Tommy (1975, UK)

In producer/director Ken Russell's extravagant and excessive British rock-musical cult film Tommy (1975) - it was a film dramatization of The Who's (and Peter Townshend) rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind kid who sure plays a 'mean pinball."

The experimental, controversial and sensational Russell had established a reputation for himself as an extravagant and excessive British film maker in the 1970s, with these films already in his repertoire and a few to come. Tommy was his first commercial hit film:

• Women in Love (1969), an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel
• The Music Lovers (1971), about the life of Russian composer Tchaikovsky
• The Devils (1971), a shockingly-controversial film about demonic possession, with Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed
• The Boy Friend (1971), a tribute to Busby Berkeley's Hollywood musicals, starring Twiggy
• Tommy (1975), a hyper-wild visualization of Peter Townsend's rock opera
• Lisztomania (1975), a depiction of Franz Liszt as a sex-obsessed rock star
• Valentino (1977), another screen biography - this time of a silent screen idol (Rudolf Valentino) with dancer Nureyev in his debut film role, opposite Michelle Phillips

The rock band The Who performed their rock opera Tommy and became the first act to play rock music at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on June 7, 1970. was based on the band's 1969 rock opera album musical Tommy.

• in the pulsating production number "The Pinball Wizard" during a pinball tournament, 'deaf, dumb, and blind kid' pinball wizard Tommy Walker (Roger Daltry) defeated the champion Pinball Wizard (Elton John) who wore skyscraper shoes and glittering eye-glass goggles; he sang: "See me, feel me. Touch me, heal me"
• Tina Turner gave a famous, scintillating performance as The Acid Queen