1970s – This Had Oscar Buzz

291 – The Ritz (with Christina Tucker) (70s Spectacular – 1976)

We’re on to 1976 (go sign up for our Patreon for 1975 and our Exception episode on Tommy!) and Christina Tucker rejoins us to talk about the 70s Spectacular’s wildest movie, The Ritz. From the play by Terrence McNally, the film is a mob farce set in a bathhouse with Jack Weston as a straight man hiding out from Jerry Stiller’s mob boss and living legend Rita Moreno as the sex establishment’s kooky cabaret headliner. Despite the pedigree of Oscar winner Moreno and then-newly-minted theatre icon McNally, The Ritz turned out to be a little too Looney Tunes for the stiff-upper-lip (and super straight) Academy.

This episode, we tackle the film’s harmless lunacy and McNally’s legacy. We also talk about Moreno’s Tony speech from the Broadway production, Rocky‘s victory over an incredible Best Picture lineup, and William Friedkin’s dour approach to producing the Oscar ceremony.

Topics also include the Continental Baths, Challengers, and Post Malone’s 2024.

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290 – The Front Page (with Roxana Hadadi) (70s Spectacular – 1974)

1974 brings us to one of the final films of Billy Wilder, which also reunited a screen duo beloved by both Oscar and audiences, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Vulture writer Roxana Hadadi is back to the show to talk about The Front Page, an oft-adapted farce about newspapermen getting wrapped up in the case of an escaped convict. Most famously retold in a gender swapped version in His Girl Friday, this version stumbles to deliver the best of this director-star trio and missed Oscar’s good graces despite multiple nominations in the decade for Mathau and Lemmon, including Lemmon’s win the previous year.

This episode, we talk about the victory lap made by Francis Ford Coppola with The Godfather Part II and The Conversation both earning Oscar love. We also talk about the film’s apoliticism was atypical of the moment, our love for Ingrid Bergman’s Supporting Actress speech, and the hubbub over the acceptance speech for Best Documentary Feature Hearts and Minds.

Topics also include disaster movies becoming the splashy Hollywood product, The Godfather Part II Supporting Actor nominations, and Anderson Cooper talking about his mom hooking up with Marlon Brando.

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289 – Don’t Look Now (with David Sims) (70s Spectacular – 1973)

In 1973, the Academy embraced horror in a big way by slapping cultural phenomenon The Exorcist with 10 nominations – but then The Sting would triumph over its success on Oscar night. Critic David Sims returns to the show to talk about a different iconic and formative horror title, Nicolas Rouge’s Don’t Look Now. With prestige stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, the film follows a married couple grieving the loss of a child while working overseas in Venice. Clairvoyance, a serial killer, and disturbing visions all amount to a unique horror film that would influence many to come, but nevertheless one that the Academy was not ready to embrace.

This episode, we talk about the film’s notorious sex scene and the film as an odd middle ground between The Exorcist and Last Tango in Paris. We also talk about how the reputation of the film’s twist ending, Christie’s Oscar legacy, and how Sutherland was never nominated for an Oscar ahead of his honorary win.

Topics also include David’s favorites of 1973, Jefferson Mays on Broadway, and the Oscar streaker.

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288 – Up the Sandbox (with Jordan Hoffman) (70s Spectacular – 1972)

The 70s Spectacular is dancing as fast as it can! And we’re spinning right into 1972 with one of the decade’s biggest stars, the one and only Barbra Streisand, and joining us is one of her superfans, writer Jordan Hoffman. This year saw the first films of First Artists, a production company that intended to give more power to stars to create their passion projects the studios wouldn’t touch. Streisand’s first effort with the company was Up the Sandbox, a timely satire that cast the legend as a housewife faced with a third pregnancy, who retreats into her wild and often politically charged fantasies. Indifference from audiences and the industry made this one of Streisand’s rare flops.

This episode, we talk about our love for Barbra and this legendary Oscar year that pit Cabaret against The Godfather. We also talk about the film’s bizarre fantasy sequences, how it exists as a product of a specific moment in time, and cinematographer Gordon Willis’ shockingly slim Oscar history.

Topics also include Paul Zindel books, Harry And Walter Go To New York, and Shelley Winters in The Poseidon Adventure.

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287 – Harold and Maude (with Katie Walsh) (70s Spectacular – 1971)

The 70s Spectacular continues with critic and podcaster Katie Walsh joining us to discuss 1971 and Hal Ashby. After making his directorial debut with The Landlord after a career as an editor (including an Oscar win for In the Heat of the Night), Ashby returned to the director’s chair for what might be the film that became his signature. Harold and Maude cast recent comedy breakthrough Bud Cort as a death-obsessed, disaffected youth who falls for a free spirit who just so happens to be 60 years older, played by recent Oscar winner Ruth Gordon.

This episode, we talk about Ashby’s prolific career in the 1970s, where Harold and Maude would be his only film without Oscar nominations. We also talk about Gordon’s three screenwriting Oscar nominations with her partner, Vivian Pickles’ underpraised performance as Harold’s mother, and the musical contributions of Cat Stevens.

Topics also include T-Mobile ads, the secret hotness of Norma Rae, and Charlie Chaplin’s honorary Oscar win.

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286 – Something for Everyone (with Chris Schleicher!) (70s Spectacular – 1970)

It’s time to kick off our May miniseries – the This Had Oscar Buzz: 70s Spectacular! For 1970, television writer Chris Schleicher joins us for a forgotten tale of wealth, deception, and Bavarian castles. The directorial debut of stage legend Hal Prince (and with a screenplay by his frequent collaborator Hugh Wheeler, from the novel The Cook by Harry Kressing), Something for Everyone starred a pre-Cabaret Michael York as a young man who weasel’s his way into the good graces of a wealthy family in order to claim their family castle. As the family matriarch, Angela Lansbury earned a Golden Globe nomination that didn’t translate to Oscar.

This episode, we talk about the 1970 Oscar year dominated by controversy surrounding George C. Scott’s rejection of Oscar pomp and circumstance and this film’s very obvious similarities to Saltburn. We also talk about Lansbury’s Oscar and Tony run preceding the film, Michael York as canonical cinematic bisexual, and Prince’s directorial failure adapting A Little Night Music.

Topics also include “It Goes Like It Goes,” the supporting actresses of Five Easy Pieces, and our disdain for Love Story.

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Intro to 70s Spectacular

May is upon us and that means it’s time for another May miniseries! How could we top last year’s 100 Years, 100… Snubs! success? Well, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the Oscar era that was the 1970s! In the month of May, we will be looking back at each year of the decade with not only a discussion of a film from that year, but also the Oscar history of each year. Before that kicks off, here’s your intro episode to get you excited for what’s to come!

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