User Reviews

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.

Better car chase scene then Bullit. While the beginning was slow the movie escalated quickly with one of the best car chase scenes in cinamatic history. Then finished like it started, slow.

Based on the Richard Matheson novel Ride the Nightmare, Cold Sweat has Joe Moran - an American in France played by Charles Bronson - dealing with his wife and kids being taken by former associates that he once double-crossed.

Directed by James Bond director Terence Young from a script by Dorothea Bennett, Shimon Wincelberg and noir master Jo Eisinger, it shows just how quiet of a life Martin is living along with his wife Fabienne (Liv Ullmann) and daughter Michèle. But ten years ago, he'd been part of a gang with Katanga (Jean Topart), Ross (James Mason), his girl Moria (Jill Ireland), Whitey (Michel Constantin dubbed by David Hess) and Fausto (Luigi Pistilli) show back up and ruin his life.

Yeah, like Bronson is going to take that.

Liv Ullmann later complained that Bronson was rude to her and her daughter during the filming. When her daughter wandered over to his lunch table, Bronson brought her back and said, "Please keep your child to yourself."

I grew up not far from Bronson and my dad always told me when we went to dinner, when and if we did, that the men in the bars had just come out of the mills and mines and just wanted some quiet. "They aren't here to listen to you be stupid," he said, and I get it. Bronson got it. And now Liv Ullmann's kid got it.

This gritty, straightforward, unpretentious, Charles Bronson hostage thriller relies on realistic, white-knuckled suspense to maintain its momentum throughout its tense 94 minutes. James Mason, Liv Ullmann, Jill Ireland, Michel Constantin, Luigi Pistilli and Jean Topart co-star in this no-nonsense, muscular yarn with the agile, charismatic Bronson. "Thunderball" director Terence Young emphasizes raw brute force as a man has to contend with criminal associates from his shady past who want to balance the books for his treachery. When "Cold Sweat" came out in 1970, the British censors complained about its violence, particularly a scene where Bronson snaps a crook's neck without a qualm and then later on perforates a man with a flare pistol and turns him into a flaming shishkebab. Ostensibly based on Richard Matheson's 1959 novella "Ride the Nightmare," "Cold Sweat" depicts what happens when a group of unsavory thugs rupture the idyllic existence of Joe Martin. Scenarists Dorothea Bennett, Jo Eisinger, Albert Simonin, and Shimon Wincelberg have shifted the setting of the story from California to the scenic south of France. In the Matheson novel, Chris Martin had served as a getaway car driver for three bank robbers, but he abandoned them during the commission of a crime. The authorities arrested and sent them to prison. Meanwhile, Martin reformed, married, had a daughter, and found a responsible job as a music store owner. In "Cold Sweat," Joe Martin lives with his wife, Fabienne, and her daughter and operates a charter fishing boat out of the port of Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera between Nice and Monaco. Initially, Matheson had wrote "Nightmare" for an "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" television episode.

"Cold Sweat" opens with Joe Martin (Charles Bronson of "Hard Times")owns a deep-sea fishing boat and he is letting a client steer it into the harbor after a successful fishing expedition. Afterward, Joe gets into a poker game with some wharf buddies and wins a pile of dough from them. When he comes home to his wife, Fabienne (Liv Ullmann of "Persona"), Joe learns that somebody has been constantly called them. Somebody throws rocks at Joe's windows and he sends Fabienne upstairs to lock herself up while he prowls around downstairs. Vermont ( Michel Constantin of "The Family")catches Joe by surprise and clobbers him. Fabienne finds Joe unconscious on the kitchen floor. Vermont holds gun on Joe after he recovers and demands that he take him on his boat to an undisclosed destination. Joe outfoxes Vermont, disarms him in the kitchen and then cracks his neck. Fabienne grows suspicious when Joe refuses to phone the authorities. She argues that Joe killed Vermont in self-defense. Later, she accuses Joe of lying to her.

Joe fills Fabienne in on his shady past. He served in the Korean War as an army sergeant. His commanding officer, Captain Ross (James Mason of "Lolita"),was a good soldier in combat. When the military transferred them back to Germany, Ross missed the combat. Worse, he got into graft, taking kickbacks from service clubs and hijacking U.S. Army trucks. He sold the stolen goods on the black market. "Sometimes around his headquarters," Joe observes. "You couldn't tell the Mafia from the army." later, Joe ran into Ross in the stockade again because Ross had made 'a pig of himself' with his larcenous exploits. Joe was in the stockade because he struck a 'chicken' colonel when he got drunk. Ross invited Joe to join himself, Vermont and Fausto (Luigi Pistilli of "Eagles Over London") in an escape effort. Ross knew Joe was a good driver. Unfortunately, during their break-out, the former Foreign Legion soldier who furnished them with new clothes and a car, Katanga (Jean Topart of "Action Man")stabbed a German bicycle cop to death with a knife. The policeman had demanded to inspect their papers. Joe seized the car and left Ross and company to take the rap. Each drew a twenty year stretch in prison, and Joe would have gotten ten years. Vermont had finished seven years when he broke out and tracked down Joe.

