Monsieur Saint-Ives

Writer St. Ives is hired to retrieve journals stolen from a thief who compulsively writes down his capers and is now being blackmailed...everywhere he goes someone is a step ahead of him and there is a dead body! Lots of killing and an appearance by Jeff Goldbum...all for four million!

This film is based on books that I haven't read, but Charles Bronson received a lot of criticism for his portrayal of St. Ives...I didn't have anything to compare him too and I thought it was a fun cop caper.

John Houseman was fun as an eccentric and wealthy thief-Abner Procain and Jacqueline Bisset was great as his former cop side-kick who St. Ives described as "You're tough, smart and you have a lot of good looking bits and pieces."...best line in the film!

Bit of a watch and delete for me...but still a fun caper, with a clever follow through on who dunnit.

Cool Raymond St. Ives (Charles Bronson), an ex-police writer and unpublished author, is hired by Arthur Procane (John Housman) to recapture some journals stolen from his safe. Procane, of dubious legality, likes to spend free time watching silent movies like "The Big Parade." He has a lovely "assistant," Janet Whistler (Jaqueline Bisset).

In return for the stolen ledgers, St. Ives' assignment is to give $100,000 ransom from Procane to a crook in a laundromat at night. When St. Ives arrives, he finds the crook dead, spinning inside a clothes dryer. St. Ives continues his quest around the streets of Los Angeles. Along the way he is assaulted and the bodies pile up. There certainly are not too many honest people around.

Although parts of the movie appear muddled, the denouement ties up loose ends. Positive elements of the film include a respectable cast, suitable LA locales, and several scenes of interest. The film is not too violent, and is interesting. The movie is based upon Ross Thomas' 1972 book, "The Procane Chronicles."

Ex-crime journalist Raymond St Ives is struggling for doe, due to his gambling addiction and his slow progress of his unfinished novel. His offered a job as a "go-between" for the strange, old wealthy Abner Procane. He'll be payed 10,000 dollars for the job, to hand over cash for the exchange of Procane's stolen ledgers. However since he takes the job, nothing seems quite right and this leaves St Ives trying to put together what happened at the bungle exchange.

Director J. Lee Thompson along with actor Charles Bronson ( the first exercise to kick start their long-listed collaborations together) churn out a acceptable time-filler in the shape of the luxuriously smooth and constantly busy comic-crime caper "St Ives". Underlining the atmospherically exotic style is Thompson's sophisticatedly tidy direction, along with Lucien Ballard's handsomely crisp cinematography and Lalo Schifrin's high-strung score of sizzling jazz arrangement. The screenplay by Barry Beckerman is sleek, but overly knotty and perplexing in its deliberate developments of a devious layout. Still it stays conventional to the scheming and shady connections lurking around nearly every corner, and this generally engages. Sometimes not deliberately so, like often mentioned 'drive-in' sequence. The offbeat script can loose shape (even though it manages some quite cheeky dialogues), and begin to slumber off in the pulpy latter end of the film. The action is quite little, but pacey with some well performed and animatedly stylised stunts. The production managed to get a hold off a sensational cast. Charles Bronson in the lead as St Ives eases into the performance nicely. Jacqueline Bisset adds a sumptuously classy touch. John Houseman is very fun, and Dana Elcar gets some memorable scenes. Maximilian Schell hones in one hammy entrée turn, and Harry Guardino and Harris Yulin likewise are amusing. Also look out for some diverting performances from up-and-coming Robert Englund and Jeff Goldblum as two petty crooks. Michael Lerner and Elisha Cook Jr show up in minor roles too.

An elegantly charming enterprise with an excellent Bronson performance and great support.

Charles Bronson plays the title character, an adventurer of sorts and crime writer. Oddly, he's hired by a rich thief (John Houseman) to retrieve some stolen documents...and so St. Ives plays private dick.

As St. Ives proceeds through the case, he keeps arriving when people are dying...but he is innocent. It just seems that a LOT of dishonest people keep killing each other to get the documents. What are they and what really is going on? Well, see the film...or not.

This is an odd Charles Bronson flick. While he is involved in a few action sequences, much of the film seems to happen all around him instead of with him. In addition, the plot is hard to believe and a bit convoluted...making this one of Bronson's lesser efforts. Decent and watchable but not much more.

By the way, if you do watch, pay attention to Hood #1 and 3 who try to kill St. Ives early in the film. They are Robert Englund and Jeff Goldblum before they became famous actors.

I've been a big Bronson-fan for as long as I can remember, and I saw "St. Ives" on TV some years back and was always left with the impression that it was sorta dull, all though offering a nice change of pace for old Charlie. Now out on DVD I still had to order it though, as I pride myself on having *every* Bronson-film available in my collection. I am really happy to say that watching it again was a really wonderful surprise! I'll blame my stupid youth for not appreciating this movie as much back in my late teens because "St. Ives" isn't dull. Sure, it doesn't include all the normal action scenes one has come to expect from a Bronson picture, but it includes just about everything else lacking in his later action movies: great wit, humor, style and unexpected plot-twists and turns right up until the very end! To top it all off it is one of the best scored Bronson-films, with a wonderful soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin. Oh and just so you know; despite the low amount of action scenes, the body count DOES get alarmingly high before the end credits.

It also has a truly excellent cast supporting Bronson. To mention a few: Academy Award winning veteran John Houseman, one of the sexiest stars of the 1970's Jacqueline Bisset, Dana Elcar (Pete Thornton in "MacGyver"), Academy Award winner Maximilian Schell, the lovable Elisha Cook Jr, Michael Lerner, Dick O'Neill (Sharon Gless' memorable dad Charlie in "Cagney & Lacey"), Daniel J. Travanti (the star of "Hill St. Blues") and my favorite supports, the wonderful character actors Harry Guardino and Harris Yulin as police detectives. On top of this you get young versions of Robert Englund and Jeff Goldblum as hoods fighting it out with Charlie!

I also found myself laughing more than I normally do watching Bronson-movies, as "St. Ives" has several funny moments. My favorite one probably being the dinner/confrontation scene with Val Bisoglio.

If you are a *true* Bronson-fan you'll really enjoy old Charlie in this one!