Originally airing on November 28th, 1958, “Another Barrier” opens with free-lance photographer, Mike Kovac (Charles Bronson), in the middle of the California desert working on a photo layout of Major Sandy Dickson (Grant Williams), a hotshot U.S. Air Force pilot who’s in the process of testing the latest X-2 plane. Kovac wants to follow Sandy around for a couple of days leading up the next big test flight, which means he also gets to meet Sandy’s fiancé, Liz (Norma Crane). While having dinner with the couple, Kovac sees just how scared and worried she is about her lover’s dangerous job. Sandy later confides to Mike that Liz has had bad luck with the “men in her life,” in this case being her father and her brother, who both died tragically years earlier. It seems she thinks her love is a curse, and now she’s afraid she’s going to pass it on to Sandy. Maybe she has a point, because on Sandy’s next test flight, his X-2 goes down, losing contact with the control tower ninety-four seconds after being released from its mothership B-50. With the rescue teams looking for Sandy, and with his survival chances being somewhere between slim and none, Kovac tells Liz what happened, and then takes her back to her apartment. Believing it’s her fault that Sandy’s plane went down, as soon as she gets her chance, Liz crawls out on the balcony of the top floor of her multi-story apartment complex. Kovac begins to try his best to convince her not to jump, to at least find out for sure if Sandy is dead or alive. But will anything work on a woman who’s convinced she’s a curse?!
This review may surprise some of my readers, but I didn’t really enjoy this episode at all. I didn’t like its entire concept. I enjoy episodes of the series where Kovac’s pictures help solve crimes, or he’s getting to mix it up with bullies and bad guys. This episode is just melodrama, and boring melodrama at that. Okay, so Sandy loves his job and Liz, and he wants Liz to accept the danger of his job, but she just seems to be a scared and anxious ball of emotions waiting around for him to die. And all Kovac does is take some pictures, listen to Sandy go on and on about Liz, and then beg Liz not to jump once everyone thinks he’s as dead as a doornail. Boring! About the only mildly amusing thing that happens is when Kovac convinces Sandy that a picture of a pilot in his long johns is just what the layout really needs. Boring AND kinda creepy! And I know that Norma Crane is a fine actress, having recently reviewed her episode of ALFRED HITHCOCK PRESENTS: “There Was an Old Woman,” where she also works with Bronson. They were good together in that episode, but neither have anything to work with when it comes to this story. She’s sad and wants to die, and he’s worried and doesn’t want her to jump. The characters barely know each other, having only met the day before, and the drama does not play out convincingly at all. Grant Williams is likewise boring as the “hot shot” Sandy Jackson. If the Air Force wanted to feature a pilot, they should have probably found one with at least a little bit of personality. I’ve always said that I love Bronson so much that I’d pay to watch him read the phone book. Good Lord willing, this episode is the closest I’ll ever get to seeing that happen.
There was one interesting thing that I noted while watching “Another Barrier,” and that’s the connection that its plot shares with a movie that Charles Bronson would star in a few years later, X-15 (1961), the theatrical debut of director Richard Donner. In X-15, which includes narration by the legendary James Stewart, Bronson plays an Air Force pilot with the dangerous job of testing X-planes, and Patricia Owens is his wife who’s worried about him back at home. It’s not one of Bronson’s best, and frankly, it’s kind of boring too. There may be a great movie or show about X-plane test pilots out there. I just know they don’t star Charles Bronson!
Now, to make clear, I’m not the Bronson expert that Brad is so I will picking from a smaller pool of selections. But no matter! Let’s do this!
6. Death Wish III (1985, dir by Michael Winner)
Yes, I have to start with Death Wish III. The Death Wish sequels are definitely a mixed bag but Death Wish III was wonderfully over-the-top, a film that cheerfully dropped Bronson in the middle of an absurd circus and allowed him to tame the lions, as it were. I will always love this film for the presence of Plunger Guy, a bad guy who heads into battle carrying a plunger.
5. Breakheart Pass (1975, dir by Tom Gries)
This is an enjoyable mix of a western, a murder mystery, and an adventure film. Charles Bronson is a mysterious man on a snowbound train. Charles Durning, Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland, and Ed Lauter co-star and everyone — especially Johnson and Durning — bring a lot to their roles. This may not be one of Bronson’s best-known films but it is one of his most enjoyable and Bronson himself is at his most likable.
