Best Movies of 1977

New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

After an encounter with UFOs, a line worker feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.

Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.

Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case.

Tony spends his Saturdays at a disco where his stylish moves raise his popularity among the patrons. But his life outside the disco is not easy and things change when he gets attracted to Stephanie.

What can two little mice possibly do to save an orphan girl who's fallen into evil hands? With a little cooperation and faith in oneself, anything is possible! As members of the mouse-run International Rescue Aid Society, Bernard and Miss Bianca respond to orphan Penny's call for help. The two mice search for clues with the help of an old cat named Rufus.

Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic actress who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

Two co-workers, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship after becoming roommates.

Operation Market Garden, September 1944. The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.

Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this mini-series brings to life all of the sweeping drama in the life of Jesus, as told by the Gospels.

Whether we’re young or forever young at heart, the Hundred Acre Wood calls to that place in each of us that still believes in magic. Join pals Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Rabbit, Tigger and Christopher Robin as they enjoy their days together and sing their way through adventures.

Paula (an unemployed dancer) and her 10-year-old daughter live in a Manhattan apartment with Tony, Paula's married boyfriend. Tony takes an acting job in Italy, and sublets the apartment to a friend without telling Paula.

In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.

It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of the madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich is still vastly superior to the Russian army. However, within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors.

To build up attendance at their games, the management of a struggling minor-league hockey team signs up the Hanson Brothers, three hard-charging players whose job is to demolish the opposition.

Acclaimed director Franco Zeffirelli and an all-star cast come together to deliver a powerful adaptation of the Gospels in 1977's Jesus Of Nazareth. From the Nativity to the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the life of Jesus (played by Robert Powell) is presented with stunning depth, gravity and emotion.

Bodybuilders compete for the titles of 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe. Lou Ferrigno prepares to face off against five-time Mr. Universe winner, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A race car driver tries to transport an illegal beer shipment from Texas to Atlanta in under 28 hours, picking up a reluctant bride-to-be on the way.

Passion, beauty, and brilliant storytelling are all on display in this six-hour-plus epic from Italian director Franco Zeffirelli. Robert Powell is superb in the title role, and with the overwhelming success of this TV movie throughout the world, has perhaps become what Jesus looks like in many people's minds. The story begins with the arrangements of the wedding between Joseph and Mary, and chronicles the nativity, the encounter with John the Baptist (a ferocious Michael York) and everything up to the crucifixion and resurrection.

In order to protect the reputation of the American space program, a team of scientists stages a phony Mars landing. Willingly participating in the deception are a trio of well-meaning astronauts, who become liabilities when their space capsule is reported lost on re-entry. Now, with the help of a crusading reporter, they must battle a sinister conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep the truth.

Martin, who believes himself to be a vampire, goes to live with his elderly and hostile cousin in a small Pennsylvania town where he tries to redeem his blood-craving urges.

An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.

A psychiatrist with intense acrophobia (fear of heights) goes to work for a mental institution run by doctors who appear to be crazier than their patients, and have secrets that they are willing to commit murder to keep.

Phoenix cop Ben Shockley is well on his way to becoming a derelict when he is assigned to transport a witness from Las Vegas. The witness turns out to be a belligerent prostitute with mob ties—and incriminating information regarding a high-ranking figure.

Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit was just minding his own business, when his occasional visitor Gandalf the Wizard drops in one night. One by one, a whole group of dwarves drop in, and before he knows it, Bilbo has joined their quest to reclaim their kingdom, taken from them by the evil dragon Smaug. The only problem is that Gandalf has told the dwarves that Bilbo is an expert burglar, but he isn't...

After the death of his mother, the evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers some long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded and sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination -- even if it means destroying his own flesh and blood.

On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.

Pete, a young orphan, runs away to a Maine fishing town with his best friend a lovable, sometimes invisible dragon named Elliott! When they are taken in by a kind lighthouse keeper, Nora, and her father, Elliott's prank playing lands them in big trouble. Then, when crooked salesmen try to capture Elliott for their own gain, Pete must attempt a daring rescue.

After undergoing radical surgery for injuries from a motorcycle accident, a young woman develops a strange phallic growth on her body and a thirst for human blood—the only nourishment that will now sustain her.

