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Best Thriller Movies of the 1970s
#1 Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) · ★ 8.2 · 900 votes · 1h 51m · thriller, dramaRome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and t…
#2 Chinatown (1974) · ★ 7.9 · 4,427 votes · 2h 10m · thriller, drama, crimePrivate eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-ma…
#3 Dog Day Afternoon (1975) · ★ 7.9 · 3,516 votes · 2h 4m · thriller, drama, crimeBased on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a ho…
#4 Jaws (1975) · ★ 7.7 · 11,886 votes · 2h 4m · adventure, thriller, horrorWhen the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter em…
#5 The Exorcist (1973) · ★ 7.7 · 8,904 votes · 2h 2m · thriller, drama, horrorWhen a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.…
#6 The Warriors (1979) · ★ 7.7 · 2,488 votes · 1h 34m · action, thrillerProminent gang leader Cyrus calls a meeting of New York's gangs to set aside their turf wars and take over the city. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island…
#7 All the President's Men (1976) · ★ 7.7 · 2,160 votes · 2h 18m · thriller, drama, historyDuring the 1972 elections, two reporters' investigation sheds light on the controversial Watergate scandal that compels President Nixon to resign from his post.…
#8 Deep Red (1975) · ★ 7.7 · 1,630 votes · 2h 7m · thriller, horror, mysteryAn English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very uncon…
#9 Sleuth (1972) · ★ 7.7 · 749 votes · 2h 18m · comedy, thriller, crimeA man who loves games and theatre invites his wife's lover to meet, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.…
#10 Halloween (1978) · ★ 7.6 · 6,386 votes · 1h 31m · thriller, horrorFifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.…
#11 The Tenant (1976) · ★ 7.6 · 1,265 votes · 2h 6m · thriller, drama, horrorA quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.…
#12 Le Cercle Rouge (1970) · ★ 7.6 · 755 votes · 2h 20m · thriller, drama, crimeWhen French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped mur…
#13 Escape from Alcatraz (1979) · ★ 7.5 · 3,288 votes · 1h 53m · thriller, dramaSan Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape fr…
#14 Dirty Harry (1971) · ★ 7.5 · 2,850 votes · 1h 42m · action, thriller, crimeWhen a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down…
#15 The French Connection (1971) · ★ 7.5 · 2,220 votes · 1h 44m · action, thriller, crimeTough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.…
#16 The Day of the Jackal (1973) · ★ 7.5 · 707 votes · 2h 23m · action, thrillerAn international assassin known as ‘The Jackal’ is employed by disgruntled French generals to kill President Charles de Gaulle, with a dedicated gendarme on the assassin’s trail.…
#17 Sorcerer (1977) · ★ 7.5 · 691 votes · 2h 2m · action, adventure, thrillerFour men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (wh…
#18 The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) · ★ 7.5 · 632 votes · 1h 45m · action, comedy, thrillerIn New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers while the authorities question about the method of their escape.…
#19 The Omen (1976) · ★ 7.4 · 2,515 votes · 1h 51m · thriller, horrorImmediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the…
#20 Duel (1971) · ★ 7.4 · 2,136 votes · 1h 14m · action, tv-movie, thrillerTraveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while t…
#21 The Long Goodbye (1973) · ★ 7.4 · 776 votes · 1h 52m · comedy, thriller, dramaIn 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.…
#22 Carrie (1976) · ★ 7.3 · 4,454 votes · 1h 38m · thriller, horrorWithdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from her classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural p…
#23 Deliverance (1972) · ★ 7.3 · 1,888 votes · 1h 49m · adventure, thriller, dramaIntent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the…
#24 Three Days of the Condor (1975) · ★ 7.3 · 1,423 votes · 1h 57m · thriller, mysteryWhen bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines…
#25 Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) · ★ 7.3 · 1,260 votes · 1h 31m · action, thriller, crimeA highway patrol officer, two criminals, and a station secretary form an unlikely alliance to defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.…
#26 Marathon Man (1976) · ★ 7.2 · 1,279 votes · 2h 6m · thriller, drama, crimeA graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.…
#27 Straw Dogs (1971) · ★ 7.2 · 1,124 votes · 1h 56m · thriller, drama, crimeDavid Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the sma…
#28 Fist of Fury (1972) · ★ 7.2 · 1,118 votes · 1h 48m · action, thriller, dramaDuring the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, Chen Zhen, the star pupil of a recently-deceased martial arts teacher battles a Japanese dojo which seeks the demise of his fighting sch…
#29 The Poseidon Adventure (1972) · ★ 7.2 · 1,027 votes · 1h 57m · action, adventure, thrillerWhen their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.…
#30 The Getaway (1972) · ★ 7.2 · 694 votes · 2h 3m · action, thriller, dramaA recently released ex-convict and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes wrong.…
#31 The Passenger (1975) · ★ 7.2 · 564 votes · 2h 6m · thriller, drama, mysteryDavid Locke is a world-weary American journalist who has been sent to cover a conflict in northern Africa, but he makes little progress with the story. When he discovers the body o…
#32 The Driver (1978) · ★ 7.2 · 526 votes · 1h 31m · action, thriller, crimeThe Driver specializes in driving getaway cars for robberies. His exceptional talent has prevented him from being caught yet. After another successful flight from the police a self…
#33 Murder on the Orient Express (1974) · ★ 7.1 · 1,626 votes · 2h 8m · thriller, drama, mysteryIn 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.…
#34 Frenzy (1972) · ★ 7.1 · 1,061 votes · 1h 56m · thriller, horror, crimeLondon is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police…
#35 Murder by Death (1976) · ★ 7.1 · 934 votes · 1h 34m · comedy, thriller, crimeLionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false i…
#36 The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) · ★ 7.1 · 862 votes · 1h 36m · thriller, horror, mysteryAn American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city and conducts his own investigation, despite him and his gi…
#37 The Andromeda Strain (1971) · ★ 7.1 · 835 votes · 2h 11m · thriller, drama, science-fictionWhen virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an…
#38 Vanishing Point (1971) · ★ 7.1 · 547 votes · 1h 45m · action, thriller, dramaKowalski works for a car delivery service, and takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to drive from Colorado to San Francisco. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the ca…
#39 The China Syndrome (1979) · ★ 7.1 · 539 votes · 2h 2m · thriller, dramaWhile doing a series of reports on alternative energy sources, opportunistic reporter Kimberly Wells witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant. Wells is determined to publiciz…
#40 The Towering Inferno (1974) · ★ 7.0 · 1,047 votes · 2h 45m · action, thriller, dramaAt the opening party of a colossal—but poorly constructed—skyscraper, a massive fire breaks out, threatening to destroy the tower and everyone in it.…