User Reviews

After grossing millions of dollars as a 1970s icon, Charles Bronson appeared in 'Death Wish II,' which began his tenure with Cannon Films and redefined him as a low-budget action star. Bronson became a sizable draw amongst exploitation fans, particularly at second-run movie houses, on cable television, and in the home video market. Besides the Death Wish series, he maintained his presence in films such as '10 to Midnight,' 'The Evil That Men Do,' and 'Murphy's Law' for over a decade.

'10 to Midnight' is perhaps the best film of an association between Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson that lasted from 'St. Ives' in 1976 until 'Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects' in 1989. Thompson, best known for 'The Guns of Navaronne' and 'Cape Fear,' also made a cycle of low-budget films in the '80s that included 'The Evil That Men Do,' 'Murphy's Law,' 'King Solomon's Mines,' and 'Firewalker,' starring Chuck Norris. Despite their better days having passed, '10 to Midnight' is a riveting film that comes early in Bronson and Thompson's exploitation output and features some of the talents for which they're remembered.

Rehashing ideas from 'Dirty Harry,' Bronson plays Leo Kessler, a Los Angeles detective who is investigating the brutal murder of a secretary and her boyfriend. Thanks to an unpleasant opening sequence, we already know that a handsome but deranged man named Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) is the culprit. It seems that Warren has major issues with women; he doesn't have much luck in getting dates and when he does spend time with a lady, things don't get very far.

Stacy exacts his revenge by hunting these women down and impaling them with knives. Of course, Stacy is a hard suspect to nail because he commits the murders while fully naked, making blood quite easy to get rid of. He's also an expert at constructing alibis; on the night when our secretary and boyfriend are murdered, Stacy makes himself visible in a movie theater shortly before and after the killings occur.

With the police on his tail, Stacy becomes a 1980s Macbeth, plotting against everyone connected to the original victims. Kessler and his young partner McAnn (Andrew Stevens) are desperate to put Stacy behind bars, especially with Kessler's daughter Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher) targeted as a friend of the deceased. The courts are keeping Stacy free on a lack of evidence and Kessler must finally resort to extralegal measures.

'10 to Midnight' uses the elusive killer theme championed by Alfred Hitchcock. Unlike other Cannon films in which Bronson is the lone point of interest, '10 to Midnight' alternates nicely between the warped deeds of Stacy and the anxious police work of Kessler. Gene Davis is a solid presence throughout, displaying enough menace in his role to coexist with Bronson.

A script by William Roberts and Thompson gives unusual depth to Bronson's character. Bronson is also helped by a respectable supporting cast that includes Andrew Stevens, Lisa Eilbacher, and Wilford Brimley (as Captain Malone). Stevens complements Bronson as his partner, the son of a teacher whose intellect Kessler views as a hindrance. Geoffrey Lewis is excellent as Dave Dante, Stacy's repulsive trial lawyer who knows all the shortcuts of our court system. Kelly Preston has a small role as one of Laurie's roommates (under 'Kelly Palzis') and Robert F. Lyons is featured as a Los Angeles prosecutor.

'10 to Midnight' offers ideas similar to 'Dirty Harry,' in that American justice is full of loopholes used by criminals. The film takes a brief look at our courts and how a police officer must actually break the law in order for justice to be served. The film does everything in its capacity to ram this point home: besides Stacy mutilating women in the nude (requiring a few odd-angles), Kessler interrogates Stacy with a sex toy found in his apartment and obscene phone calls are made to Kessler's daughter in a mock-Spanish accent. '10 to Midnight' has given TV editors added job security over the years; television broadcasts are edited so heavily for the nudity, violence, and foul language that much of its impact is lost.

Instead of being hampered by cheap production values and technical work, J. Lee Thompson plays off these weaknesses to give '10 to Midnight' an added seediness. Much of the film takes place in drab, confined locations with poor lighting; combined with Adam Greenberg's soft-toned photography, '10 to Midnight' has an unremitting gloom that adds to Stacy's menace. The film also runs a concise 102 minutes and displays Thompson's gift for pacing. '10 to Midnight' is a procedural with scarce action, but the film never drags; Thompson uses flashback, alternating viewpoints, and periods without dialogue to maintain suspense. The soundtrack by Robert Ragland has a 1970s feel that only enhances the dismal setting.

