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Friday, March 4, 2011

Cold Sweat (1970)

An American expatriate (Charles Bronson) living in the south of France with his wife (Liv Ullmann) and stepdaughter (Yannick Delulle) runs a small excursion boat for rich tourists. But his past catches up with him when some drug smuggling ex-convicts lead by James Mason invade his home and turns his new life upside down. Based on the novel RIDE THE NIGHTMARE by Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND) and directed by Terence Young (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE), this is a fairly energetic thriller which requires some suspension of belief in order to fully enjoy it. It's a good looking film thanks to its Nice, Alpes Maritimes locations and some genuinely tense and exciting moments like a marvelous auto chase in the mountains (and I'm no fan of car chases) and when Ullmann and Delulle attempt an escape in the mountains with the psychotic Jean Topart pursuing them with a machine gun. The usually reliable Mason is miscast here as an American southerner, he overdoes the unconvincing accent and Jill Ireland as a stoned out hippie out for thrills is likewise unconvincing. Not quite a sleeper but surprisingly entertaining.

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