Hard Times/The Streetfighter (1975) - Hill debuts with Bronson gold, a boxing favorite

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An imagination-fueling poster for Walter Hill's Hard Times that effectively sets us in a specific place and time

A fortune-hunting boxing promoter finds his new bare-knuckle sensation in an unimpressed man, who can punch so that even the heaviest adversaries see stars. But the promoter will have to borrow a big amount to get his new fighter going.

 

Hard Times is written by Bryan Gindoff (The Candy Snatchers (1973)), Bruce Henstell (The Candy Snatchers, assistant director) and debuting co-writer/director, Californian master filmmaker Walter Hill (48 Hrs. (1982)).

An enormously simple story gets presented in the most beautiful way in Hill's period boxing drama; handsome sets, beautiful image compositions (cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop (Class Reunion (1982))) and an iconic performance by Charles Bronson (Murphy's Law (1986)). Some of the nuances here lie in the fact that one senses the inherent degradation in having to fight until blood spurts in order to survive; SPOILER along with the ending's implicit point about protecting and helping those you have fought along with, even if you don't care much for them.

James Coburn (Intrepid (2000)) is strong as the promoter, a man caught between a rock and a hard place. The scene in which Bronson sets things right in Louisiana is fantastic. The film's final fight, (despite the fact that the camera doesn't linger much on the impact of the punches), is the fight of the decade. 

Hard Times is a phenomenal, inconspicuous song of a hero, a gift for men - and probably Bronson's best starring picture.

 

Related posts:

 

Walter Hill: Alien 3 (1992) or, The Monsters Go to Jail! (co-writer)

Another 48 Hrs. (1990) - More of the same from your buddies Hill, Murphy & Nolte 

48 Hrs. (1982) or, Reluctant Partners

The Getaway (1972) - McQueen/Peckinpah hit the bank with unrefined thriller (writer)

 

 

Watch 3 minutes of the film's beginning here

 

Cost: 2.7 - 3.1 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: Reportedly 26.5 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.54-9.81 times its cost)

[Hard Times was released 13 August (France) and runs 93 minutes. AIP producer Lawrence Gordon gave Hill the chance to direct after he had been successful with a number of action screenplays. Bronson was paid "almost 1 mil. $" for his performance. Shooting took place around September 1974 in Texas, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, and in New Orleans, Louisiana. The film's box office numbers are not easy to dig up; the-numbers.com allege that it made 5 mil. $ in North America, relatively little compared to the 26.5 mil. $ total gross listed elsewhere, and the fact that Hill in 2009 said that he still received profits from the film. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Hill returned with The Driver (1978). Bronson returned in Breakheart Pass (1975); Coburn in Skyriders (1976). Hard Times is fresh at 92 % with a 7.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hard Times? 

House of Wax (1953) - De Toth's colorful classic is a must for Price fans

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A sensationally painted poster for André De Toth's House of Wax

We are back in early 1900s New York, where a greedy wax businessman burns down his building for the insurance money. But his dedicated wax sculptor and his assistant Igor rebuild the emporium.

 

House of Wax is written by Crane Wilbur (The Lion and the Horse (1952)), with Charles Belden (The Gay Cavalier (1946)) contributing story elements, and directed by André De Toth (Wedding in Toprin (1939)). It is a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933).

Vincent Price (The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)) is intense and Gothically diabolic with trademark morbid humor here, flanked by a gruff Charles Bronson (Never So Few (1959)) as Igor and a series of fantastical effects and sets. The big sails are set in this colorful escapade, which is lavish entertainment and highly straightforward horror fun from beginning to end.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1 mil. $

Box office: 23.7 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Mega-hit (returned 23.7 times its cost)

[House of Wax premiered 9 April (New York) and runs 88 minutes. The film was devised to profit on the 3D mania stirred up by surprise hit Bwana Devil (1952) as the first major studio 3D movie in color. Shooting took place in California and Florida. Director De Toth was blind on one eye and therefore couldn't see the 3D effects that generated excitement around him. The film ranked #1 for 5 weeks and grossed 5.5 mil. $ in North-American rentals initially as one of the year's biggest hits. Its gross grew considerably through several re-releases over the years. The world gross is regrettably not known. The film was remade with the same title - and almost nothing of the original plot, - in 2005. De Toth returned with The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953). Price returned in 3 TV-series prior to his theatrical return in Dangerous Mission (1954). House of Wax is certified fresh at 95 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of House of Wax?

