The Early films

With the "performance" aspect of bodybuilding a key part of the sport, it was inevitable that Arnold Schwarzenegger would seek and find new arenas in which to exhibit his ample physical attributes. Movies were an obvious choice, and the industry gave him his first chance soonafter he crossed the Atlantic.

Brimming with muscular enthusiasm and youthful energy, and helped by his bodybuilding guru, Joe Weider, Arnold landed the lead in director Arthur Seidelman's low-budget 1970 movie, Hercules in New York (also known as Hercules-the Movie and Hercules Goes Bananas). Billed as "Arnold Strong," the largely unknown Schwarzenegger co-starred with skinny comic actor Arnold Stang. Although the casting of the bodybuilder as the mythological hero made sense even then, unleashing the character on modern-day Manhattan certainly didn't. And the fact that an unaccented voice was dubbed over his own added little flavor to this odd, noticeably unfunny film.

After this unpromising debut, Arnold waited six years before his next movie break: a featured role in director Bob Rafelson's Stay Hungry, an eccentric, serio-comic tale about bodybuilders in the "New South". Six years is a long time between movie projects, and it seemed as though Arnold had lost interest in acting altogether. "I only fell into acting by accident," he told US magazine."Bob Rafelson needed a muscular actor and he couldn't find one. The slim look was the thing then, so he gave bodybuilders screen tests and I got the job."

Arnold played Joe Santo, an intelligent bodybuilder and Mr. Universe contestant, who fascinates Craig (Jeff Bridges), a scion of a privileged family who tries to establish his own identity while romancing a receptionist (Sally Field). Based on Charles Gaines's novel, the movie won serious although mostly negative reviews. Critics considered it confused and disjointed, but they had only kind words for Arnold. The role gave him an opportunity to lift weights in a Batman getup, and voice the philosophical advice that gives the picture its title. "I don't believe in getting too comfortable," he tells Craig. "Stay hungry."

Frank Rich, writing in the New York Post, praised Arnold's "Sweet non-macho, heterosexual appeal", but Vincent Canby of The New York Times had favorable words for the actor only as long as he kept his clothes on, but not when he revealed his "huge, grotesquely muscled body".

Despite its critical and commercial failure, Stay Hungry was a legitimate studio film and a respectable credit for Arnold. But a year later, in 1977, it was Pumping Iron, another movie based on a book by Charles Gaines, that brought the neophyte actor wide attention. This documentary about body building, which also starred Lou Ferrigno (who later found fame as TV's The Incredible Hulk), not only helped legitimize a sport and a subculture that were previously hardly taken seriously, but revealed the 29-year-old Schwarzenegger's screen appeal, heavy accent and all. Critic Richard Schickel wrote in Time, "A cool, shrewd and boyish charmer, [Schwarzenegger] exudes the easy confidence of a man who has always known he will be a star of some kind." And the experience certainly whetted the actor's appetite for the movies. "Bodybuilding has a lot to do with acting," Arnold said in publicity material released in conjunction with Pumping Iron.
"When you're competing, you're showing off your talent. Your attitude in front of an audience or before the judges is much the same as working before the camera. Directed by George Butler, the movie itself was regarded as intelligent, charming, and well- made, while allowing a glimpse into Arnold's real self: In one scene, he compares bodybuilding to the pleasures of sex, and admits that he skipped his father's funeral so that he would not miss a training session.
Arnold followed Pumping Iron with The Villain, a cartoonish 1979 comedy western directed by stunt-oriented Hal Needham. The picture was a disaster. Arnold played "Handsome Stranger," a dumb, virile cowboy who's also the good guy; Kirk Douglas was cast as roguish outlaw "Cactus Jack", and Ann- Margret played the lusty "Charming Jones." As for Arnold, his newly discovered screen charm seemed to have gone into remission. Variety declared that "Schwarzenegger shows little development as an actor since Stay Hungry," while Janet Maslin in The New York Times termed him "a weight on the movie." Newsweek's David Ansen described his range of expressions as "considerably more limited than the horse's."

In all fairness, the movie's flaws go far beyond Arnold's contribution. He simply made a bad choice-which didn't stop him from repeating the mistake by agreeing to do a cameo the same year in Scavenger Hunt, a frantic comedy about a mad rush for an inheritance. Arnold played an overzealous gym instructor named Lars in this unfunny farce that co-starred Ruth Gordon and Richard Benjamin. Director Michael Schultz apparently thought he was going to top Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but he was mistaken.

Schwarzenegger's screen career had shifted into low gear, but he was at least able to show his stuff before a large audience with his next assignment, The Jayne Mansfield Story, a TV-movie that was telecast in 1980.
Loni Anderson starred as the Hollywood blonde bombshell of the 1950s, portraying her as a sensitive woman who yearned for love and artistic fulfillment. Arnold was suitably cast as Jayne's husband, Hungarian bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. While the movie offered no surprises, it did provide Arnold with his first TV credit, and some not-bad reviews. Although John J. O'Connor of The New York Times panned the film, he made a point of mentioning Arnold's "nice, unaffected gentleness." It was a nice compliment, but gentleness was not the quality that was to become Schwarzenegger's stock in trade.