Shampoo (1975)

Set on the night of Richard Nixon’s 1968 election, Shampoo (1975) is a pointed and poignant satire of relationship politics. Director Hal Ashby imbues his themes of free love and the price of power with trenchant wit and an all-star cast, including cameos by singer Michelle Phillips and model Susan Blakely. Of course, the main player is George Roundy (Warren Beatty), a big-haired beautician who dreams of owning his own hairdressing salon while bedding high-class female clients, whom he regularly tells, “You’re great, baby, really.” Shambling through the film as a motorcycle-riding Lothario, randy Roundy hops off his bike and in between the thighs of one businessman’s wife too many. In other words, he finds himself menaced by the paragons of a society that his very lifestyle flaunts. Along the way, we get to see Goldie Hawn in an array of getups designed to get us off. Not to be upstaged, Carrie Fisher’s pokies are hard to ignore, as are the painted nude boobs on Sharon Kelly. If that’s not arousing enough, Lee Grant grants us a glance at her left mam while she’s being romanced by Warren. No wonder why the Academy named her Best Supporting Actress! Busy Beatty also makes time to seduce his real-life, on-again-off-again lover Julie Christie on screen. Indeed, the camera loves her — especially when the beauty briefly bares her breast while making out with her man in nothing but white panties and a bath towel. What lies beneath the cotton fabric? Only her hairdresser knows!