In a nutshell, DE LA PART DES COPAINS is the standard Bronson '70s European thriller. Bronson aficionados, like myself, will find it worth watching. But it's also a document of several notable actors—Ullmann, Mason, Ireland.
Bronson was, in the now distant '70s, one of the American action stars affordable for the European thrillers.
DE LA PART DES COPAINS seems very characteristic for the kind of movies this director, Terence Young, and these actors made in the '70s, when Bronson was, on the footsteps on Marais, Belmondo and Delon, the action star of such Euro thrillers, Mason was, after a more distinguished movie career, a dependable character actor while Mrs. Liv Ullmann did various supporting parts in average outings (--she looks a bit innocent for her role in DE LA PART DES COPAINS--). Also characteristic is the note of '70s sleaze brought in by the pedophile suggestions –Bronson's daughter, her nice tits and Katanga's lust for her. It's true that the French thrillers were usually less sleazy and extravagant than the Italian ones. Unlike Marais and Belmondo, who both blossomed earlier, Bronson was strongly identified with sleaze.
Mason plays a dignified villain, growing paler and paler from internal hemorrhage. Here the script is endearing in its physiological precision and medical keenness. Katanga, a kind of an arch--villain, is the least interesting character.
Jill Ireland does a bit part.
In DE LA PART DES COPAINS the pace is good and the flick proves quite suspenseful. This outing is representative for the Bronson of the '70s—'80s. There's not much to disappoint those who understand what Terence Young and the '70s Bronson mean. The flick is even spiced with a glimpse of nudity and the repeated allusions to Bronson daughter's _nubileness (without the creepy, alienating connotations from CAPE FEAR, made a decade earlier). Mrs. Ullmann had some legs to show. And her performance is required to be as physical as Bronson's; as Mason remarks, she's a tough girl. Otherwise, small cast, modest budget, nonsense plot line.
The script, a Richard Matheson adaptation by Albert Simonin, is a minimal one, barely sketched.
Bronson was, in the now distant '70s, one of the American action stars affordable for the European thrillers.
DE LA PART DES COPAINS seems very characteristic for the kind of movies this director, Terence Young, and these actors made in the '70s, when Bronson was, on the footsteps on Marais, Belmondo and Delon, the action star of such Euro thrillers, Mason was, after a more distinguished movie career, a dependable character actor while Mrs. Liv Ullmann did various supporting parts in average outings (--she looks a bit innocent for her role in DE LA PART DES COPAINS--). Also characteristic is the note of '70s sleaze brought in by the pedophile suggestions –Bronson's daughter, her nice tits and Katanga's lust for her. It's true that the French thrillers were usually less sleazy and extravagant than the Italian ones. Unlike Marais and Belmondo, who both blossomed earlier, Bronson was strongly identified with sleaze.
Mason plays a dignified villain, growing paler and paler from internal hemorrhage. Here the script is endearing in its physiological precision and medical keenness. Katanga, a kind of an arch--villain, is the least interesting character.
Jill Ireland does a bit part.
In DE LA PART DES COPAINS the pace is good and the flick proves quite suspenseful. This outing is representative for the Bronson of the '70s—'80s. There's not much to disappoint those who understand what Terence Young and the '70s Bronson mean. The flick is even spiced with a glimpse of nudity and the repeated allusions to Bronson daughter's _nubileness (without the creepy, alienating connotations from CAPE FEAR, made a decade earlier). Mrs. Ullmann had some legs to show. And her performance is required to be as physical as Bronson's; as Mason remarks, she's a tough girl. Otherwise, small cast, modest budget, nonsense plot line.
The script, a Richard Matheson adaptation by Albert Simonin, is a minimal one, barely sketched.