1978 Films
by StarbuckJohnson | created - 26 Mar 2017 | updated - 6 days ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Metamorphoses (1978)
PG | 80 min | Animation, Fantasy
Several animated stories from "Metamorphoses", Roman poet Ovid's narrative of legends, are presented.
Director: Takashi Masunaga | Star: Peter Ustinov
Votes: 178
2. Days of Heaven (1978)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
Votes: 62,684
3. Empire of Passion (1978)
R | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
A married woman and her lover murder her husband and dump his body into a well. After a while, his ghost comes to haunt them while the local gossip grows stronger.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Tatsuya Fuji, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Takahiro Tamura, Takuzô Kawatani
Votes: 4,924
4. The Demon (1978)
110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a married man stops providing for his mistress, she abandons their three young children with him and his wrathful wife.
Director: Yoshitarô Nomura | Stars: Shima Iwashita, Ken Ogata, Hiroki Iwase, Miyuki Yoshizawa
Votes: 964
5. An Unmarried Woman (1978)
R | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.
Director: Paul Mazursky | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, Cliff Gorman
Votes: 6,042 | Gross: $24.00M
6. The Fury (1978)
R | 118 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A former CIA agent uses the talents of a young psychic to help retrieve his telekinetic son from a shadowy secret government agency.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning
Votes: 17,309
7. Coma (1978)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
When a young female doctor notices an unnatural amount of comas occurring in her hospital she uncovers a horrible conspiracy.
Director: Michael Crichton | Stars: Michael Douglas, Rip Torn, Geneviève Bujold, Elizabeth Ashley
Votes: 21,136
8. Watership Down (1978)
PG | 91 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Hoping to escape destruction by human developers and save their community, a colony of rabbits, led by Hazel and Fiver, seek out a safe place to set up a new warren.
Directors: Martin Rosen, John Hubley | Stars: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Ralph Richardson, Michael Graham Cox
Votes: 39,385
9. Violette (1978)
Not Rated | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In an interwar France struggling with profound social and political change, 18-year-old Violette Noziere rebels against the constraints of her claustrophobic, working-class (and possibly incestuous) family, with troubling consequences.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean Carmet, Jean-François Garreaud
Votes: 2,523
10. Girlfriends (1978)
PG | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
A photographer and her girlfriend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Director: Claudia Weill | Stars: Melanie Mayron, Eli Wallach, Adam Cohen, Anita Skinner
Votes: 3,079
11. A Wedding (1978)
PG | 125 min | Comedy, Drama
The daughter of a Louisville truck driver marries the scion of a very wealthy family, but the reception at the family estate is boycotted by the invited guests.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Carol Burnett, Desi Arnaz Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Howard Duff
Votes: 3,744
12. Killer of Sheep (1978)
80 min | Drama
Set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.
Director: Charles Burnett | Stars: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett
Votes: 7,529 | Gross: $0.40M
13. The Wiz (1978)
G | 134 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
An adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross
Votes: 17,018 | Gross: $21.05M
14. Jubilee (1978)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Queen Elizabeth I travels 400 years into the future to witness the appalling revelation of a dystopian London overrun by corruption and a vicious gang of punk guerrilla girls led by the new Monarch of Punk.
Director: Derek Jarman | Stars: Adam Ant, Richard O'Brien, Ian Charleson, Jayne County
Votes: 3,695
15. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen 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.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 306,531 | Gross: $47.00M
16. I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
An aspiring writer is repeatedly assaulted, humiliated, and left for dead by four men she systematically hunts down to seek revenge.
Director: Meir Zarchi | Stars: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols
Votes: 31,162
17. Jûsan-nin renzoku bôkôma (1978)
60 min | Horror
A chubby, bicycle-riding killer dispatches 13 people in a cold, bloody, detached rampage.
Director: Kôji Wakamatsu | Stars: Kumiko Araki, Rara Chinami, Mayuko Hino, Kayoko Sugi
Votes: 485
18. Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
R | 104 min | Mystery, Thriller
A famous fashion photographer develops a disturbing ability to see through the eyes of a killer.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Rene Auberjonois
Votes: 12,078 | Gross: $20.00M
19. Fingers (1978)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A dysfunctional young man is pulled between loyalties to his Italian mob-connected loan-shark father and his mentally-disturbed Jewish concert-pianist mother.
