Review: Lola AKA Twinky - 1970

Lola

Director: Richard Donner

Aka: Twinky

1970

Drama/Comedy

Scott is in his middle ages, he’s thirty seven even if he on occasion claims he’s only thirty two. Anyway, he’s near his forties. He writes pornographic novels for a living. During a stay in London he meets this teenage girl that he falls in love with. She fall in love with him too of course and since the age of consent is sixteen in England they get married. Everyone says it’s a marriage bound to fail but they are both positive it’ll work out. When the couple moves back to New York they need to confront things they didn’t think about. She has to go to school for example. And when Scott gets arrested for hitting a cop and gets one month behind bars things really gets out of hand…

First of all… for me Richard Donner is the man that gave us the Lethal Weapon movies. To see such an early film by him is very interesting. It’s actually his second movie and it kind of shows. There are lots of very cliché ways to tell the story and it’s obvious that Mr. Donner has some way to go before he’ll make really good craftsmanship movies! After some TV series and TV Movies he started to make some very memorable movies though. But this is the Shrine of Charles Bronson and not Richard Donner so I won’t elaborate further on that!

Charles Bronson does the male lead in this very awkward story. It does not condemn the marriage despite their difference in age, and it does not encourage it either. It rather focuses on the problem of the marriage or the relationship altogether. The thirty seven year old porn novelist and the sixteen year old school girl do not have very much in common. And when the initial teen crush is over they have a very hard time. He needs to focus on his next book in order to get an income and she can’t help it but rants on and on about things in a teenage kind of way. To him the world is old and to her it’s a new place full of new thing to experience and to learn. In addition to that, she’s British and he’s an American.

Susan George did the part of sixteen year old Lola/Twinky. She was twenty at the time but is totally convincing as an adolescent. Charles Bronson on the other hand does one of his more strange roles here. I’ve seen quite a lot of his movies and I know that the revenge- and cop movies are just a fraction of what he did in his career. But still, this is a very odd part. I can’t say that he does something special with the opportunity, but he uses more facial expressions that usual and he seem to be genuinely in love!

This hasn’t gone down in history neither as a lost Richard Donner nor a Charles Bronson classic and it’s not hard to figure out why. But still, as a fan one Charles Bronson I found it uplifting to watch and even if the story is kind of naive it was very watchable. Not this particular release though, it sucks big time! There must be a better quality release out there! If not, someone better release one! I bet there are movie buffs out there dying to catch this obscure film already! It might not be a classic but it’s certainly a gem worth watching among some of us!

6/10

Review: Cold Sweat - 1970

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

Review: Violent City - 1970

Violent City

Aka: The Family

Director: Sergio Sollima

1970

Thriller/Drama

Carles Bronson is the contract killer Jeff Heston. He has been deceived and left to die in his own blood. But he survives and craves revenge! He tracks down those he considers to be guilty of the treason against him. He also encounters Weber, portrayed by Telly Savalas, who wants Heston to be part of his criminal organization. Heston declines the offer but no one turns down such an offer from Weber and lives to tell about it. The plot thickens and soon he’s entangled in a series of events where the plans architect is kept a secret.

It was a long time since I saw a film with one of my favorite actors Charles Bronson in a leading role. Instantly I realize that I’ve missed seeing he films and that I need to re-watch the films I’ve already seen over the years and also to see more of those that I haven’t seen before. There´s a car chase scene that´s typical for the seventies and it’s very nicely shot! The cinematography makes it kind of exciting. It has the European feel to it and I love it. The next scene makes me think of classic western shoot out and I love it!

Charles Bronson was one of the big names in European film during the seventies and it’s such a pleasure to see him act together with his wife Jill Ireland which he frequently did! There’s real chemistry between them that cannot be faked. Something that bothers me a bit is that some of the scenes are only available in Italian. I guess the English sound has been deleted years ago during some editing or censorship. I guess it’s better to have them in Italian than not at all of course! Especially since the absence of these scenes would mean that the film would be a total disaster and impossible to understand. In other words, it’s annoying but essentially to make some sense out of the storyline.  

I think that Telly Savalas does a great job here too. His mafia boss character is magnificent! When Heston (Bronson) starts to get tormented by his own conscious, remorse and sentiment Weber (Savalas) equals this out with the attitude of someone in a powerful position. There’s some doubt about which one of them that’s really behind the plans. Who is a pawn and who’s really in charge of the events? Perhaps this is a little too obvious but since the score is written by Morricone – who cares?

As a whole this might not be a masterpiece but as a fan of Bronson flicks I like it! You get what’s expected from Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas, Jill Ireland is as beautiful as usual and that can’t make any film worse. She even shows us a bit of skin in a couple of scenes. That can’t be a bad thing!

7/10