Although "Stay Hungry" feels like the filmmakers made it up as they went along, it still gets you in mainly because of its overall quirkiness and interesting stars early in their careers.

The story centres on Jeff Bridges' character, Craig Blake, and his attempts to buy a gym in Alabama in order to redevelop the site. However he is drawn into the lives of the people he meets including gym receptionist, Mary Tate Farnsworth, played by Sally Field, and Joe Santo, played by Arnold Schwarzeneger, who is training for the Mr. Universe contest.

The story meanders all over the place with many sub plots and characters while everyone goes to town on their Southern accents - all except The Austrian Oak of course.

It's hard to place "Stay Hungry" in a genre; it's a comedy of sorts, but the humour is in the odd situations rather than in funny lines. To be honest, it needed editing; some scenes are interminable. For anyone watching it 40 years later, the appeal must surely be in seeing the stars before their careers really took off.

Arnie is arresting. This was his first speaking part; he looks big chested and powerful, but plays it low key; he's a sensitive guy, no "Hasta la vista baby" or "I'll be back" in this movie. His best scene is when he joins a group in the backwoods and indulges his passion for fiddle playing. Apparently he practiced the violin for months to look convincing.

Sally Field was 29 when she made this (a few years older than Jeff Bridges),but looks as though she would have needed proof of age to get into a nightclub - it actually makes her brief nude scene slightly disturbing. Even now she still looks way younger than her real age; check out 2015's "My Name is Doris" for confirmation.

These days Jeff Bridges looks his years, but like a bottle of Château Mouton Rothschild, he simply improves with age. He has some good scenes in "Stay Hungry", including one where he does a little Appalachian flatfooting.

With memories of Vietnam and Watergate still fresh, filmmakers seemed affected by the mood of disillusionment and mistrust of the 1970's. They came up with some off-the-wall movies, and the chaotic style of "Stay Hungry" fits perfectly into the era.

Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is trying to help buy up a whole chunk of the city for a consortium to rebuilt. Gym owner Thor is holding out. Blake gets to know the disparate cast of characters who call the gym their second home. Only he starts to become their friend and falls for Mary (Sally Field) who's working there.

This is a weird little movie. Sally Field is trying to shed her good girl persona and goes out in the buff. Robert Englund is pre-Kreuger. Arnold Schwarzenegger is making a big move acting as a bodybuilder competing in Mr Universe, and playing the fiddle with rednecks. He's a brainy philosophers who gets the title line. And they got Jeff Bridges holding it all together. To top off the weirdness, some 30 bodybuilders have an impromptu pose off in the streets.

I like all these characters, but there isn't much of a story. It's obvious that Blake has befriend these guys quite early on. There doesn't seem to be much of a struggle. The land developer should be doing much more to drive these guys out. There needs to be more tension. The plot needs to flow better, and there is a little too much meandering going on.

I'm wondering based upon Arnold Schwartznegger's 1976 win of a Golden Globe for best film debut just who else made their film debut that year. Other than Jessica Lange in the critically maligned remake of "King Kong", I can't think of anyone. It isn't that the future "governator" is bad; he just does nothing other than play himself. Long Before he said, "I'll be back" (and apparently now says, "Oh, my back!"),he came off as a humble Austrian with a basic good nature, working with Jeff Bridges and Sally Field in a public gym which is the subject of an attempted buyout from some ruthless roughnecks. But that's a shell of the story, only dealt with as the film winds down it's second half. Field, America's TV sweetheart, gets to show off her assets in a few nude scenes, which doesn't besmerch her reputation or make me look at her any less, but considering her meteoric rise to film immortality just a few years later, this isn't a great switch for her from the to the big screen.

Such familiar faces as Ed Begley Jr., Scatman Crothers and Fannie Flagg appear in smaller parts, but it's mainly about Fields and Bridges, with "slice of life" views of life in a small southern community. Really, nothing happens to move the plot along. Talkie moments seem to try to manipulate the audience into thinking that something is happening, but that's rarely the case here. Crothers comes out of nowhere to tell Bridges that he's quitting (threatening to take an iron suit with him),and Fields and Bridges get into fights at Flagg's elaborate get-together. One of the gym's female instructors teaches women karate as self defense and later uses it on the thugs who break in. Eventually, this gets boring and dismal, seriously pointless, making me wonder if the film was just horribly edited. The display of a Confederate flag is also eye raising, especially since the gym employees young blacks. Frankly, after an hour, I just didn't care anymore yet suffered through the remainder of it, but even the presence of Sally and Jeff couldn't get me into it.