flowers and funeral wreaths... "A man who no longer defends his colors is no longer a man."
Director: Jacques Deray | Stars: Alain Delon, Riccardo Cucciolla, Daniel Ivernel, Reinhard Kolldehoff
Votes: 2,423
7/10
26. Nie ma mocnych (1974)
89 min | Comedy
The main characters are the same two quarreling pesant families introduced in "Sami swoi" (Our Folks). The action of the film starts 18 years later. The old quarrels have been forgotten, ... See full summary »
Director: Sylwester Checinski | Stars: Waclaw Kowalski, Wladyslaw Hancza, Anna Dymna, Andrzej Wasilewicz
Votes: 2,192
7/10
27. A Jungle Book of Regulations (1974)
91 min | Comedy
After moving from a small flat to a bigger one, a young married couple unexpectedly meet their new flatmate.
Director: Stanislaw Bareja | Stars: Jacek Fedorowicz, Mieczyslaw Czechowicz, Stanislawa Celinska, Jerzy Dobrowolski
Votes: 1,233
7/10
28. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
PG | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond is targeted by the world's most expensive assassin, while he attempts to recover sensitive solar cell technology that is being sold to the highest bidder.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams
Votes: 112,802 | Gross: $20.97M
7/10
29. The Great Gatsby (1974)
PG | 144 min | Drama, Romance
A Midwesterner becomes fascinated with his nouveau riche neighbor, who obsesses over his lost love.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black
Votes: 26,792 | Gross: $6.74M
6.5/10
30. The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974)
R | 77 min | Animation, Comedy
Fritz the Cat may have lost one of his lives in the comics, but in his new movie, he has eight more lives left to go! While his wife screams at him, Fritz lights up a joint and reminiscences about what could have been.
Director: Robert Taylor | Stars: Skip Hinnant, Reva Rose, Bob Holt, Robert Ridgely
Votes: 2,993 | Gross: $1.09M
6.5/10
31. The Mouth Agape (1974)
TV-14 | 82 min | Drama
Monique is dying. Around her gather her unfaithful husband, her son, who is like his father, and her daughter-in-law. We observe them playing with life as she dies.
Director: Maurice Pialat | Stars: Nathalie Baye, Hubert Deschamps, Philippe Léotard, Monique Mélinand
Votes: 1,280
6.5/10
32. Female Trouble (1974)
NC-17 | 89 min | Comedy, Crime
A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitch-hiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole
Votes: 10,425
6.5/10
33. The Sugarland Express (1974)
PG | 110 min | Crime, Drama
A woman attempts to reunite her family by helping her husband escape prison and together kidnapping their son. But things don't go as planned when they are forced to take a police hostage on the road.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, William Atherton
Votes: 19,029 | Gross: $7.50M
6/10
34. Edvard Munch (1974 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 210 min | Biography, Drama, History
This biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Kerstii Allum, Eric Allum
Votes: 3,368 | Gross: $0.04M
6/10
35. Conversation Piece (1974)
R | 121 min | Drama, Romance
A reclusive retired professor is faced with confronting modernity when a group of vulgar youths led by an obnoxious marchesa take up residence in his unused upper residence.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano, Claudia Marsani
Votes: 5,171
6/10
36. Arabian Nights (1974)
X | 130 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
In ancient Arabia, a beautiful slave girl chooses a youth to be her new master, then she is kidnapped and they must search for each other. Stories are told within stories: love, travel and the whims of destiny.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Franco Merli, Tessa Bouché
Votes: 9,002
6/10
37. Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Unrated | 193 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier
Votes: 6,326 | Gross: $0.03M
6/10
38. The Longest Yard (1974)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A sadistic warden asks a former pro quarterback, now serving time in his prison, to put together a team of inmates to take on (and get pummeled by) the guards.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad
Votes: 21,361 | Gross: $7.13M
6/10
39. Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
R | 138 min | Drama, War
In 1944, an 18-year-old boy from small-town France collaborates with the Gestapo and subsequently falls in love with a Jewish girl.
Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clément, Holger Löwenadler, Therese Giehse
Votes: 7,692
6/10
40. We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974)
124 min | Comedy, Drama
Three partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
Director: Ettore Scola | Stars: Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman, Stefania Sandrelli, Stefano Satta Flores
Votes: 7,243
6/10
41. Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
PG | 93 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Down-on-their-luck racers Larry and Deke steal from a supermarket manager to buy a car that will help them advance their racing chances. Their escape does not go as planned when Larry's one-night stand, Mary, tags along for the ride.
Director: John Hough | Stars: Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, Kenneth Tobey
Votes: 7,801 | Gross: $0.62M
6/10
42. Koniec wakacji (1975)
86 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Fifteen-year-old Jurek is to spend his holidays at home, in Silesia. After returning from school, he does not find her mother or her things. His father tells him a story about his mother's ... See full summary »
Director: Stanislaw Jedryka | Stars: Marek Sikora, Agata Siecinska, Józef Nalberczak, Tadeusz Bialoszczynski
Votes: 63
6/10. It was made in 1974.
Tell Your Friends