Le cercle noir

A Dirty Harry clone? The Stone Killer is an interesting film, Bronson portrays a plain-clothes cop named Lou Torrey, Torrey has a penchant for being a little violent at times and it costs him his badge in NYC. Torrey eventually picks up a Lieutenant position at the Los Angeles department and gets knee deep in some real problems. War veterans (Vietnam) with itchy trigger fingers, anti-war sentiment, druggies, prostitutes, civil rights issues, a mafia-related vengeance plot that has been in the works for forty two years as well as a host of other problems. I had to watch this film twice in order to really follow the films somewhat confusing pace, there are some subplots which confused me a little bit but upon the second viewing I had, the film made a lot more sense to me than in my initial viewing. There are some scenes that go straight from Los Angeles to New York City and back throughout the film but the pace is easy to keep up with. There is a ton of action to feast your eyes upon, many gun fights, a few car chases, etc. Bronson acts in his usual tough-guy role as Lou Torrey and plays it very well in my opinion. The ending is not as satisfactory as I would have liked, but Director Michael Winner is known for having unique endings/twists to his films. As far as rating the film goes, The Stone Killer in my opinion is just a notch or two below other Bronson/Winner collaborations such as 'The Mechanic' or the classic 'Death Wish', but all in all I would recommend this film to any Bronson fan, or anyone who appreciates old, dated action films. I certainly enjoyed it.

Tense but violent film about a tough detective named Lou Torrey (Charles Bronson) who from New York is transferred in the underworlds of Los Angeles and uncovers a perfectly executed scheme carried out by a Sicilian gangster (Martin Balsam) to utilize Vietnam vets (Stuart Margolin , among others) to murder all his enemies in a mass killing , rerun of the 30's "Sicilian Vespers" when the former generation of Sicilian mobsters were all murdered on a single day by orders Lucky Luciano . Lou Torrey gets numerous tracks that something big occurs.

This exciting film contains suspense, noisy action-packed drama, intrigue, thrills and lots of violence . Interesting screenplay Gerald Wilson from the book ¨A complete state of death¨ by John Gardner .This is a formula two-fisted cop stuff in the Vigilante mould . Bronson with his usual stoic acting displays efficiently his weapons such as ¨Dirty Harry¨ style and killing mercilessly nasties . Bronson as wealthy and cold cop who takes the law on his own hands offers the sort of monolithic acting as always . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the top cop Bronson's side . Packs thrilling multiple shootouts staged in a remote location on Mojave desert . As the picture emerges as a series of spectacular set-pieces , each perfectly realized ; the best of theses are the chase scenes between Charles Bronson-Paul Koslo , the busting on the desert and the Mafiosi slaughter with subsequent climax final . Furthermore, appears a nice secondary cast as Norman Fell as assistant cop , Ralph Waite as obstinate police , Paul Koslo as heinous hoodlum ,John Ritter in his film debut, Charles Tyner in minor role, Stuart Margolin as Vietnam veteran and Martin Balsam as mafioso chief. In addition , an atmospheric musical score composed, orchestrated and performed by Roy Budd .

This motion picture is professionally directed by Michael Winner though passionless , such as the successive films with his main star, Charles Bronson. In the mid-70 Winner had great commercial hit , ¨Death Wish¨¨ , a box office success he repeated when badly in need of another big hit smash with the sequel , but both of whom , Bronson and Winner, looked increasingly cold , clinic and mechanical in the later years of their partnership . The worst sequels in which Kersey goes on to torture robbers, all of them inferior and the violence could be deemed excessive, are the following : ¨Death wish II¨ by Michael Winner with Jill Ireland and Vincent Gardenia, ¨Death wish III¨ again by Winner with Ed Lauter and Deborah Raffin . Subsequently Michael Winner career was failed , alternating some hit as ¨the sentinel¨ and various flops as ¨Firepower,The big sleep,The wicked lady, Appointed with death, A chorus of disapproval, Bullseye¨ and of course ¨The stone killer¨ that got a mediocre box office . Rating : average but is indispensable ,essential and well worth watching for Charles Bronson fans.

Michael Winner has directed the great Charles Bronson in several films, all of which can be described shortly as 'bad-ass'. Their collaborations include some truly great films including the 1974 vigilante masterpiece "Death Wish" and the hard-boiled Western "Chato's Land" (1972). All the films that the actor/director team Bronson/Winner made together are highly entertaining, and while "The Stone Killer" certainly isn't one of their best collaborations (in fact, its arguably their weakest besides the hugely fun but very silly "Death Wish 3") it is definitely another testosterone-driven flick that will not leave my fellow Bronson-fans bored.

