Favorite Films of 1976
by bertramsharp | created - 26 Jun 2011 | updated - 28 Jul 2022 | PublicUpdated: 07/28/2022
I have watched 65 films with a 1976 release date. I have listed them here ranked from best to worst (in my opinion).
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1. Taxi Driver (1976)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks
Votes: 921,093 | Gross: $28.26M
2. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
PG | 135 min | Western
Missouri farmer Josey Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Bill McKinney
Votes: 79,870 | Gross: $31.80M
3. Carrie (1976)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery
Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta
Votes: 206,742 | Gross: $33.80M
4. All the President's Men (1976)
PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam
Votes: 126,090 | Gross: $70.60M
5. The Omen (1976)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner
Votes: 132,630 | Gross: $4.27M
6. 1900 (1976)
Unrated | 317 min | Drama, History
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini
Votes: 27,288
7. Marathon Man (1976)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After the shocking murder of his older brother, a New York history student finds himself inexplicably hounded by shadowy government agents on the trail of a Nazi war criminal who is trying to retrieve smuggled diamonds.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane
Votes: 70,243 | Gross: $21.71M
8. The Shootist (1976)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A dying gunfighter spends his last days looking for a way to die with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart
Votes: 26,834
9. Midway (1976)
PG | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
A dramatization of the battle that was widely heralded as a turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford
Votes: 21,493
10. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A Highway Patrol Officer, two criminals and a station secretary defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West
Votes: 55,642
11. The Bad News Bears (1976)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.
Director: Michael Ritchie | Stars: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten
Votes: 25,032 | Gross: $42.35M
12. Rocky (1976)
PG | 120 min | Drama, Sport
A small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
Votes: 628,632 | Gross: $117.24M
13. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
R | 139 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An alien must pose as a human to save his dying planet, but a woman and greed of other men create complications.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry
Votes: 28,682 | Gross: $0.10M
14. How the West Was Won (1976–1979)
16+ | Drama, Western
The Macahans, a family from Virginia, headed by Zeb Macahan, travel across the country to pioneer a new land and a new home in the American West.
Stars: James Arness, Bruce Boxleitner, Kathryn Holcomb, William Kirby Cullen
Votes: 2,574
15. Blood Stalkers (1976)
R | 93 min | Horror
Two tourists in Florida are attacked by a chilling group of backwoods psychopaths.
Director: Robert W. Morgan | Stars: Ken Miller, Toni Crabtree, Jerry Albert, Cisse Cameron
Votes: 386
16. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The story of a hooded, berserk killer who terrorized the border town of Texarkana, Arkansas in 1946--leaving no fewer than five murder victims in his wake. He was never caught. Based on one of America's most baffling murder cases.
Director: Charles B. Pierce | Stars: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells, Jimmy Clem
Votes: 9,792
17. Eaten Alive (1976)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
A psychotic redneck, who owns a dilapidated hotel in rural East Texas, kills various people who upset him or his business, and he feeds their bodies to a large crocodile that he keeps as a pet in the swamp beside his hotel.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, Marilyn Burns
Votes: 8,709
18. Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)
R | 112 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A couple of English tourists arrive on an island where all the children have gone crazy and are murdering the adults.
Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador | Stars: Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome, Antonio Iranzo, Miguel Narros
Votes: 8,032
19. The Tenant (1976)
R | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
A bureaucrat rents a Paris apartment where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet
Votes: 47,633 | Gross: $1.92M
20. Burnt Offerings (1976)
PG | 116 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.
Director: Dan Curtis | Stars: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart
Votes: 13,614
21. Logan's Run (1976)
PG | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A police officer in the future uncovers the deadly secret behind a society that worships youth.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Browne
Votes: 61,058 | Gross: $25.00M
22. Massacre at Central High (1976)
R | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A high-school transfer student pushed to the edge by a trio of brutal bullies resorts to murder to reclaim the school from oppression, and later turns against the students wanting to fill the vacuum of their oppressors.