Fabienne and Joe cruise out to a desolate stretch of road and pitch Vermont's corpse into the gorge. When they return home, they find Ross, Fausto, and a machine-gun wielding Katanga awaiting them. Ross keeps Fabienne at home and sends Katanga and Joe off in the charter boat to pick up a cache of opium from a Turkish ship. Joe gets the drop on Katanga and knocks him out. Meanwhile, Joe picks up Ross's girlfriend, Moira (Jill Ireland) at the airport, punches out Fausto, and stashes her at a remote cabin.When he gets back, Joe discovers that Ross has kidnapped his step-daughter. Katanga recovers. Joe takes Ross and company to the cabin where he left Moria. When it looks like they have worked out their differences, Ross signals Katanga to open fire on the car that Fabienne is driving with her daughter. Joe and the former Legioneer struggle and Katanga accidentally kills Fausto and shoots Ross in the belly. Joe has to fetch a doctor for Ross before the villain loses too much blood and dies. Joe has to race back with the girlfriend and the doctor before Katanga kills Fabienne and his step-daughter.

"Cold Sweat" qualifies as above-average with Bronson outsmarting both the criminals and the authorities. Although it is a pared down nail-biter that focuses on a small group of characters, this brisk thriller conjures up several twists and turns that keep the protagonist and his adversaries from taking things slow and easy. The biggest set-piece is a careening auto chase between our hero and two French motorcycle cops along a mountainside road with Bronson swerving recklessly around cars and trucks. Veteran stunt driver Rémy Julienne stages some tire-screeching scenes with a credible Bronson at the wheel. The novel charm of "Cold Sweat" is the off-beat casting of British actor James Mason as a drawling southerner and actress Liv Ullumann as Bronson's love interest.

Produced in France, this movie was first released in France, and then gradually in other countries finally reaching the United States in 1974.

The Commodore muscle car is unique, Bronson, Liv Ullman, James Mason, and Jill Ireland head up a pretty good cast. With Terrance Young directing, there is a lot of promise here. Unfortunately the film does not add up to the sum of it's parts.

The action and continuity are the problems, strange for an action director like Young who did some of the better Bond films. There are scenes where someone is shown holding a gun with 2 hands and then suddenly holding the gun in one hand and a brief case in the other with no logical explanation. There are hostage situations which make no sense at all.

Finally, every scene without action seems to drag. It's not the casts fault, and the novel this is based upon has got to be better than this film adaptation is. The nice thing is that the scenery is pretty good in Southern France. Other than that, any Bronson fan should be dismayed with the results. Even the Bastille Day Fireworks at the end can't save this one from being mediocre at best, and technically incompetent at it's worst.

Cold Sweat is watchable but dated. Cold Sweat has a decent story of Bronson portraying a man with a past that the family does not know about. Yes I know Bronson was type casted! Bronson's character was a mercenary and the old crew wants the money from an old job. The family is held as collateral! What works with Cold Sweat is Cold Sweat mix humor as the family tries to look normal to the neighbors, while handling a impossible situation. Regrettably the characters are predictable, which fits into a predictable cliche style ending. The wooden character drive the story down a good story, with a predictable ending. A must watch for any Bronson fan. 6 stars.

It's a lesser effort shot in a small French seaport where Charles Bronson is an improbable fisherman with a wife (Ullmann) and daughter. He has a hidden past and it catches up to him in the person of a handful of thuggish goons led by James Mason with a mangled Southern accent. There's not really that much action and the suspense isn't too suspenseful But you have to hand it to Bronson. I mean, look at the guy. A Lithuanian coal miner from Pennsylvania who leveraged his exotic face and sinewy muscles into stardom of a sort. In "House of Wax" (1954), with a crew cut, he was a mute sculptor in a minor villainous role. Then step by step he built up his career into that of an action movie star, more popular in Europe than America. With that go-to-hell bandido mustache he turned into an international icon without ever making a respectable movie.

Partly, I think, it must have been his muscles. He wasn't a bulging body builder like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he had what people of that ilk call "definition." The very veins of his arms stood out like logs and his pectorals were like the bronze breast plates of ancient Rome. And that face! If you shook his family tree a Kahlkha Mongol might fall out of it.

I've always enjoyed "Mr. Majestyk" because Bronson was an Elmore Leonard kind of guy. He was just a farmer growing watermelons, not much smarter or braver than anyone else. Just enough to come off the winner.

In "Cold Sweat" he breaks heads and necks with his bare hands. He's supposed to be the best driver around but there's little evidence of it because in the requisite car chase along the twisting roads of the Alps Maritime his car is all over the pavement, jerking this way and that, and he fails to cut curves on the inside of the arc.

The goons are simply goons waiting to die. None is really distinguishable from any of the others in their villainy, except for James Mason as the Southerner wearing a lavender sailor's cap with the brim turned down around his ears. How he ever got into this piece of junk, he's no longer in a position to reveal.

It's 1970 here, the end of an era, and Jill Ireland, Bronson's wife, shows up as a hippie with a headband, a guitar, and a -- what did they call them again? -- yes, a "reefer." Eminently skippable.