Under a brand-new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner, Netflix began streaming 14 top films from 1974, 9 of which are definitely worth your time.

The five no-gos are Jack Clayton‘s The Great Gatsby (a totally misconceived washout), Martin Davidson‘s The Lords of Flatbush, Stanley Donen‘s The Little Prince (no one ever gave a damn about this musical back in the day), Robert Clouse‘s Black Belt Jones (blaxploitation bullshit) and Shigehiro Ozawa and Sonny Chiba‘s The Street Fighter (aka Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken), a total waste-of-time, bowl of steam-fried bullshit unless you’re Quentin Tarantino, in which case it’s great.

The nine keepers are Martin Scorsese‘s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Mel Brooks‘ Blazing Saddles, Robert Altman‘s California Split, Roman Polanski‘s Chinatown, Francis Coppola‘s The Conversation, Michael Winner‘s Death Wish, Karel Reisz‘s The Gambler, Larry Cohen‘s It’s Alive, and Alan Pakula‘s The Parallax View.

If locked-in licensing agreements weren’t an issue, the five that would replace the no-gos would be Coppola’s The Godather, Part II, Brooks‘ Young Frankenstein, Richard Lester‘s Juggernaut and The Three Musketeers, and Joseph Sargent‘s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

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…the AARP guys are suffering, no offense, from a taste deficiency. “Taste is a result of a thousand distastes.” — Francois Truffaut.

Can’t decide which performance is better, although I’ve always leaned toward Tina Vitale, her cynical New Jersey moll behind the shades, in the latter film, which opened almost exactly 40 years ago (1.27.84).

The Purple Rose of Cairo opened just over 13 months later, on 3.1.85.

Less than a year later came Hannah and Her Sisters (2.7.86), in which Farrow also dramatically stood out (alongside Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest).