Charles Bronson plays a boat captain named Joe Martin who seems be living the good life in the south of France. He has a great job renting out boats to tourists! He has great luck beating his friends out of big stacks of cash in poker. He has a beautiful wife (Liv Ullman), and most importantly, he has about the biggest biceps I’ve seen in a movie not starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This idyllic existence falls apart when some men from his past show up and force him to use his boat to help them smuggle drugs. It seems these guys feel like Martin owes them something since they had to go to prison for killing a cop, while ace driver Martin, escaped. As you might expect, nobody’s plans go as expected and much action ensues!
The first thing that stands out in this film is the cast, that includes James Mason, Liv Ullman, Michael Constantin, and Jill Ireland. Bronson’s European films uniformly had tremendous casts and this one is no different. Even with these well known actors, Jean Topart as the villainous Katanga, is a real standout. Second, this is the first of three films that Bronson completed with director Terence Young, who is most famous for kicking off the James Bond franchise with DR. NO, THUNDERBALL, and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Young knows how to stage action scenes, and with the help of famous French stuntman Remy Julienne, the two men cook up some impressive car stunts and chase sequences. Finally, Bronson himself exudes charisma and is in maximum physical condition in this film. In a career defined largely by his supreme conditioning, this may be Bronson’s most impressive physical performance.
Charles Bronson became an international superstar when he went to Europe in 1968, where he made a series of good films with great international casts. COLD SWEAT doesn’t come together quite as well as some of his other European films like RIDER ON THE RAIN, VIOLENT CITY & RED SUN, but it’s still a fun film with good action sequences and an impressively pumped up Charles Bronson. And the film has never looked better. After decades of shabby VHS and DVD copies, Kino Lorber put out a very nice blu ray in 2019. It’s nice seeing the movie in such a high quality presentation.
Check out the trailer for COLD SWEAT below:
Through the Shattered Lens 
Yes, THAT BICEPS deserves its own mentioning in the cast: starring “Charles Bronson” and his “2 biceps: don´t mess & kicks ass” … that scene in the elevator … woow! I´m not sure if I remember correctly, but the first time I saw the movie I was 100% sure he had broken the neck of that guy in the elevator, but on a later re-viewing the picture (also years ago) I thought he had only knocked him unconscious, because that small-time-hood re-appeared later in the movie in good health?? I´m not sure, if I remember correctly … do you?
Yes, not one of his best, but still a nice one. The problem is that the villain is not scary, sigh. I am a big fan of JAMES MASON: a few years ago I binge-watched every of his movies I could get ahold of and saw some 3 dozen from his 40ies to 60ies movies (mostly crime, noir and secret agent stuff), he was always a superb actor and his movies had good scripts & geat dialogue, but he just ain´t no good villain and frankly too old for that part in 1970.
And while we are at it, Terence Youngs direction is a bit “clumsy”, it does not sustain tension, though the car chase is pretty great (not as great as in VIOLENT CITY, the other Bronson with a great(er) car chase, and of course no match to FRENCH CONNECTION, but still a very good and long one).
Speaking about Charlies phenomenal muscles: they´re displayed to their best in one of my favourites (maybe number 3 or 4), CHATO´S LAND. His body was just carved for this great revenge western.
I rate COLD SWEAT a 7/10, well above average, but not yet great. For comparison: I rate HARD TIMES 10/10, MECHANIC 10/10, CHATO´S LAND 10/10, DEATH WISH 1 9/10, MR. MAJESTYK 9/10, BREAKOUT 8/10 …).
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Not to put too fine a point on it, but in this film Charles Bronson is 49.
This is something I only saw this year 2024, and resisted seeing it because of what I (wrongly) thought was artwork that was describing a story different than the film. It is based on a Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, Real Steel, Duel, etc.) novel. So I liked the storytelling, and Bronson’s character Joe Moran/Martin was revealed to be a basic ‘good guy’ that I root for. The movie opens with a young (12?) girl on a charter boat trip, and she checks out Joe in the way a young woman would. Joe catches her and winks at her, and they both chuckle and it is NOT CREEPY! Unlike Katanga, a perverted creep with inappropriate designs on young girls. So, Joe can be trusted (unlike his criminal companion who is the exact opposite.)
Also, there is a brief moment where Joe unexpectedly walks in on his charter couple, as they use his boat for extra-curriculars. Joe backs out and tells them to lock up when they leave. These are small character tells that allow me to root for Joe, while he does what he has to and defend his family. James Mason is just the right amount of creepy. Did read in Wikipedia, which I’ve only recently discovered is actually a lot of fun, that Bronson sent Liv Ullman’s daughter back to her table when the daughter approached in a restaurant, and told Ullman to keep her ‘child to herself.’ Children are like farts; we only enjoy our own!
P.S. – “Rider On The Rain” is a title that some (ok, me!) found confusing. I have only recently discovered that it is derived from chanson Jacques Brel’s international hit song known in the U.S. as “If You Go Away” and “we’ll ride on the rain” is a lyric indicating that bad/sad times may come, but we’ll get through those times.
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