Love and Bullets (1979 film)
| Love and Bullets | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Stuart Rosenberg |
| Produced by | Pancho Kohner |
| Written by |
Wendell Mayes John Melson |
| Starring | Charles Bronson |
| Cinematography |
Fred J. Koenekamp Anthony B. Richmond |
| Edited by | Michael F. Anderson |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Associated Film Distributors |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Love and Bullets is a 1979 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg.[2] Starring Charles Bronson,[2] it is based on a screenplay by Wendell Mayes and John Melson.[2]
The film was originally to have been directed by John Huston and advertisements were taken out in Variety to promote this fact. Huston apparently did film some scenes but walked off the set after disagreements with the producers. Veteran director Rosenberg stepped in on the troubled production. The resulting movie received almost-unanimously poor reviews.
Plot
Phoenix Police Detective Charlie Congers is tasked to assist the FBI in bringing a gangster's girlfriend, Jackie Pruitt, back to the USA to testify. The FBI thinks she can give inside information to law enforcement that will put Joe Bomposa behind bars once and for all.
It turns out that Jackie doesn't know much of anything useful to the FBI. The trouble is, Bomposa wants her dead anyway, feeling betrayed, while Congers is falling in love with her. Bomposa has her shot while she embraces Congers before she leaves for the US under the protection of the FBI.
Cast
- Charles Bronson: Charlie Congers
- Jill Ireland: Jackie Pruit
- Rod Steiger: Joe Bomposa
- Henry Silva: Vittorio Farroni
- Strother Martin: Louis Monk
- Bradford Dillman: Brickman
- Michael V. Gazzo: Lobo
- Paul Koslo: Huntz
- Val Avery: Caruso
- Sam Chew Jr.: Cook (as Sam Chew)
- Billy Gray: Durant (as William Gray)
- Jerome Thor: Senator
- Joseph Roman: Coroner
- Albert Salmi: Andy
- John Hallam: Cerutti
- Sidney Kean: Machonni
- Lorraine Chase: Vittorio's Girlfriend
Reception
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said, "Love and Bullets is a hopelessly confused hodgepodge of chases, killings, enigmatic meetings and separations, and insufferably overacted scenes by Steiger alternating with alarmingly underacted scenes by Bronson. ... It's all texture and no plot, which is fine for a travelog but not so hot for a thriller. There's so little dialog we begin to suspect that's deliberate: Has the wordage in this movie been kept to a minimum to make it easier to dub for the international market? Thrillers, even sure 'pure' thrillers as Hitchcock's North by Northwest, work on some level because we've gotten to know the characters and care about them. Love and Bullets seems to expect us to care about Bronson simply because he is Bronson; the attempts to flesh out his character are brief and routine."[3]
References
- ↑ "Love and Bullets credits". The New York Times.
- 1 2 3 Maslin, Janet (September 14, 1979). "Film: 'Love and Bullets' Stars Charles Bronson:Bringing Home the Moll". The New York Times.
- ↑ Roger Ebert (1 January 1979). "Love and Bullets".