Director: James Toback | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown, Michael V. Gazzo
Votes: 2,878
20. The Legacy (1978)
R | 102 min | Horror
An American couple in England stumble upon a rambling mansion where a number of powerful individuals have been summoned by its patriarch regarding the home's legacy.
Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, John Standing, Ian Hogg
Votes: 3,430
21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
PG | 115 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 69,756 | Gross: $24.95M
22. La Cage aux Folles (1978)
R | 97 min | Comedy
The manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and his star attraction, are a gay couple. Madness ensues when his straight son brings home a fiancée and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
Director: Édouard Molinaro | Stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Claire Maurier, Rémi Laurent
Votes: 11,898 | Gross: $20.42M
23. Superman (1978)
PG | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando
Votes: 187,375 | Gross: $134.22M
24. Slave of the Cannibal God (1978)
99 min | Adventure, Horror
A woman and her brother fly to New Guinea to look for a lost expedition, led by her husband, which has vanished in the jungle.
Director: Sergio Martino | Stars: Ursula Andress, Stacy Keach, Claudio Cassinelli, Antonio Marsina
Votes: 4,708
25. Grease (1978)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?
Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
Votes: 300,184 | Gross: $188.76M
26. Foul Play (1978)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Mystery, Thriller
A San Francisco librarian picks up a hitchhiker whose car has broken down, which leads to her being stalked and hunted by shady individuals. A cop she briefly met during a function eventually comes to her rescue.
Director: Colin Higgins | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith, Rachel Roberts
Votes: 16,917 | Gross: $45.00M
27. Sextette (1977)
PG | 91 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
On the day of her wedding to her sixth husband, a glamorous silver screen sex symbol is asked to intervene in a political dispute between nations, which leads to chaos.
Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Mae West, Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis
Votes: 1,547
28. California Suite (1978)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Misadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine
Votes: 8,098
29. The Shout (1978)
86 min | Drama, Horror
A traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski | Stars: Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens
Votes: 5,208
30. Who'll Stop the Rain (1978)
R | 126 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Vietnam veteran gets conned into helping an old Marine friend smuggle drugs into the country but ends up having to go on the run with his friend's wife when the deal goes sour.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe
Votes: 3,282
31. The Silent Partner (1978)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A timid bank teller anticipates a bank robbery and steals the money himself before the crook arrives. When the sadistic crook realizes he's been fooled, he tracks down the teller and engages him in a cat-and-mouse chase for the cash.
Directors: Daryl Duke, Curtis Hanson | Stars: Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Céline Lomez
Votes: 7,722
32. A Question of Guilt (1978 TV Movie)
104 min | Drama, Thriller
Inspired by the Alice Crimmins case in New York, Doris Winters (Tuesday Weld) is an attractive woman whose personal lifestyle is viewed by many as distasteful when she is accused of murdering her young daughter.
Director: Robert Butler | Stars: Tuesday Weld, Ron Leibman, Peter Masterson, Alex Rocco
Votes: 102
33. The Deer Hunter (1978)
R | 183 min | Drama, War
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Votes: 361,858 | Gross: $48.98M
34. The Driver (1978)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A getaway driver becomes the latest assignment for a tenacious detective.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Ronee Blakley
Votes: 19,390 | Gross: $4.91M
35. Pretty Baby (1978)
R | 110 min | Drama
A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.
Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, Susan Sarandon, Frances Faye
Votes: 12,805 | Gross: $5.79M
36. King of the Gypsies (1978)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama
In the criminal and violent world of modern-day Gypsies based in New York City, their 'king' Zharko Stepanowicz passes his leadership to his unwilling grandson, leaving the skipped father resentful.
Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: Eric Roberts, Judd Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Sterling Hayden
Votes: 1,404 | Gross: $7.33M
37. The Mafu Cage (1978)
R | 102 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Ellen, a successful astronomer, cares for her mentally-ill sister, Cissy, who keeps a variety of primates in the home they inherited from their anthropologist father. When Ellen begins a romance, Cissy's jealousy proves deadly.