Director: Rene Daalder | Stars: Derrel Maury, Andrew Stevens, Robert Carradine, Kimberly Beck
Votes: 2,725
23. Silver Streak (1976)
PG | 114 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
On a long-distance train trip, a man finds romance but also finds himself in danger of being killed, or at least pushed off the train.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Jill Clayburgh, Patrick McGoohan
Votes: 21,722
24. The House with Laughing Windows (1976)
110 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Stefano, a young restorer, is commissioned to save a controversial mural located in the church of a small, isolated village.
Director: Pupi Avati | Stars: Lino Capolicchio, Francesca Marciano, Gianni Cavina, Giulio Pizzirani
Votes: 5,974
25. Gator (1976)
PG | 115 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Agents force a former con man to help them nab a corrupt politician.
Director: Burt Reynolds | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Lauren Hutton, Jerry Reed
Votes: 4,918 | Gross: $11.00M
26. Dark August (1976)
PG | 87 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A man accidentally runs down a young girl and has a curse placed on him by the girl's father, an occultist. He goes to a spiritualist for help in fighting the curse.
Director: Martin Goldman | Stars: Kim Hunter, J.J. Barry, Carolyne Barry, Kate McKeown
Votes: 689
27. Family Plot (1976)
PG | 120 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/actor boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris, William Devane
Votes: 24,843
28. The Missouri Breaks (1976)
PG | 126 min | Drama, Western
Tom Logan is a horse thief. Rancher David Braxton has horses, and a daughter, worth stealing. But Braxton has just hired Lee Clayton, an infamous "regulator", to hunt down the horse thieves; one at a time.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Kathleen Lloyd
Votes: 12,195 | Gross: $14.00M
29. Sybil (1976)
TV-14 | 66 min | Biography, Drama
A young woman whose childhood was so harrowing to her that she developed sixteen different personalities is treated by a doctor.
Stars: Joanne Woodward, Sally Field, Brad Davis, Martine Bartlett
Votes: 7,467
30. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
In 1961, a divorced Catholic couple's life is turned upside-down when one of their two adolescent daughters is suspected of her younger sister's brutal murder during her First Holy Communion and a series of subsequent stabbings.
Director: Alfred Sole | Stars: Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Paula E. Sheppard, Niles McMaster
Votes: 12,961
31. Ode to Billy Joe (1976)
PG | 106 min | Drama
In 1950s Mississippi, teenager Bobbie Lee Hartley navigates her blossoming hormones as she is courted by Billy Joe McAllister, who is headed for tragedy.
Director: Max Baer Jr. | Stars: Robby Benson, Glynnis O'Connor, Joan Hotchkis, Sandy McPeak
Votes: 2,164
32. The Shaggy D.A. (1976)
G | 91 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Wilby Daniels, now all grown up and running for district attorney, finds himself once again turning into a shaggy dog at inopportune moments.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette, Tim Conway, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 3,394
33. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
PG | 91 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A thirteen-year-old girl, who lives with her absentee father, befriends a disabled teenage amateur magician and invites him, gradually, into her tenuous struggle against a predatory local neighbor.
Director: Nicolas Gessner | Stars: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman
Votes: 18,090
34. The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976)
PG | 129 min | Drama, Western
The English gentleman known as Horse, returns to the American west to save his adopted Indian tribe from extinction.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Richard Harris, Gale Sondergaard, Geoffrey Lewis, William Lucking
Votes: 2,037
35. No Deposit, No Return (1976)
G | 112 min | Comedy, Family
During school-break, two kids are to stay with their rich Grandpa but they would rather join their mother overseas, so, in need of plane-ticket cash, they convince two petty-criminals to fake-kidnap them for a ransom they could all share.
Director: Norman Tokar | Stars: David Niven, Darren McGavin, Don Knotts, Herschel Bernardi
Votes: 1,681
36. Eat My Dust (1976)
PG | 89 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
Darlene's into going fast, Hoover's into Darlene, but when they both get into a red-hot race car, the reckless fun accelerates into a trunk-full of hot pursuits.
Director: Charles B. Griffith | Stars: Ron Howard, Christopher Norris, Brad David, Kathy O'Dare
Votes: 1,001
37. God Told Me To (1976)
R | 91 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi
A New York detective investigates a series of murders committed by random New Yorkers who claim that "God told them to."
