Unable to direct "Taxi Driver", Mulligan proceeded by rounding out the 1970s with three films dominated by performances from A-list Hollywood actors: Jason Miller as a Los Angeles locksmith threatened by hitmen in "The Nickel Ride" (1974); Richard Gere as an Italian-American youth trying to break from his working-class family in "Bloodbrothers" (1978); and Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn portraying George and Doris, a pair of long-term adulterers, in "Same Time Next Year" (1978), based on the play by Bernard Slade.