Bronson stars as Lou Torrey, a tough New York detective who gets transferred to LA. Soon after arriving in LA, hints lead Torrey to a Mafia-Don's plot to use Vietnam Veterans as assassins... My fellow reviewers seem to either love or hate this film, the division being between Bronson fans and non-Bronson fans. As a huge fan of Charles Bronson, I tend to be on the 'love it' side, though, as mentioned above, it is nowhere near one of the most interesting flicks of his. It pales in comparison to other Bronson/Winner Vehicles such as the first two "Death Wish" films, "Chato's Land" or "The Mechanic", but then, these are all great 70s cult favorites, and while "The Stone Killer" is, in my opinion not quite as good, it is still a decent enough film that promises action and bad-assery. Bronson is his great self once again. To me personally, the man's presence alone makes it impossible for a film not to be at least entertaining. Apart from Bronson, the film features another truly great cult-actor, the magnificent Martin Balsam, who plays the role of a mob boss. Michael Winner has been unfairly scorned by critics throughout his career. Fact is, that the man is actually an outstanding director of gritty cult-cinema, who has been successful in any genre he has worked in, be it Action/Thriller ("Death Wish", "The Mechanic"), Western ("Chato's Land", "Lawman") or supernatural Horror ("The Sentinel"). Some folks only seem to be satisfied when they can claim intellectual superiority over other people's work. Some people seem to complain about this film's lacking depth and not bringing up any ideas. I wonder what these folks expect. This is a Bronson flick: It's meant to be hard-hitting, bad-ass entertainment, not melodramatic drivel. "The Stone Killer" features Bronson, loads of action and is filmed in typically stylish 70s style. What else could one ask for? Recommended to all my fellow Bronson fans.

The Stone Killer (1973)

*** (out of 4)

Charles Bronson plays tough Detecitve Lou Torrey who finds himself investigating a murder, which no one seems to know what it's connected to. After getting a name the investigation grows deeper and more and more bodies begin to pile up. Soon Mafia boss Al Vescari (Martin Balsam) enters the picture.

In a lot of ways this film borrows from DIRTY HARRY. Bronson is basically playing the same type of character, although this movie makes sure to show his character as someone who isn't a racist but instead someone who will beat you no matter what your color is. The film touches on several issues including racism but there's no question that the viewer isn't meant to think too much. Instead this is just a fast-paced action movie that has a lot of fights, a lot of gun battles and of course the lead doing what he does best.

It's really interesting watching the films that Bronson and director Michael Winner made during this period. In many ways this one here contains the most violence and it's certainly the most action pack. I'd say that the story has a bit too much going on as there's a lot of plot here for this type of movie but thankfully the screenplay basically just puts Bronson into one dangerous situation after another. This is a great thing because he shoots bad guys, beats confessions out of people and basically does whatever he can to get the job done.

Bronson is quite good in the picture and once again he isn't given too much dialogue. The actor always acted with his body and he would have been perfect in the silent era. He turns in a very good performance here and really packs a punch with the role including some very funny bits of dialogue. The supporting cast is also very good with Balsam doing a good job in the Mafia role and especially a scene set in a cemetery. You've also got Jack COlvin, Norman Fell and even John Ritter in an early role.

THE STONE KILLER has a lot of good things going for it but the action and stunts deserve a lot of credit. As you'd expect for the era, there's a pretty good car chase as well as plenty of scenes where bullets are flying and bodies are dropping. Fans of Bronson will certainly eat this one up but he and the director were about to make their masterpiece the following year with DEATH WISH.

You either get Old Stone Face or you don't. I get him. He played virtually the same type of character in every movie from the '70s forward, although his character's profession changed from time to time. Didn't matter if he was an unflinching streetwise cop that walks outside the law to bring justice, an architect, or an amazingly tough journalist that can beat up bad guys as easily as normal people breath air (how often do you see that?), he was always a character that looked out for what was right, the law be damned. And no mamby pamby metrosexual stuff anywhere in sight.....

This movie was interesting to me in that it was filmed during the prime of the '70s Cop Movie glory days and also happened to be part of the golden age for Bronson himself. I dig the terrible period clothing, hair and lingo. I also dig the neo-psychedelic soundtrack. It was rather amusing seeing Bronson amongst the young hippie burnouts at a wacked out party when he was searching for clues, talk about a fish out of water! And even way back then, the ever popular grouchy old Italian mobster stereotype was in full play, although this was one of the first Bronson films to do this (and it often resurfaced in his movies, even in Death Wish 4 decades later). It also featured several familiar faces including "Mr. Roper" of Three's Company as a cop(!) and "Jack Tripper" of the same show as a bumbling, inept rookie cop. Those with either sharp memories or an extensive Twilight Zone collection will recognize Mob Boss Vescari as the star of the much loved wax figures episode (New Exhibit).

You're not going to see Oscar type performances in a Bronson film, but then again, that's not what they were shooting for. You do get a glimpse of a great period of gritty American cop films. They didn't have the internet to help them. No GPS. No Google maps. Just coffee, steel revolvers, typewriters and good old fashioned investigational work, and of course real cars that were driven to death by stunt men, not computer generated crashes. And you do get politically incorrect, 150 proof MANDOM of the kind that isn't made any more. And that makes for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon in my book.