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Tony Lo Bianco, Deborah Raffin, Sandy Dennis, Sylvia Sidney
Votes: 6,551
38. Futureworld (1976)
PG | 108 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Upon uncovering the dirty secret of futuristic theme-park Futureworld, an ex-employee is killed after he tips off two other reporters who decide to do an undercover investigation.
Director: Richard T. Heffron | Stars: Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill, Yul Brynner
Votes: 11,788 | Gross: $8.72M
39. Black Magic 2 (1976)
92 min | Horror
An evil magician and his zombie minions are up against a trio of doctors who are on a mission to find the cause of an outbreak of unknown diseases caused by his spells.
Director: Meng-Hua Ho | Stars: Lung Ti, Ni Tien, Lieh Lo, Terry Liu
Votes: 488
40. At the Earth's Core (1976)
PG | 89 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A Victorian era scientist and his assistant take a test run in their Iron Mole drilling machine and end up in a strange underground labyrinth ruled by a species of giant telepathic bird and full of prehistoric monsters and cavemen.
Director: Kevin Connor | Stars: Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, Caroline Munro, Cy Grant
Votes: 5,476
41. Seven Women for Satan (1976)
Not Rated | 82 min | Horror
A businessman, who's a descendant of a brutal Russian count, can't discern hallucinations from reality when he sees visions of extreme violence against young women staying at his castle.
Director: Michel Lemoine | Stars: Michel Lemoine, Nathalie Zeiger, Howard Vernon, Joëlle Coeur
Votes: 643
42. Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976 TV Movie)
Unrated | 100 min | Horror
Having been adopted by the madam of a southwestern brothel, a now adult Adrian must cope with the fact that he's Satan's kid, and not living up to his expectations.
Director: Sam O'Steen | Stars: Stephen McHattie, Patty Duke, Broderick Crawford, Ruth Gordon
Votes: 1,047
43. Island of Death (1976)
Not Rated | 108 min | Horror, Romance
A couple of perverted and maniac killers get loose on a Greek island.
Director: Nico Mastorakis | Stars: Bob Behling, Jane Lyle, Jessica Dublin, Gerard Gonalons
Votes: 4,831
44. Car Wash (1976)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A comedic take on the daily life of car-wash employees, chronicling their hopes, fears, joys, dreams, and tribulations, and meeting some eccentric customers along the way.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Richard Pryor, Franklyn Ajaye, Sully Boyar, Richard Brestoff
Votes: 8,197
45. The Savage Bees (1976 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 90 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The festive fun of the annual Mardi Gras celebration is brought to a halt when a swarm of African killer bees escape from a foreign freighter.
Director: Bruce Geller | Stars: Ben Johnson, Michael Parks, Paul Hecht, Gretchen Corbett
Votes: 804
46. The Devil's Men (1976)
PG | 88 min | Horror
Tourists are kidnapped by a devil-worshipping cult, and a priest tries desperately to save them. A gruesome tale of the devil and human sacrifice.
Director: Kostas Karagiannis | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Peter Cushing, Luan Peters, Kostas Karagiorgis
Votes: 1,815
47. Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976)
R | 85 min | Horror, Thriller
In the vast deserts of the Middle East, lascivious harem keeper Ilsa joins the sex-trafficking ring of a maniacal sheikh who imports helpless female slaves for his perverse amusement.
Director: Don Edmonds | Stars: Dyanne Thorne, Max Thayer, Jerry Delony, Uschi Digard
Votes: 3,044
48. Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976 TV Movie)
TV-G | 60 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rudolph must find Happy, the baby New Year, before midnight on New Year's Eve.
Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. | Stars: Red Skelton, Frank Gorshin, Morey Amsterdam, Harold Peary
Votes: 4,577
49. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
NC-17 | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda, Aoi Nakajima, Yasuko Matsui
Votes: 22,811
50. Mansion of the Doomed (1976)
R | 87 min | Horror, Thriller
A mad scientist fills his basement dungeon with victims in an insane attempt to restore his daughter's eyesight.
Director: Michael Pataki | Stars: Richard Basehart, Gloria Grahame, Trish Stewart, Lance Henriksen
Votes: 1,180
51. Satan's Slave (1976)
R | 86 min | Drama, Horror
A woman traveling with her parents to her uncle's house crash near his house. Her parents die but she survives. She stays with her uncle, but it becomes clear that he and his son are planning something sinister for her.
