Although no longer run by MGM, the Metro Collins Street was still the main Melbourne outlet for the studio’s product, albeit only the handful of features being produced by the company as it toppled into bankruptcy and irrelevance.
Yet the MGM product screened at the venue was actually reasonably decent in 1973, including the only new releases at the Metro to gain any sort of traction – the Fleischer-Heston dystopian nightmare “Soylent Green” (9 weeks) and Maggie Smith doing her Maggie Smith thing in “Travels With My Aunt” (8 weeks).
Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid” held out for 3 weeks in its hacked apart version whilst the US domestic hit “Walking Tall” vanished after a week (if ever a film was made for the drive in and NOT the crumbling picture palace it was this one. Oddities from MGM such as “Wicked, Wicked” and “Kansas City Bomber” came and went as did “They Only Kill Their Masters” which, like much of the company’s product of the time, had the appearance of a made-for-television thriller.
Disney features still figured prominently in the schedule, with the umpteenth re-release of “Peter Pan” nabbing the Christmas crowds. Yet the latter half of the year witnessed the Metro diving headlong into a near-grind policy with a slew of British Empire Films releases, including several notable double features with directors such as Cy Endfield, Robert Fuest, Derek Ford and Terence Young lost in the sludge of what was now Greater Union’s dumping ground.
Among the later releases – for a single week mind you – was a rare Paramount feature tossed away with no care or thought. “The Friends Of Eddie Coyle” was among the finest neo-noirs made and certainly one of the best films of 1973. By the time Melbourne filmgoers knew of its existence they would be waiting for it to turn up on Channel 9. Which is where it found a happy home in the midnight to dawn slot for many years.
| WEEK BEGINNING | FEATURE | SUPPORT | SPECIAL | ADMAT | NOTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4/1/73 | Pinocchio | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 11/1/73 | Pinocchio | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 18/1/73 | Pinocchio | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 25/1/73 | Pinocchio | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 1/2/73 | Kansas City Bomber | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 8/2/73 | They Only Kill Their Masters | The Ravine | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 15/2/73 | They Only Kill Their Masters | The Ravine | None | As Greater Union | |
| 22/2/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 1/3/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 8/3/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 15/3/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 22/3/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 29/3/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 5/4/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 12/4/73 | Travels With My Aunt | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 19/4/73 | The Wild Country | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 25/4/73 | Elvis On Tour | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 3/5/73 | Elvis On Tour | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 10/5/73 | My Dog The Thief | King Of The Grizzlies | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 17/5/73 | My Dog The Thief | King Of The Grizzlies | None | As Greater Union | |
| 24/5/73 | My Dog The Thief | King Of The Grizzlies | None | As Greater Union | |
| 31/5/73 | Slither | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 7/6/73 | Slither | Blow-Up | None | As Greater Union | |
| 14/6/73 | The Lolly Madonna War | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 21/6/73 | The Lolly Madonna War | Sweden: Heaven And Hell | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 28/6/73 | Up The Front | That's Your Funeral | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 5/7/73 | Up The Front | That's Your Funeral | None | As Greater Union | |
| 12/7/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 19/7/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 26/7/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 2/8/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 9/8/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 16/8/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 23/8/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 30/8/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 6/9/73 | Soylent Green | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 13/9/73 | Wicked, Wicked | The Rum Runners | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 20/9/73 | Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 27/9/73 | Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 4/10/73 | Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 11/10/73 | Walking Tall | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 18/10/73 | Boot Hill | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 25/10/73 | Boot Hill | FO | None | As Greater Union | |
| 1/11/73 | The Friends Of Eddie Coyle | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 8/11/73 | Tower Of Evil | Castle Of The Living Dead | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 15/11/73 | The Wife Swappers | Games That Lovers Play | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 22/11/73 | The Wife Swappers | Games That Lovers Play | None | As Greater Union | |
| 29/11/73 | The Dirt Gang | Universal Soldier | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 6/12/73 | Cold Sweat | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 13/12/73 | Threesome | And Soon The Darkness | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 20/12/73 | Peter Pan | FO | None |  | As Greater Union |
| 26/12/73 | Peter Pan | FO | None | As Greater Union |
I loved the Metro. While at it’s end, it was still a luxury cinema visit…something from the past where the opulence was still evident (similar to The Forum). The ticket box was often staffed by a wonderful lady with a distinctively huge hair-do. She was truly a lovely woman. She worked a lot at The Odeon as well.
Apart from laughing at Wicked, Wicked’s black humour, finding Tower Of Evil a “strong” horror movie (!) and not knowing who Joanna Lumley was when she walked naked across the screen in Games That Lovers Play, I think the hihlight of ’73 at the Metro was discovering And Soon The Darkness…extarordiany.
It was a support feature and I knew nothing about it……planned to give it 20 minutes and run. I couldn’t leave….a HUGE audince scream errupted when the body fell out near the end.
Melbourne was so lucky to have the opulence of the Metro cinema in which to watch wonderful exploitation…..though such a trend climaxed for me when seeing a cheap skin flick double at the extrordinary State Theatre in Sydney in 1975.
I always thought it was curious during this era at the Metro Collins Street that it would have in its ads ‘Not Open Sunday’ — to me as a kid, this meant that not even the theatre’s managers had any hope for what movie was playing in the theatre — usually the only GU theatre open on Sundays were the Bercy, Odeon and (most times) the Forum — the Metro would be open Sundays if thee was a big Disney attraction playing, but for the MGM pictures or the grindhouse features, no way.