Director: Karen Arthur | Stars: Lee Grant, Carol Kane, Will Geer, James Olson
Votes: 708
38. Blood Relatives (1978)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Homicide detective Steve Carella is trying to solve the brutal murder of 17-year-old Muriel Stark. Her younger cousin Patricia, who saw the killer and barely escaped with her life, helps him. However, the case soon takes a bizarre turn.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Aude Landry, Lisa Langlois, Laurent Malet
Votes: 1,141
39. The Great Train Robbery (1978)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
England, 1850s. A master criminal aims to rob a train of a large sum of gold. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. However, he has a plan and just the right people to carry it out.
Director: Michael Crichton | Stars: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down, Alan Webb
Votes: 19,536 | Gross: $13.03M
40. Coming Home (1978)
R | 127 min | Drama, Romance, War
In 1968 California, a woman whose husband is a Marine officer fighting in Vietnam falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford
Votes: 14,783 | Gross: $32.65M
41. A Night Full of Rain (1978)
R | 104 min | Drama, Romance
A communist journalist and an American liberal photographer try to cohabit with their different perspectives of love and life.
Director: Lina Wertmüller | Stars: Giancarlo Giannini, Candice Bergen, Michael Tucker, Mario Scarpetta
Votes: 342
42. Bye Bye Monkey (1978)
113 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A man walking on the beach near New York City finds the corpse of King Kong. He also finds Kong's orphaned son, and takes it to a friend who lives in the city, and they decide to raise it.
Director: Marco Ferreri | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Marcello Mastroianni, James Coco, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Votes: 1,377
43. China 9, Liberty 37 (1978)
R | 102 min | Romance, Western
The railroad hires a condemned killer to murder an uncooperative rancher but the assassin fails to deliver, prompting the railroad men to go after him instead.
Directors: Monte Hellman, Tony Brandt | Stars: Jenny Agutter, Warren Oates, Fabio Testi, Sam Peckinpah
Votes: 1,408
44. Moment by Moment (1978)
R | 102 min | Drama, Romance
Trisha Rawlings, a Beverly Hills socialite suffers from loneliness following the separation of her womanizing husband Stu. Strip, a young drifter, became infatuated with her and, develops a May/December relationship with her.
Director: Jane Wagner | Stars: Lily Tomlin, John Travolta, Andra Akers, Bert Kramer
Votes: 1,339 | Gross: $10.96M
45. In a Year with 13 Moons (1978)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama
A transgender woman tries to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of her life by confronting her anguished past, hoping to find ultimate acceptance among former acquaintances and herself.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven, Gottfried John, Elisabeth Trissenaar
Votes: 4,731
46. The Meetings of Anna (1978)
128 min | Drama
Anna, a detached and diffident director, arrives in Germany to show her latest film; she checks into a hotel, invites a stranger to her bed, and abruptly tells him to leave. He asks her to ... See full summary »
Director: Chantal Akerman | Stars: Aurore Clément, Helmut Griem, Magali Noël, Hanns Zischler
Votes: 2,094
47. Autumn Sonata (1978)
PG | 99 min | Drama, Music
A devoted wife is visited by her mother, a successful concert pianist who had little time for her when she was young.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Björk
Votes: 37,734
48. The Big Fix (1978)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Mystery, Thriller
An ex-'60s radical now working as a private eye is hired by an old flame to investigate a political smear campaign. The case becomes more dangerous as it unfolds.
Director: Jeremy Kagan | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Anspach, Bonnie Bedelia, John Lithgow
Votes: 2,397
49. Straight Time (1978)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
The difficulties of a career burglar to reinsert himself after being released on parole.
Directors: Ulu Grosbard, Dustin Hoffman | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton
Votes: 10,133 | Gross: $9.90M
50. Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978)
PG-13 | 102 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
While attempting to win the affections of a beautiful rival, a master thief risks death to learn the secret intentions of a wealthy and seemingly immortal, but certainly ruthless, recluse.
Directors: Sôji Yoshikawa, Yasuo Ôtsuka | Stars: Yasuo Yamada, Eiko Masuyama, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Makio Inoue
Votes: 1,695
51. Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A woman's husband is murdered and she and her lover must find the killer or stand accused of doing it themselves.
