Charly, el vengador

This is a solid if somewhat obscure Charles Bronson film. Rod Steiger gave a good performance as a mob boss. Beautiful Swiss film location. Somewhat tame and melancholy story. Still Bronson gets his man. Not his best, but still enjoyable.

Charles Bronson is at his best when playing the silent tough guy, but in this British-backed chase thriller he is let down by workmanlike direction and a drearily routine script. Bronson's Phoenix cop, Charlie Congers, is certainly a silent and tough character - just the kind of role old Stone-Face usually excels at - but there are too many weaknesses in Love and Bullets to make it a particularly worthwhile film.

Phoenix police officer Charlie Congers (Bronson) is keen to gather evidence on Mob bigwig Joseph Bomposa (Rod Steiger). He learns that Bomposa's mistress Jackie Pruitt (Jill Ireland) is hiding out in Switzerland, so he jets off hoping to find her and persuade her to testify against him. Bomposa, realising that the game could be up, issues orders that Jackie must be silenced whatever the cost. Soon, Congers and Jackie are on the run in snowy Switzerland, with a whole bunch of hired killers hot on their heels.

Steiger is in over-acting mode here, but fortunately he doesn't have too many scenes so his opportunities to embarrass himself are kept to a minimum. The story is a simplistic chase narrative of a type seen many times before, and scripters Wendell Mayes and John Melson don't have many surprises up their sleeves to freshen this one up. Bronson fans like to see their man wasting bad guys and plunging head-first into action, but Love and Bullets pauses far too regularly for its own good and viewers looking for action will feel very short-changed. The film isn't a total loss - it has sporadic effective scenes, is always pleasing to the eye, and has one genuine moment of surprise near the end - but on the whole it is undoubtedly a lot less impressive than it could have been. Don't rush to add it to your wish list.

Love and Bullets (1979)

** (out of 4)

Charlie Congers (Charles Bronson), an Arizona cop, is sent to Switzerland by the government to try and track down the girlfriend (Jill Ireland) of an infamous gangster (Rod Steiger). The cops only goal is to bring her back but soon the gangster puts a hit out on her life.

LOVE AND BULLETS is a pretty flat, boring and lifeless picture, which is somewhat shocking when you consider that it was meant to be a major blockbuster. All sorts of money was spent on the production but very little excitement actually made it to the screen, which is too bad for Bronson fans as the actor turns in a decent performance and the setting is certainly great enough to where something more should have came from it.

There are all sorts of problems with this movie but we'll start with the fact that it just has an overall cheap and tired look. There are quite a few action scenes throughout the running time but they're just downright boring for the most part and I'd argue that there's no energy to be found in any of them. What's worse is the fact that there's clearly meant to be some suspense as the cop and woman barely get away from the hit men but that never happens. The lack of suspense is a major letdown.

Of course, it doesn't help that you really don't like the annoying woman. Ireland is given the task of playing an idiot with a Southern accent and I think it's fair to say that this is probably the worst performance she ever gave. The accent is just all wrong and comes off more annoying than anything else. Steiger really isn't any better as he's rather hammy and the sometimes stuttering has zero effect. Henry Silva and Strother Martin are always fun to see. As for Bronson, I thought he was good here in that typical Bronson kind of performance.

LOVE AND BULLETS isn't the disaster some people make it out to be but there's no question that it falls well short of the actor's best movies.

Three federal agencies are trying to bring stuttering gangster Rod Steiger to trial. To do that, they need to bring back his bimbo girlfriend, Jill Ireland, from Switzerland. For some reason, they can't extradite her, so they send Phoenix cop Charles Bronson to do the job. In the meantime, the mob sends a hitman after her, so she cannot testify.

With a title that suggests a Keystone comedy, it seems an odd vehicle for Bronson, but director Stuart Rosenberg - John Huston started as the director, but bowed out after shooting a few scenes - puts a lot of comedy into Miss Ireland's performance, the visuals and soundtrack. Extensive location shooting also adds some quality to this movie, making it a very watchable Bronson vehicle.

What could have been an excellent crime thriller is turned into a mediocre film thanks to the uninspired direction of Stuart ("Cool Hand Luke") Rosenberg. With Wendall ("Death Wish") Mayes as writer, I had high hopes for this film. Bronson plays an Arizona lieutenant who is after a drug lord (Rod Steiger), responsible for the death of a fellow cop. The FBI butts in, telling him that if he wants to help out he can persuade Steiger's mistress, (Jill Ireland, doing a good Dolly Parton) to give testimony to the DAs. Bronson travels to Switzerland to retrieve her. Lots of boring shots of him taking trains, planes and automobiles to do this. Steiger does a great job playing a stuttering mafiosa don and the film boasts many excellent character actors (Henry Silva, Paul Koslo, Val Avery, Strother Martin, Bradford Dillman, etc.) A few good action scenes, but in the end, we needed more bullets and less love...