Best of
Movies

1977

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Screenplay


Graham Chapman - 1977
    In a series of sketches and animations, the Pythons recount scenes from the Grail legend in which the knights forsake their chorus line can-can dancing in Camelot for a higher aim. Typically, the Pythons set-up a 'historical' tale which is really a take on the modern world. Memorable scenes, like Graham Chapman's King Arthur battling with John Cleese's Black Knight until the latter is reduced limb by limb down to a speaking stump of a torso, capture both the hilarity and grotesque nature of brutality. In scene after scene King Arthur's men are led a merry chase through the countryside, encountering life on many different social levels. This screenplay edition contains just the script and is supplemented by stills from the film.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind


Steven Spielberg - 1977
    The world was being readied for...Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It meant the beginning of the most dramatic event in the history of the world. It will lead to the inescapable conclusion:WE ARE NOT ALONE

The Making of the Wizard of Oz: Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM


Aljean Harmetz - 1977
    From this was born The Wizard of Oz, a film that, 60 years later, continues to captivate us. It seems we can never get enough of the dishy inside details, the amazing feats of production that made it such a spectacle, and the personalities both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Now, timed to coincide with the theatrical rerelease -- which will include never-before-seen footage -- this is the book Oz aficionados will turn to for more information on America's favorite movie. A bestselling classic since it was first published in 1977, The Making of The Wizard of Oz is as ageless as the film itself jam-packed with fascinating facts and telling asides.

Movie-Star Portraits of the Forties


John Kobal - 1977
    Do you remember the most famous pinup of them all? Betty Grable smiling at you all through World War II. The original sweater girl, Lana Turner. Rita Hayworth in all her glory. The stunning and statuesque Ava Gardner. A defiant, scantily clad Jane Russell standing near the hay. Bogart, Garfield, Kirk Douglas, Judy Garland. The brooding Robert Mitchum, the brute power of Burt Lancaster, the alienated Montgomery Clift, the animal menace of Marlon Brando. And perhaps the last of the studio pinups, the fragile and beautiful Marilyn Monroe. These flesh and blood fantasies, and many others, are here — 106 stars in 163 full-page glamour photos by 24 leading Hollywood photographers.The pictures these photographic artists took span the period from the outbreak of World War II to the Korean conflict of 1951. As John Kobal writes in his informative introduction. "The Forties were the years of Old Hollywood's last stand, though the people concerned didn't know it." In a lively introduction, illustrated by ten pictures of the stars off the set, Mr. Kobal discusses the people and films of the Forties, the importance of these photos and the photographers who took them, and their magical appeal to movie fans. The captions give the year, photographer, studio, the movies that many of the portraits are associated with, and the costume designer. Originally printed in fan magazines, on posters, and in fashion spreads, these portraits are legendary. They are part of almost everyone's past, part of their dreams and fantasies.