I saw Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 film, At Long Last Love last night. It was a huge flop in its time, on the order of Ishtar or Heaven’s Gate. It’s currently undergoing a reevaluation, hampered mainly by the fact it’s so hard to see (apparently the rights to the Cole Porter songs are a little suspect). See Richard Brody’s 2018 New Yorker review.
I was lucky to attend a full-house screening at the Austin Film Society. In a year of Hair and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it must have felt like it cowardly avoided the current culture. But also avoided some of the problematic issues of 30s musicals and gave the women some agency.