'10 to Midnight' is available on a budget DVD from MGM Home Entertainment. The disc offers both widescreen and standard format in mono audio with subtitles in English, French, and Spanish; 10 to Midnight's theatrical trailer is included as a lone extra. Picture and audio quality are fairly good considering the low budget that Thompson originally worked with; there is occasional grain but few artifacts and Robert Ragland's quirky music comes through nicely. While vulgar, violent, and in poor taste, '10 to Midnight' is a highly effective thriller, arguably Bronson and Thompson's strongest outing of the 1980s. It doesn't rank anywhere close to their previous films, but '10 to' is nevertheless intense, well-written, and memorable.

*** out of 4

Charles Bronson and director J. Lee-Thompson made nine movies together, and 10 To Midnight certainly makes a worthy attempt at being the kinkiest, sleaziest and most violent of the lot. I expected this to be a real bottom-of-the-barrel entry considering the subject matter, and the fact that Bronson was appearing in one tired revenge-fantasy after another at this point of his career, but Ten To Midnight isn't a total loss. It has a few entertaining set pieces, an interesting moral core, a modicum of suspense during some of the murder sequences, and a decent enough soundtrack courtesy of Robert O. Ragland. Alas, when all is said and done, it is still a fundamentally unpleasant exploitation piece in which the slaying of nubile – and often nude - young women, by a naked knife-wielding psycho no less, is served up for our viewing pleasure. It's not exactly art… it's one of those movies you need to come into accepting for what it is.

Weird and voyeuristic office youth Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) has a real problem with women, especially when his overbearing advances are met with rejection and humiliation. However, he gets his revenge by tracking down any women that have refused him and brutally murdering them with a huge knife. Rather perversely, he commits these killings in the nude to avoid leaving any fibres or other incriminating evidence at the crime scene. Old-fashioned cop Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is assigned to catch the killer, and partnered with inexperienced rookie Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens). It doesn't take them long to figure out that Stacy is their man, but pinning evidence on him proves a much trickier challenge. Ultimately Kessler decides to plant incriminating evidence to get the killer jailed, but his plan goes awry and Stacy is soon back on the streets feeling meaner than ever. With Kessler's daughter Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher) the next in line to be killed, it becomes a race against time to stop the psycho before he strikes again…

10 To Midnight is not an especially well-acted film. Bronson is in his typically wooden '80s mode; Stevens spends the movie looking handsome but vacant; and Davis looks physically powerful as the bad guy but sounds kind of goofy as soon as he speaks in his peculiar "idiot-drawl". Of the main characters, Eilbacher at least does OK as Kessler's daughter and the killer's potential next target. There are some lulls between the murders and action bits, and the film struggles to maintain much interest when it isn't focusing on these sensational aspects. But fans of Bronson's unique style of squalid, simple, blood-and-thunder action flicks will probably come away satisfied, while the rest of us are left to pick at occasional morsels of quality in an otherwise exploitative potboiler.

One user comment sums this movie up as "standard fare"?! When push comes to shove there really isn't anything standard about "10 to Midnight."

The villain is a young, deeply disturbed man who turns on by knifing people to death in the nude, and needless to say the movie is filled with a large amount of nudity.

The hero is a veteran homicide detective who decides to stop at nothing to get his man, even if it means fabricating evidence. The latter part is portrayed by the grand-daddy of all tough action heroes, Sir Charles Bronson (OK, I know he wasn't a Sir, I just wanted to see how it looked :) Compared to most of the other movies Bronson did with director J. Lee-Thompson here he really turns in a memorable performance as detective Leo Kessler. Take for instance the scene where he finds the chief-suspects electric vagina, the look on Bronson's face is worth the price of admission alone! And the interrogation scene later where Bronson confronts the suspect with his sex toy: priceless!

