You Don't Know Jack

Jack's next project in 1970 would be two scenes in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Barbra Streisand. This week, Sarah gives you the rundown on this adaptation from a Broadway stage production, as well as a special treat for you!

After the success of Easy Rider, 1970 would see the release of B-movie biker flick Rebel Rousers, featuring Jack Nicholson. This week, Sarah gives her thoughts on this low budget project riding on the wave of popularity of the movies that came before it.

This week, Sarah is reviewing Easy Rider, an ambitious, yet heart-wrenching story of two hippie bikers from L.A. making their way across America. It's a film that would give Jack his breakthrough role and earn him his very first Academy Award nomination.

Keeping in the spirit of late '60s counterculture, now we have entered into peak 60s psychedelic era with a young Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson producing Head, a surreal trip starring none other than The Monkees. This week, Sarah attempts to unpack this cult classic which would come out just as Jack was on the edge of making his big break in Hollywood. 

After an absence last week, we are back and talking more about the late '60s psychedelic era. Sarah is reviewing 1967's The Trip, another writing credit for Jack, and 1968's Psych Out, a leading role for Jack as a hippie guitarist in San Francisco.

This week Sarah is talking 1960s counterculture, and two new projects for Jack Nicholson in 1967: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Hells Angels On Wheels. But first, a couple appearances on a very popular TV show that you might not know about.

Ever the faithful Jack fan, Sarah is reviewing two more westerns this week, The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, which were filmed back to back over a period of six weeks and financed by none other than Roger Corman. The twin projects would see Jack Nicholson as a producer, writer and lead actor.

In this week's episode Sarah has three movies to tell you about that kept Jack busy in 1964: a comedy with Ensign Pulver, a suspense thriller with Flight to Fury, and a World War II drama with Back Door to Hell.

Moving right along into 1963, the work kept on coming for Jack. In this week's episode, Sarah reviews The Raven - which starred Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff, with Jack in a supporting role; The Terror starring Jack and his then-wife Sandra Knight and Boris Karloff, and Thunder Island, which Jack co-wrote with Don Devlin.

He's played a killer, an overly aggressive teenager, a kidnapper/murderer, a pool hall bum turned rapist, and a masochistic dental patient. And now, in this week's episode, Sarah is reviewing Jack Nicholson's next big project. In 1962, Jack landed a role as a cowboy who breaks out of jail in The Broken Land, his first western.