10 to Midnight (1983)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

J. Lee Thompson (story)
William Roberts (writer)

Release Date:

11 March 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Back in town... with a vengeance!

Plot:

A serial killer gets his kicks by knifing his victims while naked. A veteran cop, Leo Kessler believes...

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Revenge | Female Frontal Nudity | Bare Breasts | Nudity

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Leo Kessler
Lisa Eilbacher	...	Laurie Kessler
Andrew Stevens	...	Paul McAnn
Gene Davis	...	Warren Stacy
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Dave Dante
Wilford Brimley	...	Captain Malone
Robert F. Lyons	...	Nathan Zager (as Robert Lyons)
Bert Williams	...	Mr. Johnson
Iva Lane	...	Bunny
Ola Ray	...	Ola
Kelly Preston	...	Doreen (as Kelly Palzis)
Cosie Costa	...	Dudley
Paul McCallum	...	Lab Technician
Jeana Tomasina	...	Karen
June Gilbert	...	Betty

Also Known As:

Bloody Sunday (USA) (original script title)
Ten to Midnight (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2004) (self applied) | USA:R (Certificate #26973) | New Zealand:R16 | Finland:K-18 (cut) (1983) | Norway:18

Filming Locations:

2000 S Pisani Place, Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Cannon Group

Trivia:

The film was inspired by real life cases. The first was Richard Speck's murders of eight student nurses. The second inspiration was when a Scotland Yard investigator got fired from his job for planting evidence to convict a Thames River killer, which turned out that the killer committed three murders before being convicted. And the killer is also is quite similar to Ted Bundy, being that he killed young beautiful women, he was good looking, and he drove a Volkswagon Bug.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Laurie slides under the bed to hide from Warren, the soles of her feet point into the camera and are clearly bare; but when Warren flips the bed up to reveal her she suddenly has pump slippers on, which remain for the rest of the film.

Quotes:

Leo Kessler: [referring to a masturbatory device found in Warren's apartment] You know what this is for, Warren? It's for JERKING OFF!

Movie Connections:

References Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

OK

Bronson was hardly the only aging actor to copy Clint Eastwood's DIRTY HARRY (John Wayne comes to mind), but this one's pretty blatant. Watchable but not terribly involving, and Bronson himself seems to be thinking about where he'd rather be at any given moment in this Richard Speck nurse student massacre-inspired thriller. For its time, pretty shocking and sleazy with copious amounts of nudity (the killer for one disrobes to do his business, which leads to a truly bizarre sequence close to the end) and a pretty decent sex scene. I am always in favor of nudity and sex scenes. Another J. Lee Thompson hack job from his waning days as a director. I love the late J. Lee, regardless. And Bronson was to go on to do far worse in his long career. KINJITE, anyone? How about those dreadful police drama TV movies he churned out up to the bitter end?