Cold Sweat (1970)

Original title: De la Part des Copains

Director: Terence Young

Writers: Dorothea Bennett, Jo Eisinger, Richard Matheson, Shimon Wincelberg

Composer: Michel Magne

Starring: Charles Bronson, Liv Ullmann, James Mason, Jill Ireland, Michel Constantin, Luigi Pistilli

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Charles Bronson is Running...Charles Bronson is Running for His Wife. She Has 11 Minutes to Live...You Will Have a Lifetime to Remember!

Plot: A brutal drug trader takes his violent revenge after his wife is captured by a drug boss.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Only if I come across a better print.

#51 on Project: Badass Charles Bronson

BRONSON'S AGE: 49
LEVEL OF BADASSICITY (10 being the highest): 8

If you can suffer through the first half then you'll be rewarded with a much more fun and exciting, action-packed second half.   This flick doesn't feel like it's directed by the seasoned pro that directed three out of the first four Bond pictures.  It's not as polished.  Maybe that's the likely much lower budget doing the talking.  If that's the case, then OK.  Bronson doesn't become BRONSON until the last half when it's all action.  The start of the picture has him living the carefree life of a man who's discovered the secret to happiness.  In the film, he goes home to his family.  He could've just as easily stepped right into this commercial...

It's strange seeing Bronson so footloose and fancy free.  The manliness comes out when his past catches up with him.  The car chase is great and it's the best part of the picture.  Bronson is fun but it's the second half that works well.  I usually like James Mason a lot but his Southern American accent is really bad.  It's also awkward not hearing his wonderful British accent.  A few years earlier, Bronson stole Jill Ireland, the wife of British actor David McCallum (stole isn't the right word;  she couldn't help but throw herself at the walking testosterone bank that is Bronson).  I bet that Mason was so intimidated by him that he refused to speak with his British accent for fear of getting his ass handed to him and losing all of the women in his life at the same time. Just a thought. The plot isn't complicated but it doesn't need to be.  This is about exacting revenge for the dumb motherfuckers that chose the bad idea of pissing off Charles Bronson.   The print I watched was non-anamorphic widescreen and filthy, so much so that, while I like a dirty print with older movies sometimes, I would've preferred a better quality and anamorphic wide.