4. Death Wish (1973, dir by Michael Winner)
“My heart bleeds a little for the less fortunate,” Bronson’s Paul Kersey says at the start of the film and those of us watching immediately say, “C’mon, Charlie, really?” That said, one reason why Death Wish works as well as it does is because Bronson actually gives a very good and very emotionally honest performance as a man who finally snaps and starts to take the law into his own hands. (I love the barely veiled contempt that’s present whenever Paul talks to his son-in-law.) Not surprisingly, considering that it was directed by Michael Winner, Death Wish is an often-sordid film that doesn’t have a hint of subtlety. But it’s also brutally effective, a film that captures the way a lot of people feel when they hear about reports of out-of-control crime. Even today, it’s easy to see why Death Wish was the film that finally Bronson a star in the United States.
3. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968, dir by Sergio Leone)
Bronson plays Harmonica in the most epic of all of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. Leone pays homage to the American western while also gleefully subverting it. The quiet and unemotional Bronson is the film’s hero. Henry Fonda is the sadistic villain who guns down a child. Jason Robards is an outlaw. While I don’t consider it to be quite as good as either The Good, The Bad, or the Ugly or Once Upon A Time In America, Once Upon A Time In The West is still one of Leone’s masterpieces.
2. From Noon Till Three (1976, dir by Frank D. Gliroy)
For all of his reputation for being a tough guy who didn’t show much emotion, there was no denying Bronson’s love for his second wife, Jill Ireland. From Noon Till Three brings Bronson and Ireland together in a film that is a third western, a third romantic comedy, and a third social satire. It’s a film that gives Bronson a chance to show off his romantic side and it might leave you surprised! The film also featured Jill Ireland’s best performance in a Bronson film. I always highly recommend this one. It’s proof that there was more to Bronson than just shooting the bad guys.
Ten To Midnight (1983, dir by J. Lee Thompson)
This is the ultimate 80s Bronson film and one that I like for a reason that might surprise you. On the one hand, you’ve got Bronson as a tough cop, Andrew Stevens as his liberal partner, and Gene Davis as the disturbingly plausible serial killer, Warren Stacy. Bronson is great as the world weary cop. His scenes with Stevens are amusing and, at times, even poignant. (It helps that Stevens was the rare co-star that Bronson liked.) Davis is terrifying and the film’s final moments are very emotionally satisfying. (“No, we won’t.”) But the reason why I love this film is because of the relationship between Bronson’s cop and his daughter, who played by Lisa Eilbacher. Their scenes together — testy but loving — are well-acted by both actors and they always make me think of me and my Dad. Ten To Midnight is the Bronson film that actually makes me cry.
Two Americans meet up in Turkey in 1922. Josh Corey (Charles Bronson) is a cynical soldier-of-fortune who, along with his mercenary crew, is hoping to make money out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. Adam Dyer (Tony Curtis) is the heir to a shipping company and is hoping to get his last remaining boat out of the Turkish dock where it’s been interned since World War I. Osman Bey (Gregorie Aslan), one of the local powerbrokers who has risen to power since the Turkish Revolution, hires Josh and Adam to escort his daughters and their protector, Alia (Michele Mercier), to Mecca. Actually, the plan is for them to instead go to Cairo to recover a priceless treasure. The journey to Cairo is filled with action and betrayal as Josh and Adam try to navigate the upheaval of the post-war Middle East.
You Can’t Win ‘Em All is a mix of action and comedy, an adventure that owes more than a little to the other big budget heist films of the 60s and 70s. (Director Peter Collinson was hired due to his work on The Italian Job.) The film’s humor comes from the partnership of the stoic Bronson with the talkative Tony Curtis. In fact, the film’s main flaw is that Tony Curtis talks too much. Curtis simply will not shut up. After about fifteen minutes, I was tired of listening to him. Curtis’s acting limitations really come through the more that he talks and, as a result, Bronson walks away with the entire movie by saying next to nothing. Bronson keeps largely quiet because he doesn’t have to speak to make an impression. His stare says everything that needs to be said.
You Can’t Win ‘Em All is uneven but it has a few good action sequences and Bronson doing what Bronson did best. Watching this movie made me appreciate Charles Bronson all the more. Even when working with a less-than-great script and a miscast co-star, Bronson still had the undefinable quality that made him a star.