The finale deserves notice for being both disturbing and downright scary, with it's echoes of the real-life Richard Speck-massacre in 1966.

If you are a Bronson-fan you are almost guaranteed to like "10 to Midnight", one of his best from the 1980's.

I became a Charles Bronson fan in a very strange way: When I was in my teens and twenties I would go visit my grandmother, and she would be watching TV, which always seemed to be showing a Bronson film. (Did she get the All-Bronson Network?) When I sat down to watch it with her I would always roll my eyes but soon find myself absolutely engrossed in the movie. Yes, he made formula films and no, most of them were not Oscar-worthy... but I'll be damned if they weren't wonderfully entertaining and tremendous fun. I eventually began to watch his films on my own and now he's one of my favorites.

"10 To Midnight" has to be, for my money, one of the greatest Charles Bronson movies ever made. It seems to have a polarizing effect on people, and those who dislike it truly Hate it. While I respect their opinions I must say I disagree. The movie has it all: dirty cops, topless nursing students, a preppy psychopath, lots of blood and violence, male nudity, rookie partners, and bad 80's party music! The movie is about a serial killer who commits his crimes in the nude and is too smart to be caught by police. Bronson is of course the one cop tough enough to catch him, and in that sense the story is predictable, but what film isn't? The joy here is watching it happen, wondering who's going to be killed next, how it's going to happen and just how Bronson will get his man.

Lisa Eilbacher is great as his daughter, beautiful and charming and a very under-rated actress in my opinion. (Check out her appearance on "Simon & Simon" in the episode "Earth To Stacy.") Some people feel that the amount of blood and nudity in the movie is gratuitous, but I'm not afraid to admit that I LIKE blood and nudity. It's why I go to the movies in the first place. And for those people who were 'deeply offended' by this film please remember it is indeed only a movie, a fun, exciting, trashy movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the opening to the very end.

What's not to love? This is fast-paced and engaging fun with a great story and a splash of sex and violence. I highly suggest you check out "10 To Midnight." Thank you, Nana!

GRADE: A-

Saw this years ago when Dad was always watching every single Bronson movie ever made. It's a pretty good movie if you enjoy watching coeds getting hacked to death for no good reason. The ending is very good which I believe was a requirement to get Bronson to do a movie. What I didn't like is when Bronson lies about a diary a murdered victim had to the killer and effectively gets the dead girl's roommate killed. Wow, now that was some great police work. The killer is pretty much a pretty boy who understands the system well enough to know he's going to get off on an insanity plea. He really acts like most of the scum I've known in my life. He does an excellent job at being a psycho.

you'll have to forgive me for that outburst of enthusiasm, but there really is no other way i could be summarizing this comment. It's not a Charles Bronson vehicle, because it has a lot of good elements by which this movie could still work very well if Bronson weren't playing the leading role.

Kevin Bacon look-a-like Warren Stacy as the psycho killer switches swiftly between cruelty and self-piteous anxiety, with a funny Hispanic accent. which makes the dirty talk he delivers a treat. The manhunt and the killings are well interwoven until the finale, which would look fine in a slasher flick if only it were gorier. That resemblance - together with the hard-boiled style of action film-making nowadays replaced by bullet-time and the soundtrack - gives this movie that cool 80's feeling so refreshing to a child of the 90's.

Charles Bronson is in great shape as the investigating detective, possibly because he sort of reprises his signature role, Paul "Death Wish" Kersey. On one hand his position as a law enforcer gives him more tricks to keep up his sleeve (such as planting evidence), on the other he's obliged to catch psychopaths by the book. However, he wouldn't be Bronson if he didn't book the book in the end and solved the case with a .38 solution. We end the movie by staring into the barrel, which brings me to my biggest frustration: we didn't have to wait 90 minutes to see Bronson take out scum like that in Death Wish. Give me a good investigation any time, but don't leave it to born gunslingers such as Bronson or Schwarzenegger.