Le Justicier de minuit

It's easy to forget that in the 80s, action movies were every bit as violent as horror films and 10 to Midnight is pretty harsh. It feels like they're attempting to make both a Friday the 13th and a Death Wish movie AT THE SAME TIME!

Charles Bronson plays a tough cop dedicated to his job. He stumbles onto a serial sex killer and obsessively hunts him down only to have the system fail him leading to a truly shocking bloodbath at the finale.

10 to Midnight is Cannon film, thus it's over-the-top with lots of sex and violence. It's also through and through a Bronson film so there's a lot of tough guy grandstanding and complaints about a broken legal system that values the rights of the accused over those of the victim.

The positives of this movie are that it has a truly solid cast. Bronson actually seems to care about his performance (not always the case in his later films), the villain is creepy and frightening (he likes to attack his lady victims while he is totally nude), and the kills are intensely effective.

The negatives are that the movie is just a little too slow. There are too many cop movie cliches and I didn't care at all about Bronson's partner. Honestly, I feel that this movie would have worked much better as a straight forward giallo film.

This is a cop movie that occasionally turns into a slasher film which leaves a movie that can't find a consistent tone. Fans of slashers and cop flicks are both likely to be put off by the movie but it is unique enough that I get why it has a cult following. It's an above average latter day Bronson film and probably at least worth a look for fans that don't mind a little (or a lot!) of bloodshed.

But shouldn't we do the same with adults? I'd like to hop into the way-back machine to the start of the eighties to sit down for a heart-to-heart with Charles Bronson. I'd like the opportunity to say to him that, considering his body of work, the great movies he's made--and the awful ones in which he'd shined through--he should retire immediately and enjoy the years he had left with wife Jill Ireland. "Mr. Bronson, please don't make crap."

There is no way-back machine, his beloved wife died too young from cancer, and Bronson is almost better known now for his garbage movies from the 80s and 90s than his earlier work. It's sad that a man who radiated a primal fury on screen, with a glowering physicality that made him an almost-superstar, would decide to make some of the most awful and ridiculous pieces of nonsense one can find mouldering in the backs of video stores today.

J. Lee Thompson's 10 to Midnight is so awful that one has to wonder why Bronson agreed to make it. Since we can't ask him, we must assume the worst, that he did it for the money or he honestly thought Golan and Globus would restore his career.

I watched this movie on cable over twenty years ago and hated it then. I just sat down to watch it again on Hulu. I actually felt a sadness overtaking me as I got about 15 minutes or so into 10 to Midnight.

Not for the time I was wasting, but the fact that no one ever made a way-back machine.

Compared with the ridiculously shoddy "Death Wish" sequels, most of Charles Bronson's 1980s collaborations with J. Lee Thompson are masterpieces. In fact, even with the high ratio of bad actors and technical shortcomings, films like "Evil That Men Do" and this one, "10 to Midnight," kick modern hardboilers right in the balls.

In any case, I've read some comments by folks who don't understand the title "10 to Midnight." Here's what it means: the killer's alibi is that he was seen at a theater watching a movie that ran between 10 pm and midnight, the same time the murder took place. 10 to Midnight--get it? Oddly enough, even the marketing department of the movie's original distributor, Cannon, didn't get the title. Hence the tag line, "A Cop, a Killer, a Deadline." There's no deadline in the film.

Here's where I think the confusion lies: During this period, director Thompson convinced Canon heads Golan and Globus, and Bronson's producer, Pancho Kohner, to hire his son, Peter Lee Thompson, to edit his films. While most of the younger Thompson's editing was pretty good visually, he was a bit sloppy when it came to points of continuity. For instance, in "Evil" a character passes Bronson a photo of the villain, The Doctor, mentioning him by name. But we can plainly see that the photo is not of the Doctor at all. In "Murphy's Law" we see an over the shoulder shot of a gangster laid out on a sofa, stark naked, being administered to by a hooker. When we see him face-on in the reverse shot he is wearing a robe. The scene continues to bop back and forth--robe, no robe, robe, no robe, etc.

So Thompson the younger didn't really get that whole "reality" concept.

Anyway, back to "10." I'm sure that J. Lee shot footage establishing a very specific reference to the timeframe of the first murder. And I'm just as sure that his son just didn't think it was all that important to keep in. After all, it wasn't a naked woman being stabbed to death--it was only the title of the movie.

... Could a tag-line possibly sound more Bronson-like? J. Lee Thompsons "10 To Midnight" of 1983 starring the great late Charley, is a decent cop flick, not nearly one of the most memorable Bronson flicks, but still a pretty suspenseful little thriller that will highly entertain all my fellow fans of everybody's favorite no-nonsense ass-kicker.

Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) is a psychopathic serial killer who gets his kicks by running around naked and stabbing his victims to death. He does not randomly select his victims, but kills, because he wants to get back at the women who have rebuffed his advances. Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is a tough and experienced cop, who doesn't hesitate to use unorthodox methods to get justice done. When Kessler investigates the murders he has to find out that the latest victim was a close friend of his daughter's (Lisa Eilbacher). Accompanied by his rookie colleague Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens), Kessler soon finds out who the murderer is. Warren Stacy is quite smart, however, and never leaves any evidence. Things quickly get personal between Kessler and Stacy, and you know Charley B. - he's probably not the guy you wanna mess with.

"10 To Midnight" differs from the majority of other Cop vs. Serial Killer thrillers, since the viewer knows from the very beginning who the killer is. The movie focuses on the strife between Bronson and the serial killer, and builds up suspense by focusing on the serial killer and his possible victims. Since Bronson has to use illegal methods in order to get justice done ("Forget What's Legal... Do What's Right!") the film is, of course, politically incorrect as hell; But isn't that exactly what we love about Charlie Bronson? The man takes the law in his own hands and doesn't mind the bad guys getting hurt - If you don't like it, stop whining. Bronson is great as always and Gene Davis delivers a great performance as the serial killer, very wooden and therefore very creepy. Lisa Eilbacher, who play's Bronson's daughter, is very cute, and Geoffrey Lewis is great as the killer's sleazy lawyer. Some folks complain about poor editing in this movie, I don't really see why. One of the things I didn't like was the fact that the killer was rather one dimensional. "10 To Midnight" may lack depth, but it is a suspenseful film, certainly no masterpiece, but nonetheless a decent thriller that Bronson fans should like. I recommend to watch this, and to have a beer doing so.

About the time "10 to Midnight" was released, I read an interview with Charles Bronson in which he was asked why he continued to make one "Death Wish" clone after the other with bad hack directors instead of taking over his career and taking chances like his contemporaries Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood. I remember he wasn't too happy with the question, but it was, and remains, a legitimate one, for while Connery and Eastwood would cap their careers with Oscars Bronson would limp toward the end of his with one bomb after the other. So bad were his '80's films in fact, this one is one of the best, even though it still is a pretty mediocre, and at times terrible, film.

The difference between "10 to Midnight" and say, "Kinjite," is that Bronson actually has a pretty good supporting cast to work with, including Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Geoffrey Lewis and Wilford Brimley. And his adversary, a kinky lady-killer (literally) played by Gene Davis, is a little more interesting than your standard-issue villain. Davis is Warren Stacey, a handsome young stud who is such a sociopathic sleaze that even his sexy looks and great body can't get him a date. So when he's rejected, what's a guy to do? It's simple, he strips naked, grabs some gloves and a knife, and kills the object of his affection, usually when she's also naked and in the middle of lovemaking. Obviously, "The French Connection" this one ain't. Enter Leo Kessler (Bronson) who surveys Stacey's carnage and comes up with the perceptive observation: "His knife must be his penis." Together with partner Andrew Stevens, he has no trouble fingering Stacey as the killer; unfortunately, the psycho is an expert at establishing airtight alibis. Also unfortunately for Kessler, he has a nubile, yet estranged, daughter (Lisa Eilbacher)--a nurse who not only was friends with victim one, but also shares an apartment with several potential (and beautiful) victims. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where this one is going.

Yep, it's all as sleazy as it sounds, and surprisingly watchable. "10 to Midnight" also contains an astonishing amount of nudity (both male and female) for a mainstream film, and a sex scene near the beginning that is about one thrust away from tagging this with an X-rating. Fortunately, Bronson and the supporting cast keep it from veering too far off the deep end, with Eilbacher especially effective as a daughter who is every bit as tough and hard-headed as her father. I also liked Geoffrey Lewis' turn as a smart-as-a-whip defense attorney, and Brimley's presence as Bronson's superior adds a welcome touch of professionalism. And while Davis can't act, he does project enough menace to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, director J. Lee Thompson is less adept at handling his bit players, many of whom are so wooden as to be absolutely laughable. One actress in particular, playing the boss of the first victim, elicited howls of audience laughter when I first saw this with her absolutely terrible job of conveying shock and horror when hearing about the murder. In fact, Thompson's directing here is so routine and at times inept, it is almost impossible to believe that the same man was responsible for the authentic classic "The Guns of Navarone."

All-in-all, "10 to Midnight" has to classify as the ultimate good/bad film. Sleazy, predictable, offensive and laughable all could be used to describe it. But it's also strangely watchable, even entertaining at times. And the ending packs a real wallop. In other words, it's a real guilty pleasure. **1/2 (out of *****)