"10 to Midnight" Movie Review

 

"10 to Midnight"

Movie Review

 

 

Veteran director J. Lee Thompson directed the movie ’10 to Midnight’ which is an American crime horror thriller, scripted by William Roberts starring Charles Bronson in the lead role with Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Gene Davis, Geoffrey Lewis, and Wilford Brimley.  

The story of the film follows Warren Stacey played by Gene Davis a young office equipment repairman who kills women after rejecting his sexual advances. His attempts at flirting are always seen as creepy by women, which often leads to rejection. One night, Stacey attends a performance by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at a theater and deliberately talks to the girls sitting next to him so they will remember him. While the movie was playing, he went to the theater's bathroom and slipped through the window, naked and wearing gloves. He takes Betty, a co-worker who rejects his advances, to a wooded area and observes her having sex with her lover in the back of a van. He ambushes the couple, kills her lover, chases her into the woods, and finally captures and stabs her to death. Later, he returns to the theater and leaves with the other attendees, giving him a good alibi.

Detective Leo Kessler, played by Charles Bronson, and his partner, Paul McAnn, played by Andrew Stevens, investigate the murders. Kessler is a seasoned veteran, while McAnn is much younger, while Lori Kessler, played by Lisa Eilbacher, Leo's daughter and nursing student, struggles to reconcile her relationship with her father.

Stacey attends Betty's funeral and overhears her father Kessler telling a family friend that Betty had written a diary about her encounters with other men. Afraid that she will be mentioned in the diary, Stacey searches Betty's bedroom in her apartment but is interrupted by Karen Smalley, played by Gina Tomasina, Betty's co-worker and colleague, who is returning from a funeral. Stacey stabs her to death in the kitchen and resumes searching for the diary, only to find it missing; Kessler had already acquired it from Karen during his trial.

Eventually, Stacey is duly arrested and charged. Kessler decides to plant evidence to incriminate Stacey and put him away forever; When McAnn discovers this, he confronts Kessler and refuses to go along for fear of perjury as he is called as a witness in the case. Kessler eventually admits that he planted the evidence in court, which leads to the case against Stacey being dismissed and Kessler being fired from the force.

Now a free man, Stacey taunts Kessler on the phone, but Kessler robs Stacey's apartment, taunts him on the phone, and fires him from his office job. That evening, Kessler stalks Stacey on the streets of Los Angeles and notices him picking up a prostitute and taking her to a seedy hotel. However, when he arrives at the hotel, he finds the prostitute dead and Stacey was gone. Realizing he is after Laurie, he frantically calls the nursing college hostel where she lives to warn her and her roommates, but he is too late; While Laurie is hiding from him, Stacey breaks into the dorm and brutally murders three of Laurie's roommates.

When Leo informs McAnn on Stacey's whereabouts, Laurie escapes after injuring Stacey with a hot curling iron as they both head to the shelter. He chases her down the street naked, but McAnn and Leo catch him, saving Laurie. Stacey begins ranting about how he is insane and thus liable to be released after doing jail time. As the police arrive and handcuff him, Stacey warns Leo that "the whole fucking world" will hear from him again, to which Leo coldly responds, "No, we won't," and shoots him through the head, killing him.

Bronson's characters in the film are not full of depth or emotional capacity. Everyone fulfills their roles adequately, but without detracting from the quality of the overall plot. While remaining predictable in nature, the film lacks any new or creative ways to establish or stop its criminal elements. It goes through the motions again without setting it too big. It's not a terrible movie, but 10 to Midnight is a memory vacuum. You know you've seen it, but nothing separates it from other crime movies you've seen. Of course, it is, and that is the best compliment it can receive.

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