The French Connection: 1971 Best Picture

Three 1971 films garnered 8 Oscar nominations each at the 44th Academy Awards: “Fiddler on the Roof”, “The French Connection” and “The Last Picture Show.” All were nominated for Best Picture, along with “A Clockwork Orange.” The winner was “The French Connection.” It also picked up Best Director (William Friedkin) and Best Actor (Gene Hackman), and two more for editing and adapted screenplay.

Jane Fonda won Best Actress for her role as Bree Daniel in “Klute”. This was her second nomination (she would eventually rack up 7 and win one more.)

Other notable film titles in 1971 include: “Nicholas and Alexandra”, “Mary, Queen of Scots”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “The Andromeda Strain” and “Carnal Knowledge”. Notable musicals besides “Fiddler” included “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. :

Can you dig it? “Shaft”, “Billy Jack” and “Dirty Harry” became cult classics and Clint Eastwood also had some stalker problems in “Play Misty for Me”. If you were into the horror genre, Vincent Price was still doing his thing in “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” while Godzilla was fighting a monster created by smog (“Godzilla vs. Hedorah”).

Jeopardy! clues on “The French Connection”
MOVIE LOCATIONS $400: (Sarah of the Clue Crew reports from New York City.) A real tie-up was created on the Brooklyn Bridge for a scene in this 1971 Gene Hackman film
BEST ACTOR OSCAR WINNERS $200: 1971: As “Popeye” Doyle
FAMOUS NICKNAMES $800: The nickname of Detective Eagan, who inspired “The French Connection”, & of Detective Doyle in the film

More 1971 film clues:
MOVIE TITLE REFERENCES: For this 1971 movie the reference is to the 1948 film “Red River”
’70s MUSIC $400: Shut your mouth! Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for the theme from this 1971 flick
TRIPLE “A” $800: Woody Allen played Fielding Mellish in this “tasty” 1971 film
“MAN”LY MOVIES $2000: It’s Greek to me, but in 1971 Richard Matheson’s story “I Am Legend” was filmed under this title
THE WRECKING CREW $600: Wrecking Crew bass queen Carol Kaye added the bottom end to the No. 1 “Theme from” this 1971 detective film
SCIENCE FICTION FILMS $1200: A 1965 student film evolved into his first feature film as a director, 1971’s “THX-1138”
ORSON $200: Bizarrely, Orson Welles played Captain Ahab, Starbuck & Ishmael in a 1971 experimental film version of this
CLINT EASTWOOD: A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD $1600: Clint directed & starred in this 1971 film about a radio DJ & an obsessed female fan
A CINEMATIC FEAST $1000: Woody Allen becomes the unlikely leader of fictional San Marcos in this 1971 film
SORRY, YOU’VE BEEN CENSORED $800: Worried about teens imitating its violence, Stanley Kubrick himself banned this 1971 film of his in England
CLOWNING AROUND $1000: Seen here, this Italian director of the 1971 film “The Clowns” ran away to join the circus as a child
FILMS OF THE ’70s $400: Gordon Parks, Sr. directed this 1971 film about a “black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks”
CLASSIC CRIME NOVELS $1000: 1971 Michael Caine film or 2000 Sylvester Stallone film based on “Jack’s Return Home” by Ted Lewis
BIG SCREEN TITLE PAIRS $100: 1971: “…and the Chocolate Factory”
“MOON”s $400: In 1971 this Who drummer appeared as a nun in Frank Zappa’s film “200 Motels”
GREEK ALPHABET SOUP $1,200 (Daily Double): This Greek letter appears in the title of a 1971 film in which Charlton Heston thinks he’s the last man on Earth
HOT FILMS, COOL FILMS $1000: As Rev. Clayton Brooks, Dick Van Dyke led a townwide effort to quit smoking in this 1971 film
MOVIE HODGEPODGE $1000: This cartoonist wrote the screenplays for two 1971 films: “Little Murders” & “Carnal Knowledge”
MOVIE NOSTALGIA $1000: This 1971 film set in a Siberian labor camp is based on a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
DIRECTORS $400: This director claimed he called his 1971 film “Bananas” “Because there are no bananas in it”
MAY-DECEMBER MOVIES $400: This 1971 cult film’s title characters were a 20-year-old (Bud Cort) & a 79-year old (Ruth Gordon)
BEWITCHING CINEMA $800: In this 1971 Disney film would-be witch Angela Lansbury tries to stop a Nazi invasion
INTERNATIONAL STARS $800: Jan Troell’s 1971 film “The Emigrants” earned this Norwegian her first Oscar nomination
A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND $200: 1971 James Bond film in which Jill St. John played Tiffany Case
THE MOVIES $300: Clint Eastwood played a late-night DJ stalked by a fan in this 1971 film, his first as a director
WILD ABOUT HARRY $200: 1971 film that contains the line, “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?'”
“BLACK” MOVIES $100: Leonard Maltin described the 1971 British film version of this Anna Sewell tale as “average horse opera”
MOVIE TRIVIA $500: Ads for this 1971 Woody Allen film called it “More moving than prunes”
MOVIE DIRECTORS: Since 1971 he has directed only 6 films, but those 6 have averaged more than $283 million each at the box office