Director: Lamont Johnson | Stars: Farrah Fawcett, Jeff Bridges, John Wood, Tammy Grimes
Votes: 527 | Gross: $6.10M
52. Same Time, Next Year (1978)
PG | 119 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A married man and a married woman end up sleeping with each other, and decide to meet at the same place every year on the anniversary of their one night stand. As the years go by, they observe changes in each other and their relationship.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Alan Alda, Ellen Burstyn, Ivan Bonar, Bernie Kuby
Votes: 6,666 | Gross: $19.70M
53. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Unrated | 127 min | Horror, Thriller
During an escalating zombie epidemic, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his TV executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross
Votes: 128,451 | Gross: $5.10M
54. Poitín (1978)
65 min | Drama
A poitín maker attempts to avoid the attentions of the Gardaí in Connemara in the west of Ireland.
Director: Bob Quinn | Stars: Cyril Cusack, Donal McCann, Niall Toibin, Maighréad Ní Chonghaile
Votes: 145
55. Blue Collar (1978)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, Ed Begley Jr.
Votes: 10,624
56. A Different Story (1978)
PG | 108 min | Drama, Romance
A homosexual woman marries a gay male friend to prevent his deportation, but they soon fall in love.
Director: Paul Aaron | Stars: Perry King, Meg Foster, Valerie Curtin, Peter Donat
Votes: 480
57. Stevie (1978)
PG | 102 min | Biography, Drama
This biographical film has Glenda Jackson portraying a British poet with emotional problems.
Director: Robert Enders | Stars: Glenda Jackson, Mona Washbourne, Alec McCowen, Trevor Howard
Votes: 545
58. Death on the Nile (1978)
PG | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board. Can Poirot identify the killer before the ship reaches the end of its journey?
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Peter Ustinov, Mia Farrow, Simon MacCorkindale, Jane Birkin
Votes: 39,763
59. Heaven Can Wait (1978)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.
Directors: Warren Beatty, Buck Henry | Stars: Warren Beatty, James Mason, Julie Christie, Jack Warden
Votes: 23,487 | Gross: $81.64M
60. Take Me Away! (1978)
92 min | Drama, Romance
Kyoko met Tetsu during her trip to San Francisco. Soon they fell in love but getting married was not in his mind. They were to meet again back in Tokyo but Tetsu didn't turn up.
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi | Stars: Momoe Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Miura, Eiji Okada, Akitsugi Moritsugi
Votes: 71
61. Midnight Express (1978)
R | 121 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli
Votes: 88,152 | Gross: $35.00M
62. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1978)
73 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
A young boy becomes an apprentice for a mysterious sorcerer, working at the sorcerer's strange and sinister mill where secretive black magic is being taught and performed at a very heavy price.
Director: Karel Zeman | Stars: Ludek Munzar, Jaroslav Moucka, Christian Brückner, Friedrich Schütter
Votes: 1,175
63. Thank God It's Friday (1978)
PG | 89 min | Comedy, Music
A Friday in the life of the disco club The Zoo, where the staff and clients meet and dance their lives away.
Director: Robert Klane | Stars: Donna Summer, Valerie Landsburg, Terri Nunn, Chick Vennera
Votes: 3,120 | Gross: $7.30M
64. Remember My Name (1978)
R | 94 min | Drama, Thriller
Just released from prison, a young woman arrives in town to "start a new life", but soon begins stalking a married construction worker for no apparent reason, turning his life inside out and eventually terrorizing him and his wife.
Director: Alan Rudolph | Stars: Geraldine Chaplin, Anthony Perkins, Moses Gunn, Berry Berenson
Votes: 1,670
65. The Stud (1978)
R | 90 min | Drama, Romance
Fontaine Khaled is the wife of a wealthy but boring businessman. She spends his money on her nightclub, the hobo, and partying.
Director: Quentin Masters | Stars: Joan Collins, Oliver Tobias, Sue Lloyd, Mark Burns
Votes: 1,151
66. Despair (1978)
119 min | Drama, History
In early-1930s Berlin, an elegant Russian émigré and eccentric chocolatier convinces himself that he has seen his doppelgänger, and hatches a murderous plan to trade his existence for an entirely new one. Will he get over the deep despair?
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Andréa Ferréol, Klaus Löwitsch, Volker Spengler
Votes: 2,711
67. Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
R | 114 min | Drama, War
During the early 1960s, U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam discover the same challenges that plagued the French army in Indochina ten years prior.
Director: Ted Post | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Marc Singer
Votes: 3,074
68. Magic (1978)
R | 107 min | Drama, Horror
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter
Votes: 13,429 | Gross: $25.94M
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