Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a certain genre or year with great nudity. This week: 1974!
1974 was a good year for film. We saw The Godfather II, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and TWO Mel Brooks classics in a single year (Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein). This was a monumental year for the film industry simply because traditional studios were officially dead. Film historians credit the collapse of the studio system a little all over the place, but most agree that by 1974 it was dead.
Indie films, foreign films, and plenty of subgenres were ready to step up once the studio system was officially no more. This is the year that we saw that! This year took us out of the experimental indies of the late 60s and the old-school studio films and into a new era of American movies.
So here are the hottest films from 1974. Some of these are classics, some are campy, and some are incredibly controversial. All of them have great nudity:
Foxy Brown
Let's start off with THE movie that I think of when I hear "1974". The 70s gave us the rise of blaxploitation and the skincredible badassery of Pam Grier. There has never been another heroine like Pam! Pam plays the TITular Foxy Brown as she seeks vengeance, takes down bad guys, and shows off her breasts. No wonder she was one of the biggest stars of the 70s!
Chinatown
According to the American Film Institute, Chinatown is undoubtedly one of the finest films of all time. This thriller stars Jack Nicholson who works with Faye Dunaway to solve a mystery, but the more that he uncovers the more that he finds out everyone is keeping secrets.
Two things that are not a secret are Faye Dunaway's breasts. It's her right boob. No, her left boob. Her right boob! Her left boob! Okay, it's both. Please read that in the cadence of Chinatown's most famous scene, but if you have no clue what I am talking about then just enjoy this topless scene:
Lenny
Dustin Hoffman starred in this Lenny Bruce biopic in which the naked and naughty Valerie Perrine played Honey Bruce. Bob Fosse directed this story of standup comedian Lenny's rise to fame and his many run-ins with the law for challenging what he could say and do on stage.
Not only do we see recreations of Lenny's sets AND we see Valerie's pair, but we are also treated to some onstage sexiness from burlesque dancers.
The Night Porter
It is time for the wild BDSM film in which Charlotte Rampling plays a former sex slave. Liliana Cavani directed this controversial drama about a former Nazi officer who now works in a Vienna hotel as a night porter. While he is there, he runs into his former sex slave, Charlotte.
She debates turning him in, but ultimately decides to have fun with him first. This film continues to make people feel uncomfortable (but it is based on a true story!), but I'm including it to show just how different and daring films got in 1974, completely breaking from the molds of studios past.
The Phantom of Liberty
Surrealist Luis Bruñel had his heyday in the 1970s. If you want his take on comedy, then this is the film for you. The plot? Virtually non-existent. The laughs? Everywhere! The surrealist did not like traditional narratives, so this movie feels a lot more like sketch comedy with eye candy. That eye candy is Adriana Asti, a redheaded hottie with big breasts.
Death Wish
The 70s were filled with Charles Bronson kicking ass and taking names and Death Wish might be the best example of that. Michael Winner directed this action film in which Bronson becomes a vigilante who takes street justice into his own hands. The scenes can be a bit rough, but Kathleen Tolan does go topless when she is on the couch in her schoolgirl skirt.
The Mouth Agape
The French were obviously keeping things sexy in the 1970s. It's no different than any other decade for them! This series revolves around a family matriarch who feels that she is about to die soon. Her family gathers around her to spend time before her final days, but her family is a hot mess. Her husband is having an affair, her daughter-in-law
Marie Blanche Dehaux shows one of the hairiest natural bushes I've ever seen on camera. They say that the French don't like to shave their body hair and Marie is here to prove it!
Flesh for FrankensteinBlood for Dracula
The Warhol and Paul Morrissey crew was going strong in the early 1970s and Paul Morrissey decided to really ramp up the heat with his sexy retelling of Frankenstein. Warhol then co-produced Blood for Dracula with him in the same year. Both of these films have gone on to become '70s camp classics that are filled with Italian actresses showing off their breasts and bushes.
These films take the monster classics, Frankenstein and Dracula, and make them super sexy in the ways that only Warhol and Morrissey could. There is a lot of nudity and even some lesbian action that will have you salivating over suck sacks.
Caged Heat
The 70s were sexy and no film proved that as hard as Caged Heat. This prison drama has amazing scenes that include catfights and nude showers. Is this a critically "good" movie? No, but who cares! It's fun, it's hot, and there are boobs everywhere you look. Like here:
