1972 Movies, Best to Worst
by J_Frank_Parnell | created - 25 Mar 2023 | updated - 4 days ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Deliverance (1972)
R | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
Votes: 119,254 | Gross: $7.06M
10/10*
2. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Votes: 2,012,250 | Gross: $134.97M
10/10*
3. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro
Votes: 62,280
10/10
4. Cabaret (1972)
PG | 124 min | Drama, Music, Musical
A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey
Votes: 59,388 | Gross: $42.77M
10/10
5. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
GP | 108 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Delle Bolton, Josh Albee
Votes: 34,987 | Gross: $47.74M
10/10*
6. Fist of Fury (1972)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A young man seeks vengence for the death of his teacher.
Director: Wei Lo | Stars: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, James Tien, Maria Yi
Votes: 33,882 | Gross: $1.29M
9/10
7. The Getaway (1972)
PG | 123 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A recently-released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Sally Struthers
Votes: 35,689 | Gross: $36.73M
9/10*
8. The Way of the Dragon (1972)
R | 90 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A man visits his relatives at their restaurant in Italy and has to help them defend against brutal gangsters harassing them.
Director: Bruce Lee | Stars: Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Nora Miao, Ping-Ou Wei
Votes: 41,032 | Gross: $4.06M
9/10
9. Pink Flamingos (1972)
NC-17 | 93 min | Comedy, Crime
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".
Director: John Waters | Stars: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole
Votes: 27,903 | Gross: $0.18M
8/10
10. Silent Running (1972)
G | 89 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.
Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint
Votes: 31,463 | Gross: $0.69M
8/10*
11. The Grand Duel (1972)
R | 98 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A grizzled ex-sheriff helps a man framed for murder to confront the powerful trio of brothers who want him dead.
Director: Giancarlo Santi | Stars: Lee Van Cleef, Alberto Dentice, Jess Hahn, Horst Frank
Votes: 3,448
8/10
12. Frenzy (1972)
R | 116 min | Thriller
A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey
Votes: 49,406 | Gross: $12.60M
7/10
13. Joe Kidd (1972)
PG | 88 min | Drama, Western
An ex-bounty hunter reluctantly helps a wealthy landowner and his henchmen track down a Mexican revolutionary leader.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud
Votes: 21,194
7/10
14. Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Billy Pilgrim has mysteriously become unstuck in time. He goes on an uncontrollable trip back and forth from his birth in New York to life on a distant planet and back again to the horrors of the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans
Votes: 13,910 | Gross: $0.57M
7/10*
15. The Mechanic (1972)
PG | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
An aging hitman befriends a young man who wants to be a professional killer. Eventually it becomes clear that someone has betrayed them.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland
Votes: 15,753 | Gross: $7.30M
6/10
16. Across 110th Street (1972)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two New York City cops go after amateur crooks who are trying to rip off the Mafia and start a gang war.
Director: Barry Shear | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Frank Adu
Votes: 7,146 | Gross: $3.60M
6/10
17. Sleuth (1972)
PG | 138 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man who loves games and theater invites his wife's lover to meet him, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alec Cawthorne, John Matthews
Votes: 50,161 | Gross: $4.08M
5/10
18. Buck and the Preacher (1972)
GP | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.
Directors: Sidney Poitier, Joseph Sargent | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 2,686 | Gross: $3.03M
5/10
19. Fat City (1972)
PG | 96 min | Drama, Sport
Two men, working as professional boxers, come to blows when their careers each begin to take different directions.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark
Votes: 10,375
4/10
20. Trick Baby (1972)
R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two Phildelphia con men try to evade gangsters they have conned and cops who are trying to put them in jail.
Director: Larry Yust | Stars: Kiel Martin, Mel Stewart, Dallas Edward Hayes, Beverly Ballard
Votes: 651 | Gross: $0.62M
4/10
21. The Harder They Come (1972)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Music
Wishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.
Director: Perry Henzell | Stars: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw, Ras Daniel Hartman
Votes: 7,033
4/10
22. Trouble Man (1972)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A neighborhood "problem solver" is framed for murder by a couple of local crime bosses trying to get him out of the way.
Director: Ivan Dixon | Stars: Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, William Smithers
Votes: 1,606
4/10
23. The Other (1972)
PG | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A series of gruesome accidents plague a small American farming community in the summer of 1935, encircling two identical twin brothers and their family.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Martin Udvarnoky
Votes: 6,982 | Gross: $0.48M
4/10
24. Super Fly (1972)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The daily routine of cocaine dealer Priest who wants to score one more super deal and retire.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier, Julius Harris
Votes: 8,597
3/10
25. Slaughter (1972)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Slaughter, a former Green Beret, avenges the killing of loved ones by the Mob, and in so doing is coerced by the Feds into traveling to Mexico to finish off surviving mobsters.
Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 1,315
3/10
26. Boxcar Bertha (1972)
R | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
During the Great Depression, a union leader and a young woman become criminals to exact revenge on the management of a railroad.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey
Votes: 10,907
3/10*
27. The Candidate (1972)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment.
Director: Michael Ritchie | Stars: Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, Melvyn Douglas, Don Porter
Votes: 11,923 | Gross: $0.12M
3/10
28. Season of the Witch (1972)
R | 130 min | Drama, Horror
A neglected, unhappy suburban housewife gets mixed up in witchcraft with unexpected consequences.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Jan White, Raymond Laine, Ann Muffly, Joedda McClain
Votes: 3,942
3/10
29. The Last House on the Left (1972)
R | 84 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller
Two teenage girls heading to a rock concert for one's birthday try to score marijuana in the city, where they are kidnapped and brutalized by a gang of psychopathic convicts.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln
Votes: 40,282 | Gross: $3.10M
2/10*
30. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
PG | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A group of passengers must embark on a harrowing struggle for survival after a rogue wave capsizes their cruise ship at sea.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons
Votes: 49,226 | Gross: $84.56M
2/10*
31. Death Line (1972)
Unrated | 87 min | Horror, Mystery
When a government official disappears in the London tunnels, after several reports of missing people in the same location, Scotland Yard start to take the matter seriously, along with a couple who stumble into a victim by accident.
