Movie Review: 10 to Midnight (1983)

 

DIRECTOR: J. Lee Thompson. CAST: Charles Bronson, Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Gene Davis, Geoffrey Lewis, Wilford Brimley, Robert F. Lyons, Bert Williams, Iva Lane, Ola Ray, Kelly Preston, Cosie Costa, Paul McCallum, Jeana Keough, June Gilbert, Arthur Hansel, Sam Chew, Katrina Parish.
Sleazy Charles Bronson cop thriller in which ol’ Granite Face takes on a serial killer murdering beautiful women in the Los Angeles area. He has the right suspect in mind—a creepy office equipment repairman who works in the same office as two of the victims. This guy is a total incel decades before that was a thing—women frequently reject his crude sexual advances, leading him to place gross crank calls to their homes and then murder them. He kills these women while naked save for a pair of rubber gloves so there are no fingerprints to find. His alibis are sound too. DNA evidence and caller ID didn’t exist back then, so Charles Bronson’s character relies on intuition and planted evidence to frame his obvious suspect. Nothing ever happens at 11:50 PM; 10 TO MIDNIGHT is just a snappy movie title. This movie would likely be terrible if not for the talented cast and direction keeping it watchable—Gene Davis is particularly convincing as the psychotic murderer. Modern viewers who like TV cop shows like LAW & ORDER: SVU may be intrigued by the sex killer story taking place in a time before homicide detectives relied on DNA evidence to solve these crimes. Critics hated 10 TO MIDNIGHT when it was originally released—Roger Ebert referred to it as “a scummy little sewer of a movie” before going further to describe it as a “cesspool” and a “garbage disposal.” He wasn’t completely wrong. However, 10 TO MIDNIGHT is also quite possibly the best of both Charles Bronson’s and J. Lee Thompson’s ‘80s low-budget exploitation action fare.

Movie Review: Cape Fear (1962)

DIRECTOR: J. Lee Thompson. CAST: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen, Telly Savalas, Barrie Chase, Paul Comi.
This dark Hitchcockian masterpiece is one of my favorite suspense thrillers and it has never gotten old. Gregory Peck is Sam Bowden, a family man stalked by a relic of his past—a convicted rapist sent to jail by his testimony. Robert Mitchum is Max Cady, the crafty ex-con using the law to his advantage. Stalking laws did not exist back then, so nothing Cady does to torment the Bowden family is actually illegal. Sam is a lawyer, but will have to find other ways to manipulate the law and fight back when it becomes apparent what Cady has in mind for Bowden’s wife and teenage daughter. Mitchum is fantastic here; he doesn’t need a bunch of tattoos and profanities to come across as a bad, bad man. His stare is menacing enough. Max Cady is not a man selling wolf tickets. Cape Fear utilizes the psychological approach of not showing or discussing the actual act of rape. Film censor boards in 1962 would not have allowed that to happen, but it is still obvious what is going on here. Cape Fear’s strength is not in what it says, but what is implied.