Tweekums

As this thriller opens hitman Jeff Heston and his girlfriend Vanessa are enjoying a holiday in the Virgin Islands. As they drive he spots a car following; a chase ensues. As it ends he spots an old friend, Jerry Coogan... much to his surprise Coogan shoots and wounds him; the last thing he sees before passing out is Vanessa getting into Coogan's car. He ends up in jail and when he gets out he is determined to find Coogan and Vanessa. There are complications however; Jeff's former boss Al Weber wants him to continue working for him.

I thought this was a solid thriller. It starts really well with a dialogue free car chase and manages to keep one guessing about who Jeff can trust till the very end with plenty of twists along the way. Charles Bronson impresses as Jeff and Jill Ireland and Telly Savalas are solid as Vanessa and Weber. There is a fair amount of violence but it is pretty tame by today's standards; shootings just leave a small patch of vivid red blood. A scene featuring an attempted rape is more disturbing, especially given that the would-be perpetrator is our protagonist and his potential victim is soon welcoming him into her bed. It seemed strange that the dialogue occasionally switched the Italian... it wasn't till after I watched it that I learnt these scenes were never dubbed in to English as they weren't in the shorter original English version. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of '70s action.

As this film opens a group of travellers are heading to a remote location in the African bush. Each of them has been invited to go on safari there by a mysterious Mr Owen. As they reach their destination they are abandoned by their native porters. At first the ten of them are merely irritated but become more concerned when a record is plays; the recorded voice accuses each of them of murder. Soon afterwards the first of them dies; in a manner that matches the titular rhyme. He won't be the last to die and it isn't long before the guests start to suspect each other.

I thought this was a decent enough film even though it has a low budget feel. It may have been shot on location in Africa but the action seldom leaves the confines of the camp. I suspect most people will be familiar with the story but if you aren't there is a nice twist. The cast does a decent enough job; Donald Pleasence and Herbert Lom are the best known of them; both are fine here but have done better work. The central story is good but takes a while to get started. There is a good sense of paranoia as each survivor starts to suspect each of the others... and there are good reasons to believe any of them could be the killer. Overall I'd say that this was okay but not the best version I've seen.

This '80s serial killer drama is centred on veteran LAPD officer Detective Leo Kessler who, along with rookie partner Paul McAnn, are on the hunt for a killer. The identity of the killer is not hidden from the audience; it is office worker Warren Stacey. He is targeting women who have rebuffed his unwelcome advances. It won't be easy to catch him though; he makes sure he has an alibi and commits his murders naked so there will be no trace evidence on his clothes. As Kessler gets closer, and bends the law in the process, Stacey turns his attention to Kessler's daughter Laurie, a nurse at a local hospital.

If you are a fan of the gritty, and somewhat sleazy, cop dramas that were popular in the '70s and '80s then this is well worth checking out. Bronson impresses in the lead role and Gene Davis is solid as Warren Stacey, a particularly creepy character even by the standards on movie serial killers. The rest of the cast are pretty decent too. Knowing the identity of the killer doesn't make the film less tense; if anything it increases it as we know Kessler is right to suspect him but don't know how he'll prove it or how many people will die before the killer is stopped. There is a fair amount of nudity and violence... there is more of the former than one would expect in a modern film but less of the latter, at least in terms of injury details depicted, there is plenty of blood. Overall I'd say this won't be for everybody but it is well worth a watch if you are a fan of the genre; particularly if you like examples featuring Charles Bronson.