Cold Sweat
Director: Terence Young
1970
Action/Thriller
Joe Martin hasn’t always been the quiet man he
is today. He hasn’t always had a boat and made a living taking tourists out on
fishing trips. He hasn’t always had a wife and a twelve year old stepdaughter.
Once upon a time he was in the military and has an even more complicated story
than he wish to tell his wife. It turns out that he was one of four who escaped
from a prison and that someone got killed during the escape. Joe, who didn’t want
anything to do with the others violence fled the scene and let the other take
the fall. Now they’re back with a vengeance and blackmail him into helping them
with a heroin trade. Now he got no choice as his wife and daughter life are at
stake.
Terence
Young might be most known for the Bond films Dr. No and From Russia With
Love and that ought to count for something. I mean, there is obviously ability
in making movies there. In my opinion Dr.
No might be the best Bond film of all times so you’d understand if I have
high hopes for this one! And I actually saw it some years ago thiking it was a
very good Bronson film! I told you
already that me and a couple of friends of mine made it out business to see as
many movies starring Charles Bronson
as we could find, but I think this was one of those that we didn’t find for
rental. This was shown on Swedish TV though. That’s how I remember it anyway.
I
remember it as one of the better ones and considering we saw thirty or so of
them that’s pretty good. Since I opened the shrine I made it my business to
watch all of them again, and preferably more of them. There are different ways
to get them these days, making it much easier to get. In short, we have the internet!
Therefore I was a bit disappointed by this! It’s not a bad film in any way, but
there is not so much of Charles Bronson
in it. Liv Ullman steals the show
totally actor wise (even though her English pronunciations are pretty bad) and James Mason is really good too! There
are a few other supporting cast as well but I won’t get into them here. Except
for Jill Ireland as a Hippie of
course… All great actors!
But I
can only take so much of case chases! I have a hard time watching the very long
scene where Joe (Bronson) drives the
serpentines with the police at his heals. I can’t stand the engine sound and
can’t stand that the tires squeal at every turn. It doesn’t matter if there’s asphalt
or sand. Plus that it’s very sloppy made. There are supposed to be three people
in the car but at times I can only see the stunt driver. I might not have 20-20
vision but even if there in fact are three people (or dummies or whatever) and
I don’t see it it’s still a failure!
And then
there is the thing of the pace. It’s not very well edited. Much of the main
suspense centers around Bronsons need
to make it in time by car. But the scenes are so slow and dull that the fast
driving doesn’t really matter, it’s still boring. So… Great acting and basically
a great storyline with kidnapping, blackmailing and revenge but sloppy made –
and not enough of Bronson…
6/10
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