Director: Norman J. Warren | Stars: Michael Gough, Martin Potter, Candace Glendenning, Barbara Kellerman
Votes: 2,137
52. Nashville Girl (1976)
R | 91 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Young girl finds the rough road to musical stardom.
Director: Gus Trikonis | Stars: Monica Gayle, Glenn Corbett, Roger Davis, Johnny Rodriguez
Votes: 310
53. The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)
R | 83 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A disturbed woman is haunted by memories of childhood abuse, which culminates in a murder spree.
Director: Matt Cimber | Stars: Millie Perkins, Lonny Chapman, Vanessa Brown, Peggy Feury
Votes: 2,548
54. The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Western
A female hustler is chasing after rich men, but becomes repeatedly mixed up with a suave con man and card shark through a series of misadventures before falling in love with him.
Director: Melvin Frank | Stars: George Segal, Goldie Hawn, Conrad Janis, Thayer David
Votes: 2,009
55. Kiss of the Tarantula (1975)
PG | 85 min | Horror
A disturbed teenage girl unleashes her pet tarantula against her "enemies."
Director: Chris Munger | Stars: Ernesto Macias, Suzanna Ling, Herman Wallner, Patricia Landon
Votes: 873
56. King Kong (1976)
PG | 134 min | Adventure, Horror
A petroleum exploration expedition comes to an isolated island and encounters a colossal giant gorilla.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange, John Randolph
Votes: 35,564 | Gross: $52.61M
57. The Pom Pom Girls (1976)
PG | 89 min | Comedy, Romance
A group of carefree high school seniors are having the time of their lives, filled with sex, romance, and teen high jinks.
Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: Robert Carradine, Jennifer Ashley, Michael Mullins, Lisa Reeves
Votes: 1,242 | Gross: $17.88M
58. Devil's Kiss (1976)
Not Rated | 89 min | Horror
Former Countess Clair and Professor Gruber conduct occult research in castle basement of Count Victor, re-animating people to kill for them.
Director: Jordi Gigó | Stars: Silvia Solar, Olivier Mathot, José Nieto, Evelyne Scott
Votes: 362
59. Hawmps! (1976)
G | 113 min | Comedy, Family, Western
In 1854, at Fort Val Verde, Texas, the U.S. Cavalry is experimenting the novel idea of using camels rather than horses as a means of transportation.
Director: Joe Camp | Stars: James Hampton, Christopher Connelly, Slim Pickens, Denver Pyle
Votes: 378
60. Grizzly (1976)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
An eighteen-foot-tall grizzly bear terrorizes a state park, leaving it up to a Park Ranger to save the day.
Director: William Girdler | Stars: Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel, Joan McCall
Votes: 5,958
61. The Watcher in the Attic (1976)
76 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
The landlord of a boarding house in 1923 Tokyo, is keen on spying on the bizarre close encounters taking place beneath his roof. One day he sees a prostitute killing a customer, and decides he's found his soulmate.
Director: Noboru Tanaka | Stars: Junko Miyashita, Renji Ishibashi, Hiroshi Chô, Kyôichi Mizuki
Votes: 501
62. Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976)
PG | 86 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
A Vietnam veteran with a psychic connection to sharks discovers their exploitation by the local aquarium and begins an underwater reign of terror to avenge them. The movie action scenes were shot using real sharks.
Director: William Grefé | Stars: Richard Jaeckel, Jennifer Bishop, Buffy Dee, Harold Sakata
Votes: 1,063
63. A Star Is Born (1976)
R | 139 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A has-been rock star falls in love with a young, up-and-coming songstress.
Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey, Oliver Clark
Votes: 13,182 | Gross: $80.00M
64. The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance
The girl next door makes a teen born with immune deficiencies want to leave his germ-free bubble.
Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Robert Reed, Diana Hyland
Votes: 5,580
65. Blood Sucking Freaks (1976)
Unrated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
In the Theatre of the Macabre in New York Sardu and his assistants present a show involving the torture and mutilation of young women. The audience assumes it is just an act but the torture is real, as are the deaths.
Director: Joel M. Reed | Stars: Seamus O'Brien, Viju Krem, Niles McMaster, Dan Fauci
Votes: 6,287
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