A New York City model with a troubled past relocates to an apartment in a brownstone building where the only other tenant is a withdrawn blind priest. After experiencing strange occurrences, she begins to realize her building houses a sinister evil.

A series of loosely connected skits that spoof news programs, commercials, porno films, kung-fu films, disaster films, blaxploitation films, spy films, mafia films, and the fear that somebody is watching you on the other side of the TV.

A pair of young vacationers are involved in a dangerous conflict with treasure hunters when they discover a way into a deadly wreck in Bermuda waters.

The film is set in the fictional Utah community of Santa Ynez, which is being terrorized by a mysterious black coupe that appears out of nowhere and begins running people down. After the car kills off the town's Sheriff, it becomes the job of Captain Wade Parent to stop the murderous driver.

A medieval tale with Pythonesque humour: After the death of his father the young Dennis Cooper goes to town where he has to pass several adventures. The town and the whole kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster called 'Jabberwocky'. Will Dennis make his fortune? Is anyone brave enough to defeat the monster?

Australian lawyer David Burton agrees with reluctance to defend a group of Aboriginal people charged with murdering one of their own. He suspects the victim was targeted for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Burton, plagued by apocalyptic visions of water, slowly realizes danger may come from his own involvement with the Aboriginal people and their prophecies.

A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, investigates the savage blinding of six horses with a metal spike in a stable in Hampshire, England. The atrocity was committed by an unassuming seventeen-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang, the only son of an opinionated but inwardly-timid father and a genteel, religious mother. As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy's demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own.

After witnessing the killing of his mate and offspring at Captain Nolan's hands, a vengeful killer whale goes on a rampage in the fisherman's Newfoundland harbor. Under pressure from the villagers, Nolan, Rachel and Umilak sail after the great beast, who will meet them on its own turf.

A Vietnam veteran, Charles Rane, returns home after years in a POW camp and is treated as a hero. When thugs invade his home to steal the silver coins he received for his service, they mangle his hand and leave him and his family for dead. Rane survives and becomes obsessed with getting revenge. Aided by his loyal friend Johnny Vohden, Rane, now wielding a hook for a hand, sets out on his mission of vengeance.

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA.

Princess Farah refuses to marry Sinbad until Prince Kassim, her brother, is able to give his consent. However, the Prince's wicked stepmother, Queen Zenobia, has changed Kassim into a baboon in order to have her own son crowned as caliph. Sinbad, his crew, the Princess and the transformed Prince travel to a distant land, fighting every obstacle Zenobia places in their path, to seek the advice of a legendary wise man who can possibly tell how to end the spell.

Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle after a hijacking gone wrong. Now the surviving passengers must brave panic, slow leaks, oxygen depletion, and more while attempting a daring plan, all while 200 feet underwater.

A scientific film essay, narrated by Phil Morrison. A set of pictures of two picnickers in a park, with the area of each frame one-tenth the size of the one before. Starting from a view of the entire known universe, the camera gradually zooms in until we are viewing the subatomic particles on a man's hand.

After another 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! and 7 Plus Seven. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

A poor otter family risks everything for the chance to win the cash prize of a talent contest for Christmas.

Beverly wears low-cut dresses, too much make-up, and has a reputation as a man-eating monster. She turns a social get-together between married couples into a virtual time-bomb of emotional tension.

Werner Herzog takes a film crew to the island of Guadeloupe when he hears that the volcano on the island is going to erupt. Everyone has left, except for one old man who refuses to leave.

A hard and shocking story of life in a British borstal for young offenders. [This is the original version scheduled for broadcast on 'Play for Today' on 8-Nov-1977 but withdrawn by the BBC because it was deemed too controversial. Director Alan Clarke edited the film and released it in cinemas in 1979 (See 'Scum (1979)'). The BBC would eventually broadcast the original on 27-Jul-1991.]

In 1977, Bette Midler's first television special premiered, featuring guest stars Dustin Hoffman and Emmett Kelly. It went on to win Bette her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Special — Comedy-Variety or Music. To make the show palatable to home viewers, the special featured heavily cleaned up versions of the material Midler was performing at that time on stage. The title of the show, Ol' Red Hair is Back, was a takeoff on the title of Frank Sinatra's recent album Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back.