The Dirty Dozen (1967) - Aldrich's rough WWII super-entertainment

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The poster for Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen is an example of a truly exciting, greatly detailed, marvelous ditto

QUICK REVIEW:

Lee Marvin (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)) plays the undisciplined major, who gets a tough mission during World War II: Train 12 hardened criminals to storm a Nazi stronghold and kill everyone.

- Quite naturally, it seems to me, this great premise results in a fiercely entertaining piece of war suspense here in Long Islander Robert Aldrich's (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)) The Dirty Dozen. The screenplay, by Nunnally Johnson (The Angel Wore Red (1960)) and Lukas Heller (The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)), is an adaptation of E. M. Nathanson's (Lovers and Schemers (2003)) 1965 novel of the same name.
Dozen is a joy from start to finish for anyone who likes brawling, military-centered action and great actors. - The ensemble cast truly is the core of the film:
Besides Marvin, who is perfect, Ernest Borgnine (The Wild Bunch (1969)) is priceless as the good-hearted general; Oscar-nominated John Cassavetes (Rosemary's Baby (1968)) is good as the rebel in the pack; and Charles Bronson (Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968)) nails it as the good soldier. - Robert Ryan (The Wild Bunch) is a find as the intractable colonel. The only one I feel a little bad for is the great Jim Brown (Mars Attacks! (1996)), who, as the only black among the dozen, as the cliché seems to stipulate, of course dies... Brown was actually made to choose between his formidable football career and acting around the time of Dozen; at 29, already NFL's all-time greatest rusher at the time, he chose acting.
John Wayne (True Grit (1969)) and Jack Palance (The Silver Chalice (1954)) were approached to star in Dozen but ultimately declined due the fact that their characters were prone to adultery and racism, respectively.
Of the actors portraying the dozen, several were real WWII veterans, including Marvin, who fought with the US Marines in the Pacific.
In the world of today, Dirty Dozen serves as the acknowledged basis of David Ayer's coming superhero mega-movie Suicide Squad (2016), - make of that what you will ...

Lee Marvin leads the 12 untraditional warriors in Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen

Watch the exciting trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.4 mil. $
Box office: 45.3 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Though many critics at the time took aim at Dozen's morally dubious heroes and its violence, the film was also Oscar-nominated 4 times: Aside from Cassavetes as Best Supporting Actor, it was nominated for Editing, Sound and Sound Effects, for which it won its only statuette. The film was a huge commercial success, making 24.2 mil. $ in the US alone, (53 % of the total gross); and also a big hit in European countries like France (4.6 mil. admissions) and Sweden (0.8 mil. admissions). It was the 5th highest-grossing film of '67 and MGM's biggest hit that year.]

What do you think of The Dirty Dozen?

Chino/Valdez, Il Mezzosangue/Valdez the Half BreedThe Valdez Horses (1973) - Bronson is his own man only in Sturges' good spaghetti western

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Charles Bronson, just announced as BRONSON, leads John Sturges' Chino

QUICK REVIEW:

Chino owns a horse ranch that lies on another man's soil. Together with the boy Jimmy, he runs the place, but when he falls in love with the landowner's sister, open animosity breaks out.
Chino has some of the best about westerns in it; the unsentimental depiction of some people's relations to each other for a while. The film SPOILER turns out to be a tragedy: Chino doesn't get his love; has to leave his ranch, and also gets rid of the sweet lad who works for him.
Chino is a quiet film that also has various horses in front.
The play between Charles Bronson (Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)) and his real-life wife Jill Ireland (Violent City (1970)) is hot as usual, although some of the simplicity of the era seems deeply comical today. - As when Chino announces to his love that he wants to marry her, whereupon he in complete earnest tells her, "We'll meet in church tomorrow", - and leaves!
Chino is directed by Illinoisan John Sturges (The Great Escape (1963)), who now shares IMDb-director's credit for the film with Italian director Duilio Coletti (The Mask of Cesare Borgia (1941)), although Coletti is only mentioned on the old French poster for the film:

The whole movie is on Youtube here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Chino?
And of Bronson-Ireland's other films together?