Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is a veteran cop trying to catch a serial killer, Warren Stacey (Gene Davis).
Unable to catch him, Kessler goes outside the law to hunt him down.
“‘Good-looking but what a creep. Makes my skin crawl. I told him to get lost. Creep called me up again. Creep asked me to the office picnic. I said I had a date. He said I was lying. That made me mad. I said I wouldn't go with him if he was the last man alive.’ You know who that is?
- I'll give you a hint: YOU!”
After The Evil That Men Do, I was keen for another Bronson joint. I had also watched J Lee Thompson’s Cape Fear recently, and wanted to see more of his work.
10 to Midnight is not a good movie. But it is well-directed, and Bronson seems to be trying to stretch himself. And for a Cannon Group production, it is surprisingly nuanced.
The opening scene seems to be a statement of intent - instead of Bronson gunning down bad guys, we open with him in the middle of a police station, trying to finish a report while the local weirdo regales him with his latest made up crime.
It is an attempt to ground Bronson, but it is about as believable as him playing an architect.
The film is caught between the realism of a police procedural and the more heightened violence of a slasher movie. We cut between Bronson’s Kessler and the serial killer on almost a one-to-one basis, and most of Bronson’s scenes are about frustrating his attempts to catch the villain - the film wants to be a slow burn, to make us wait for the star to do what he does best.
The film does do some interesting things - there is a subplot where Kessler fakes evidence to get the killer arrested, and his idealistic partner (future DTV fixture Andrew Stevens) guilts him into confessing his subterfuge. It is an interesting moment of ambiguity, presenting our hero in a morally compromised position.
Of course, the movie ends up completely vindicating his world view: the killer seeks vengeance by attacking Kessler’s daughter, and he ends up losing a fight with the (now) ex-cop’s gun.
The cast are all solid, and Thompson manages to soften or avoid the seedier aspects of Cannon’s usual all-guns approach.
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