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Ten Memorable Hollywood                            ladies, Coffy starring Pam Grier and
         Films of 1973:                                     Cleopatra Jones, with Tamara Dobson as
                                                            “6-feet-2 of dynamite.” Picked the second,
         The biggest hit in Hollywood in 1973, was          directed by Jack Starrett, because of the
         the horror film, The Exorcist, unarguably          statuesque leading lady, with her array of
         the most scary film ever made. It was              James Bond gadgets, her Corvette and her
         a good year for American movies, but               ability to kick ass without breaking into a
         memories are made of films seen and                sweat.
         loved; while making a list, it is often a toss
         between this film or that, but these come          Enter The Dragon:
         out of the storage vault of the mind, some                           Who did not fall in love
         because they were trend setters, some                                with Bruce Lee and karate
         because they were Oscar winners, and                                 when this Robert Clouse
         others that meant something to the viewer.                           movie hit the theatres in
          In alphabetical order, the most memorable                           India. He played a man
         films that turn 50 this year without                                 sent to a mysterious
         showing signs of age:                                                island to investigate a
         American Graffiti:                                                   martial arts tournament
                           George Lucas came to be          run by a drug lord. The whirlwind fights
                           known as the creator of the      and that unforgettable sequence in a hall of
                           epic Star Wars, but before       mirrors were crazily cool. Also, Bruce Lee
                           he became a Hollywood            died that year and made a place for himself
                           mogul, he made the               in the pantheon of martial arts deities.
                           ultimate coming of age
                           film, starring Richard           The Exorcist:
                           Dreyfus, Ron Howard,                               In William Friedkin’s
         Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, about                             film, based on a best
         four teenagers, spending a summer of                                 selling book by William
         freedom and love before they go to college.                          Peter Blatty, a little girl
         The film is pure Sixties nostalgia, with an                          (Linda Blair) is possessed
         incredible rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack.                                 by an evil spirit—all
                                                                              that head rotation and
         Cleopatra Jones:                                                     green spewing—and her
                           The Seventies was the            desperate mother (Ellen Burstyn) has to
                           decade of Blaxploitation         seek the help of a priest, Max von Sydow to
                           movies—a series of movies        battle that demon and exorcise it.
                           in which Black actors
                           were protagonists, not           Live And Let Die
                           just sidekicks to white          Not the best James Bond movie, but for
                           stars. Women, however,           fans, every film counts. Roger Moore
                           were relegated to the            played 007, in the film directed by Guy
         background, till, incredibly, in one year,         Hamilton, Jane Seymour with her hypnotic
         there were two films with Black leading            two-colour eyes played a tarot card reader,


        SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #44 | FEBRUARY 2023                                                           41
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