King Kong (1976) - beauty and the beard

This movie had a lot of hype preceding its release in 1976, and it did well at the box office. I remember seeing it in the theater and enjoying it. The critics haven't been to kind to it though and Peter Jackson's more recent special-effects-laden version no doubt garners more praise. This one's admittedly a cheese-fest, but I think there's lot to like here. Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange are both otstanding, although I doubt either one of them would point to this movie as a great moment in their careers. The story is similar but not the same as the classic original and best King Kong from 1933. It's given a contemporary 1970s setting, and they're looking for oil rather than planning a movie (remember, there was a gas shortage). So some evil oil dudes (led by Charles Grodin) set sail for a strange island which they think will pour forth a lot of the black gold. This absence of a movie-making plot leads to a very contrived scene when they find the unfortunately named starlet Dwan (Jessica Lange) adrift in a raft. I guess they couldn't think of a better way to get her on board the boat. After that it pretty much goes as you'd expect. Scantily clad girl meets giant ape, giant ape falls for girl. A bad ending for the big ape.

There's more to it than that however, and for me at least, the most mesmerizing aspect of the movie was Jeff Bridges' facial hair. There's a lot of it and whenever it was on screen I couldn't take my eyes off it. Jeff Bridges plays Jack Prescott, a liberal-type scientist who wants to study Kong. He also falls for the girl, giving Jessica Lange two hairy beasts to contend with.

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1976) - clones are creepy

1977 Pocket Book, cover art by Ed Soyka

This excellent science fiction novel (winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards) starts out with a near future doomsday scenario. There's massive pollution leading to climate change, plague and disease, starvation and economic collapse. So this super wealthy family, some of whom are politicians and scientists who foresaw the worst, prepared for the coming collapse of civilization by creating their own little scientific compound in a valley somewhere in New England. Ultimately the plan is to start a new community with the help of cloning. At first this just means cloning livestock, since all of the animals have been dying. But they soon realize there will be a shortage of people because of infertility, so they decide to clone humans too. Which is where it gets interesting. You see, clones are kind of creepy...

1976 Harper & Row with M. C. Escher cover

The tale is told from the vantage point of several different characters across several generations (clone generations not being quite the same as regular human gens). The main conflict, besides survival, is the individual versus the group. Nonconformity was a great concern in seventies literature, with science fiction writers being particularly intrigued by the idea of pitting individual freedom against what's best  for society as a whole. The sympathy would usually (though not always) side with the individual. Kate Wilhelm does a great job of presenting a case for both sides, although ultimately it is the individual who has the wherewithal to survive. The nonconformist has the imagination to navigate a new beginning, whereas the hive-minded clones are stifled by their reliance on the group. Yea for imagination!

At Earth's Core (1976)

The poster is better than the movie.

I missed this one when it came out in 1976 and I don't remember hearing about it. It's super cheesy with hilarious special effects and pretty bad acting. This was long before the omnipresent use of cgi of course, so you have to give them credit for going all out with the monster costumes. Based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs story and directed by Kevin Connor, it stars Doug McClure and Peter Cushing as scientists who accidentally drill through the earth's crust in their Iron Mole and end up in an enormous cavern filled with bizarre prehistoric creatures. The Mole was pretty cool and looked kind of steampunkish.

The Iron Mole getting ready to launch.

The sets are actually pretty nice and there are some totally awesome giant mushrooms. The scientists soon get captured by pig-snouted minions who are telepathically controlled by evil reptile-birds. They have enslaved humans and McClure and Cushing will eventually have to fight them to free the slaves and themselves. There are plenty of action scenes as McClure must battle many strange underground beasts as well as jealous slaves. And there's lots of fire too as they are after all "At the Earth's Core". And last but not least there is a very attractive slave princess played by Caroline Munro, who is easily the best thing about this movie (besides the mushrooms).

Awesome mushrooms.

Doug McClure shows off his biceps to Caroline Munro.

The Blue Hammer by Ross Macdonald (1976) - a steady pulse

This was the last Lew Archer novel by Ross Macdonald. Published in 1976 it takes place in California with a little jaunt over to Arizona. Private detective Archer is hired to recover a stolen painting and return it to its rightful owners. Sounds simple enough but the case soon turns deadly. What follows is a  complicated and rather confusing crime drama which will involve four murders, fratricide, thievery, blackmail, a cult (in a very minor role to be sure), kidnapping, stolen identities and generally bad behavior by many individuals. Lew has a tough time trying to piece it all together and to complicate things further he falls for a dame.

 

Macdonald (real name Kenneth Millar, 1915-1983) is an excellent writer and he holds this twisting plot together brilliantly. Written in the first person, Archer is quite likeable, a tough guy but very human, hardboiled but compassionate. He's getting older and ruminates a lot. There is actually very little violence (the murders all take place away from Archer) and Lew spends more time trying to stop fights than start them. The cast of characters is quite colorful and all are well drawn. While it is a little hard to keep track of everybody, and their relationship to each other, Macdonald (via Archer) manages, after a few more twists, to lay it all out for you in the end.

Fun Fusion: The Billy Cobham - George Duke Band "Live" On Tour In Europe (1976)

Billy Cobham (drums), George Duke (keyboards), John Scofield (guitar), Al Johnson (bass)
A classic of the fusion genre. Great musicians, very funky high energy stuff played with a sense of humor often lacking in the genre. John Scofield is especially brilliant on guitar but everyone plays their butts off. Great album cover artwork by Cal Schenkel who did covers for Frank Zappa. I remember being quite fond of this album and the excellent artwork way back when. It has stood the test of time quite well. George duke offers some nice thoughts on the album here.