As possibly the biggest fan in the world of the legendary tough guy actor Charles Bronson, I’m often asked to name my favorite films that he has starred in. This is almost an impossible task, because I love his movies for many different reasons and oftentimes it doesn’t have a thing to do with what film critics think. Well, a few years ago, I decided I would try to rank all of the films where he has the lead role from my favorite to least favorite films. I threw out his supporting roles, which eliminates great films like THE GREAT ESCAPE and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and focused on films where he plays the main character. I also tried to choose the films I just enjoy watching the most. Since this is supposed to just be fun, and it’s also 100% subjective, I reserve the right to change the rules or my rankings at any time! In honor of Charles Bronson’s 104th birthday, here we go:
#5: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) – I’ve heard many people throw this classic spaghetti western into the “large ensemble cast” grouping of Charles Bronson films such as THE DIRTY DOZEN and THE GREAT ESCAPE. While I won’t argue that the cast is extremely impressive since it also stars Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale, I don’t consider Bronson’s role in this film to be the same as those others. Here, the main storyline in the film concerns his character Harmonica’s quest to meet with the black-hatted Frank (Henry Fonda) to settle their business from the past, both beginning and ending with Harmonica in two of the most impressive scenes in movie history. I love this movie more than anything for the way Sergio Leone turns Bronson into an impossibly awesome instrument of justice. Every shot with Bronson makes him look like a badass, and every line that comes out of his mouth sounds incredibly cool. Leone had wanted Bronson for all three of the “Dollars trilogy” films, and once he finally got him, we can see why. His camera lingers on his face and eyes for a length of time that I guess was never done before or after. Henry Fonda is one of the all-time great Hollywood stars, Jason Robards is an acting legend, and Claudia Cardinale just may be the most beautiful woman who’s ever graced the face of Earth, but Charles Bronson is the star and centerpiece of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. After this incredible performance Bronson would soon become the most popular star in the world, winning the Golden Globe award as “World Film Favorite” in 1972.
#4: DEATH WISH 3 (1985) – You are reading this right, in my list of my favorite Charles Bronson films, I rank DEATH WISH 3 above ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and I’m not ashamed. My interest with Charles Bronson started with a late-night viewing with my dad of the original DEATH WISH, and it began to grow with some rentals of films like VIOLENT CITY and THE MECHANIC, but it reached its bloom as a full-blown obsession when I received DEATH WISH 3 as a Christmas present in 1986. It was the only Bronson film I owned on VHS (not counting a nearly unwatchable former rental tape of THE MECHANIC) and I watched it almost daily over the next sixth months or so. I still know every line of dialogue spoken in the film by heart. Granted, I recognize that new viewers may watch the film and wonder what the hell is wrong with me. To understand why I love DEATH WISH 3 so much, you have to be able to put yourself in the mind of a 13-year-old boy from Toad Suck, Arkansas, who is still new in discovering the world of R Rated cinema. This film had cussing, nudity and comic book level characters and kills from the opening scene to the last. And it had Bronson, the first tough guy actor I had ever really noticed. It would probably take an expert therapist to explain why I love Bronson and this film so much, but the fact is that it kicked off a lifelong interest that still continues almost 40 years later. If I can’t sleep at night, I just start streaming DEATH WISH 3 and lay my head down on my pillow and go to sleep to a nostalgic lifetime lullaby.
#3: RED SUN (1971) – While it does have its share of high-profile supporters, most famously Quentin Tarantino, RED SUN is another film that I hold in higher esteem than most. I remember seeing the huge VHS box at the local mom and pop movie rental store in Conway, Arkansas when I was a kid. I thought Bronson looked pretty darn cool with his cowboy hat, long hair and pointed gun. I rented the movie and liked it, but the quality of the VHS tape was horrendous, and I discovered in the years since that that particular version of the film was severely edited for content as well. The proud owner of a region-free DVD player, a couple of decades ago I bought a region 2 DVD of the film from Studio Canal. For the first time I was able to see the film, including Ursula Andress’ uninhibited performance, in its full glory. One of the things I love the most about RED SUN is Bronson’s engaging performance in the central role. He’s very much a rascal, he’s funny, he’s tough when he needs to be, and he even has a big heart, even if it takes a while to find it. The next thing I love about the film is the fact that he teams up with the incredible Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. As Mifune himself is in my top 5 favorite actors of all time, the fact that he teamed up with Bronson in this fun western gives major bonus points to the entire production. They make an appealing pair as they head off after the evil Gauche, played by Alain Delon, another international favorite, whose LE SAMOURAI is an all-time classic in my book. With RED SUN, director Terence Young, who helmed the earliest James Bond films, took one of the great international casts ever assembled and delivered a fun and entertaining film that I revisit often!
