1974 was a good year for fans of conspiracy theory thrillers as it saw the release of Francis Ford Coppola‘s masterful The Conversation as well as this lesser known, but no less great, flick directed by Alan J Pakula (All the Presidents Men). It stars a poodle-haired Warren Beatty as a reporter investigating a sinister organisation behind a political assassination and remains one of the definitive cat and mouse thrillers of all time.

I’d argue that this poster features one of the best taglines of all time, certainly of the 1970s; it chillingly suggests that the misconduct of corporations featured in the film is business as usual.

I’m not certain who designed the poster so please get in touch if you have an idea.

The film features this memorable line of dialogue: “They say a martini is like a woman’s breast: one ain’t enough and three is too many.”

Here’s the superb original trailer.

An unusual design on this poster for 11 Harrowhouse, a British heist thriller from 1974 that was helmed by Aram Avakian. The American director had gained notoriety for the ground-breaking indie film End of the Road (1970), which was given an X-rating for its graphic depiction of an abortion and other scenes considered shocking for the time. 11 Harrowhouse stars Charles Grodin as a diamond merchant who is blackmailed into pulling a heist at a London jewel-exchange known as The System, which is located at the titular address. Candice Bergen features as his girlfriend who joins him on the heist, along with various ingenious ‘tools’ that include the cockroach depicted on this poster.

The initials FMA can be seen on the right of the poster (see picture 8) but I’m unsure who they belong to. If anyone has any ideas please get in touch and I’ll add the credit.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Great artwork by Ken Barr for this 1972 sci-fi film from Mike Hodges, the director of Get Carter and Flash Gordon, based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name. The Terminal Man wasn’t particularly well received and was never given a UK cinema release. It was only released on DVD in 2009 as a part of the on demand Warner Archive program.

There’s a strange bit of trivia on the Wikipedia page for the film: 

Terrence Malick, the director of Badlands, reportedly has written to Hodges expressing how much he loved watching The Terminal Man.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Utterly bonkers, laughably terrible, bizarrely brilliant; Zardoz is one of those films that you have to see at least once just to believe that it was even made. There are countless unforgettable images in the film, not least of which is Sean Connery in a red leather nappy and knee-high boots. There’s also a moment where he dons a wedding dress.

The script is also rather special; ‘The Penis is evil! The Penis shoots Seeds, and makes new Life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the Gun shoots Death and purifies the Earth of the filth of Brutals. Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken”

I’m a fan of this poster for a number of reasons, including the tagline and the strange choice of images to depict from the film, but it’s the film’s logo that deserves special mention as surely one of the best of the 1970s, if not ever.

The artist for this poster is American artist Ron Lesser, who is also responsible for the excellent High Plains Drifter one sheet (thanks to MightyMcT for confirming this).

Check out the trailer to get a taste of the wonder of Zardoz. If you want to see the best bits someone has made a short film entitled ‘Zardoz in 10 minutes’.

Finally, bear witness to Zardoz dog!

Wild artwork for this British psychological thriller about a disturbed young man who pretends to be mentally retarded in order to be near Susan, a girl he has become infatuated with, killing those who get in his way. According to IMDb, the film’s controversial nature led to a prologue being added during post-production, explaining that there was no connection between Down’s Syndrome, at that time called Mongolism, and psychopathic behaviour.

Quentin Tarantino used the theme tune, by the great composer Bernard Hermann, in both Kill Bill and Death Proof (as Rosario Dawson’s character’s ringtone).

Apparently the film was difficult to see after its cinema release, likely due to the controversy at the time, and was only released on DVD a few years ago.

The whole film is currently available to watch on YouTube.

Produced by Hong Kong’s legendary Shaw Brothers, and also known as The New One Armed Swordsman, this is the third film in the ‘One Armed’ series, although it replaces the previous lead with David Chaing. Supposedly this is one of the films that influenced the House of Blue Leaves sequence in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. To see why, here’s a ‘kill count’ video (148!).

The logo on this poster for the US release is superbly over the top and it’s interesting to note that the marketing focused around the titular weapon (it’s wielded by the bad guy).

The full film is available to watch on YouTube (with English subs).

Here’s a trailer for the film.

One of over fifty film and TV adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson‘s classic 19th century novel of the same name, this version of Treasure Island is only really notable for the fact that it starred Orson Welles. Apparently Welles contributed to the script under the pseudonym ‘O. W. Jeeves’ and also had his voice dubbed by another actor in post-production.

This poster features an excellent portrait of Welles by an unknown artist. There is what could possibly be a signature and date to the right of the open-mouthed boy (Jim Hawkins). If anyone has any ideas who may have illustrated it please get in touch.

The sans-serif typeface to announce Welles is an odd choice since it doesn’t match with the rest of the poster at all, although it’s quite clear what the producers felt was the main selling point of the film.