 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS Year: 1975 Rating: ****1/2 |
British actress Jill Ireland sporadically appearing in husband Charles Bronson's films was really a matter of convenience, providing the family a kind of busman's holiday that was great for them, but not always the audience since her overacting often clashed with the comparably slow-burn cadence of vehicles like THE MECHANIC or HARD TIMES: the latter making an enemy out of writer/director Walter Hill, shooting as few scenes with Ireland as possible, so he never worked with a perturbed Bronson again...
But in the case of (the same years') BREAKOUT director Tom Gries's Mystery/Western BREAKHEART PASS, Jill Ireland fit perfectly since her character... the daughter of a post-Civil War Northern General... is fitfully classy and sophisticated, making one particular opposites-attract scene really spark while helping Bronson's supposedly captured-outlaw Deakin, tied uncomfortably inside an otherwise fancy train car and... although he's the central lead, PASS is mainly an ensemble, equally balancing the other characters, all suspects...
 |
| Poster Artwork for BREAKHEART PASS |
That is, suspected solely by Bronson, actually an undercover government agent posing as a wanted man, gathering clues about the titular BREAKHEART PASS that the train's headed towards (involving a reported army base diphtheria epidemic), roaring through a snow-covered, deep wilderness region that provides a beautifully harsh aesthetic, viewed from both the interior and exterior: where Bronson battles a knife-wielding cook...
Yet his identity's still unknown by higher-class passengers Richard Crenna as a cold, facts-only Governor, also Ireland's love-interest; Ed Lauter as a distrusting-of-everyone army major; Ben Johnson a no-nonsense Marshall who thinks he's taking Bronson to hang; and Bill McKinney's bible-thumping reverend who is actually...
 |
| Poster Artwork for BREAKHEART PASS |
Well some things shouldn't be spoiled because the story, based on a novel by twist-and-turn author Alistair MacLean, flows tightly alongside the characters, eventually morphing from the suspenseful, dialogue-centered, Hitchcock-inspired train ride into your typical horse-clopping, guns-drawn Western-flick finale...
Overall providing the previous years' DEATH WISH superstar Charles Bronson an intelligent yet brutally resilient action-hero role, with just-enough vulnerability needed for a dangerous journey that he and the audience are — from the very beginning — trapped within the midst of.
 |
Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland in BREAKHEART PASS
|
 |
| Charles Bronson and Richard Crenna in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS with Casey Tibbs
|
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney and Ben Johnson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Jill Ireland in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS with Archie Moore
|
 |
| Sally Kirkland in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Sally Kirkland in BREAKHEART PASS with Ed Lauter and David Huddleston |
 |
Bill McKinney and Charles Durning in BREAKHEART PASS with Ben Johnson & John Mitchum
|
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Richard Crenna and Jill Ireland in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Bob Tessier in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Ben Johnson and Richard Crenna in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Scott Newman (son of Paul Newman) in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Ed Lauter in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Ben Johnson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Roy Jenson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
Wichita actor Rayford Barnes in BREAKHEART PASS
|
 |
| Rayford Barnes in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Ed Lauter, Charles Bronson and Richard Crenna in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Jill Ireland and Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Ed Lauter and Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Credit Effects for BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Credit Effects for BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Credit Effects for BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Credit Effects for BREAKHEART PASS |
 |
| Credit Effects for BREAKHEART PASS |
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.