Director: Gary Sherman | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney
Votes: 5,428
"Raw Meat" 2/10
32. What's Up, Doc? (1972)
G | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars
Votes: 27,046 | Gross: $10.47M
2/10
33. Come Back Charleston Blue (1972)
PG | 100 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Sequel to Cotton comes to Harlem. Another bad influence is hitting Harlem and Gravedigger and Coffin Ed are the two cops who will stop it. Charleston Blue was a prohibition era black ... See full summary »
Director: Mark Warren | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Peter De Anda, Percy Rodrigues
Votes: 358 | Gross: $0.34M
2/10
34. Bone (1972)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
When a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret problem.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten, Jeannie Berlin
Votes: 1,375
2/10
35. The Ruling Class (1972)
PG | 154 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A member of the House of Lords dies, leaving his estate to his son. Unfortunately, his son thinks he is Jesus Christ. Their other, somewhat more respectable family members plot to steal the estate from him; murder and mayhem ensue.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, Arthur Lowe, Hugh Owens
Votes: 6,804
2/10
36. Black Gunn (1972)
R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A black militant group robs a Mafia bookie joint and also steals the incriminating ledgers which, in turn, prompts retaliation from the mob.
Director: Robert Hartford-Davis | Stars: Jim Brown, Martin Landau, Brenda Sykes, Luciana Paluzzi
Votes: 874 | Gross: $1.10M
2/10
37. Cool Breeze (1972)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama
Thalmus is the leader for a group of criminals who gather in L.A. to rob a bank. Their goal is to find a new bank.
Director: Barry Pollack | Stars: Thalmus Rasulala, Judy Pace, Julian Christopher, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Votes: 415 | Gross: $1.18M
2/10*
38. Something Evil (1972 TV Movie)
Unrated | 73 min | Horror
A young couple moves into a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. What they don't know is that there is an unseen presence in the house, and that it wants to take possession of the wife.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Darren McGavin, Sandy Dennis, Ralph Bellamy, Jeff Corey
Votes: 2,092
2/10
39. Drag Racer (1972)
G | 93 min | Action, Drama
Very rare and seldom-seen, youth-oriented racing movie. It is the story of a young man's dream to get a ride in a top-fuel dragster.
Director: John 'Bud' Cardos | Stars: John Davis Chandler, Steve Evans, Mark Hopkins, Kitty Murray
Votes: 53
2/10
40. Hammer (1972)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Los Angeles dock worker becomes a boxer but his crooked manager is involved in various rackets and he's working for the mob.
Director: Bruce D. Clark | Stars: Fred Williamson, Bernie Hamilton, Vonetta McGee, William Smith
Votes: 751
2/10
41. The Final Comedown (1972)
R | 83 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Black revolutionaries take action in the white suburbs.
Director: Oscar Williams | Stars: Billy Dee Williams, D'Urville Martin, Celia Milius, Maidie Norman
Votes: 446 | Gross: $0.16M
2/10
42. The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972)
Not Rated | 114 min | Comedy
Young Australian, Barry McKenzie, travels to England with his Aunt Edna after his father dies and a request is revealed in his will.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Barry Crocker, Barry Humphries, Dick Bentley, Peter Cook
Votes: 926
1/10
43. Fritz the Cat (1972)
X | 78 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
Fritz drops out of college, starts a riot in Harlem and hits the road with an ex-girlfriend before getting mixed up with domestic terrorists.
Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Judy Engles
Votes: 14,338 | Gross: $25.00M
1/10*
44. The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
G | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A documentary-style drama about the "Fouke Monster", a Bigfoot-type creature that has been sighted in and around Fouke, Arkansas since the 1950s.
Director: Charles B. Pierce | Stars: Willie E. Smith, John P. Hixon, Vern Stierman, Chuck Pierce Jr.
Votes: 3,636 | Gross: $0.34M
1/10*
45. Sisters (1972)
R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A small-time reporter tries to convince the police she saw a murder in the apartment across from hers.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley
Votes: 20,686 | Gross: $0.35M
1/10
46. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
PG | 88 min | Action, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar, the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy
Votes: 35,906 | Gross: $9.81M
1/10
47. Toys Are Not for Children (1972)
R | 85 min | Drama
Emotionally stunted child woman Jamie Godard not only suffers from an unhealthy fixation on her long absent father, but also has an obsession with all the toys he gave her as a little girl.... See full summary »
Director: Stanley H. Brassloff | Stars: Marcia Forbes, Harlan Cary Poe, Evelyn Kingsley, Luis Arroyo
Votes: 634
1/10
48. Blacula (1972)
PG | 93 min | Fantasy, Horror, Romance
An 18th-century African prince, turned into a vampire by Dracula, finds himself in modern-day Los Angeles.
Director: William Crain | Stars: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala
Votes: 7,863 | Gross: $3.00M
1/10
49. Frogs (1972)
PG | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A group of helpless victims celebrate a birthday on an island estate crawling with killer amphibians, birds, insects, and reptiles.
Director: George McCowan | Stars: Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark, Adam Roarke
Votes: 7,649 | Gross: $0.48M
1/10*
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