"Cold Sweat" - 1970
One of Bronson's 'Euro wilderness' pictures he made before his career was sky-rocketed back on course in grand style, for the next decade or so, with "Death Wish".
"Cold Sweat" boasts a British director ("Bond" helm Terence Young, who Bronson would work with again a year later on the fun "Red Sun" and 2 years later on "The Valachi Papers") and a multinational cast that includes Brits (Bronson's ever present Wife Jill Ireland and the great James Mason) and Europeans (from the respectable Liv Ullman to cult movie regular Luigi Pistilli).
The first half (dominated by Bronson's kick-ass biceps) is intriguing and entertaining with the odd dose of violence.
The second half though gets slightly derailed by the overly messy, murkily handled, plot mechanics and although there are a lot of interesting moments of power play and exchange as one side gets the better of the other (the extended finale sees Mason, one of his henchman and Bronson all in differing positions of conflicting power at the same time) this does mean the screenplay really grinds to a halt as far as any plot progression goes.
The truly awful 'Southern' American accent that they foolishly have James Mason attempt does the film no favours either!
The rarely anything other than bad (though her bottom of the barrel performance in "Death Wish 2" was yet to come) Jill Ireland is typically grating here and only that genuine bubbly charm she had in her youth makes her bearable.
Liv Ullman does a pretty good job though and handles a later action scene well.
But a fine car/bike chase (that features some truly impressive driving skills though some wonderful and varied French locations), the odd moment of bloodshed and Bronson's tough as nails physical presence help things along nicely until the rather ho hum finale (that matter of factly dumps James Mason).
Not great, let down in places after the fine start, but worth a look.
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