#2: MR. MAJESTYK (1974) – A simple story about a man in rural Colorado who just wants to be left alone so he can pick his melons, MR. MAJESTYK has been one of my favorite Charles Bronson films since the beginning. I remember Dad renting this one when I was a kid in my early Bronson discovery period, prior to the life-changing DEATH WISH 3 purchase. I loved the movie, but dad had to take it back to the video store after a couple of days, and I wouldn’t see it again for quite a while. Flash forward about 37 years and one of the great days of my life was spent in those same rural Colorado locations (Canon City, Manzanola, La Junta) where Vince Majestyk had righted wrongs a half a century before. My wife and I toured the various locations, and I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of the great Charles Bronson. It was an almost mystical experience, which I documented through tons of pictures and self-made videos. A few months later, as part of the THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON podcast, I was even blessed with the opportunity to co-host an interview with Jordan Rhodes, one of the two stars of the 1974 production that is still alive, the other being the beautiful Lee Purcell. It was the type of experience you assume you’ll never get in life, and then it happens! There are now so many personal reasons for MR. MAJESTYK to be special to me, but it’s also just a great 70’s action film with an interesting story, a badass hero, and a uniquely awesome set of villains. Elmore Leonard’s screenplay rocks and makes Bronson a working-class hero in a role that fits him like a glove. Throw in Al Lettieri as the biggest bully in the Bronson canon, and Paul Koslo as a creepy, local, wannabe ass-kicker, and the stage is set for action and audience satisfaction. My only warning is to stay away if the mutilation of fruit offends you. This movie contains the most horrid melon massacre in film history!
#1: HARD TIMES (1975) – The directorial debut of Walter Hill, HARD TIMES is the undisputed and still reigning number 1 champion of my favorite Charles Bronson films. When I published my first review in November of 2024 for The Shattered Lens, it was for HARD TIMES, where I declared that the movie is my personal favorite film. My thought was just to go ahead and truly introduce myself to the readers of the site, so they’ll know where I’m coming from as a cinema lover. I have a long history with this film that includes my own personal and working relationship with my dad. Dad was the kind of guy who worked all the time, and even harder on the weekends when he wasn’t doing his paid job as a high school basketball coach and teacher. Being his son, I was always right there with him, helping as we mowed our neighbors’ yards, hauled wood, built sheds… you name it, we did it. One day in appreciation for my help over the summer, dad took me to Wal-Mart and told me I could pick out a movie, and he would buy it for me. They had a nice, fresh stack of HARD TIMES VHS copies on their shelves and that’s what I selected. I had not seen the film before so when we got home, I wanted to watch it. What really surprised me is that Dad sat and watched the whole movie with me. What you have to understand is that my dad never sits still, and if he does, he usually falls asleep. That day he watched the movie, laughed at the right places, commented on the film at times, and seemed to really enjoy himself. I think all of us appreciate it when the special people in our lives will watch and enjoy a movie with us. That was one of those best movie moments ever when you consider it was with my dad. Not only do I have a fond memory of my first viewing, but HARD TIMES has also proven itself over the years to be one of Bronson’s best films and, in my opinion, an underrated 70’s classic. The polar opposite performances of Bronson as the quiet, powerful Chaney, and James Coburn as the fast-talking, hustler Speed, set the stage for high stakes drama in depression-era New Orleans. Somewhat like Harmonica from ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Chaney is almost a mythic superhero as he rides into town on the train, impacts a lot of lives, and then gets back on the train and rides away. The audience satisfaction is off the charts as the mysterious drifter Chaney punches out smirking, younger opponents, hulking bald-headed opponents, shady managers who refuse to hand over the cash after a loss, and even a ringer who’s brought in all the way from Chicago. It’s a great film that was bought for me by a great dad, that’s filled with great actors who give great performances, all put together by a great director who would continue to make some of the greatest action movies of all time. How could this NOT be my favorite Charles Bronson film?!!
10 TO MIDNIGHT is probably Charles Bronson’s best film from the infamous Cannon Films. It’s a solid police procedural with a slasher twist. It also has a good soundtrack from Robert O. Ragland. When we meet the creepy killer Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) at the beginning of the film, “Look at Me” plays on the soundtrack as he checks himself out in the mirror and goes through the crime in his mind. On Charles Bronson’s 104th birthday, I’ve chosen this as my song of the day!
On the precipice of becoming an international superstar, director Sergio Leone gave Charles Bronson one of the coolest introduction scenes in film history in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Enjoy my friends!
Until 1954’s DRUM BEAT, Charles Bronson had been billed on screen as Charles Buchinsky. He then proceeded to steal the film right out from under star Alan Ladd. Bronson’s powerful performance as renegade Modoc indian Captain Jack is an early sign of Bronson’s immense talent and charisma.
Enjoy this action-packed clip from Delmer Davis’ excellent western, and happy 104th birthday, Charles Bronson!
Today is Charles Bronson’s birthday! I sent the trailer kitties out to gather the trailers for this week’s edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers with one mission in mind. Make it Bronsonriffic! Let’s see how they did!
It’s Charles Bronson’s birthday so it only makes sense that today’s music video should be for a performance of the Ennio Morricone-composed theme of one of his best films.
Charles Bronson came back to the world of movies after his wife Jill Ireland passed away with the sweet 1991 TV movie YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS. I’m wishing a happy birthday to Kartharine Isabelle who was so good as Virginia!
Through the Shattered Lens 