Paramount Pictures

Any year that saw the release of “The Godfather” deserves an honored place in movie history. But 1972 was a pretty good movie year generally.

As a blend of quality and strangeness, “Cabaret” is hard to beat.

It’s one thing for a musical to be nihilistic, kinky, and feature Nazis. It’s quite another for Liza Minnelli to be firing her howitzer talents at such point-blank range. Here, Minnelli in a scene from Bob Fosse's "Cabaret."

Universal Studios

Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 thriller “Frenzy,” beside being his best film since “Psycho,” is easily his most sexually explicit, with its serial killer-rapist villain.

AFP

1972 was the only year when hard-core pornography, such as "Deep Throat," made it into the list of 10 biggest-grossing films in the United States.

The foreign film made in 1972 that mattered most around here came from Jamaica. “The Harder They Come” arrived at the Orson Welles Cinema in spring 1973.

The reggae-soaked crime story qiuckly took its place as a Cambridge film favorite in "The Harder They Come."

Amid a surprisingly good year for comedy, “What’s Up, Doc?” didn't come close to matching its inspiration.

For an idea of how strange 1972 got, look no farther than "The Poseidon Adventure," directed by Ronald Neame.

Speaking of strange, Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, or the Wrath of God" heralded a new era of German cinema.

Associated Press

For the slightly older generation, 1967's "The Graduate" was still showing in Boston theaters in 1972.