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

Color:

Color (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 Warren is chasing Betty through the woods, he's wearing pants while running in some shots.

Quotes:

Leo Kessler: [referring to a murdered girl's diary entry about a 'creep'] Do you know who that is, Warren?
[Warren doesn't respond]
Leo Kessler: I'll give you a hint - YOU.

Movie Connections:

References Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Effective thriller

One user comment sums this movie up as "standard fare"?! When push comes to shove there really isn't anything standard about "10 to Midnight."

The villain is a young, deeply disturbed man who turns on by knifing people to death in the nude, and needless to say the movie is filled with a large amount of nudity.

The hero is a veteran homicide detective who decides to stop at nothing to get his man, even if it means fabricating evidence. The latter part is portrayed by the grand-daddy of all tough action heroes, Sir Charles Bronson (OK, I know he wasn't a Sir, I just wanted to see how it looked :) Compared to most of the other movies Bronson did with director J. Lee-Thompson here he really turns in a memorable performance as detective Leo Kessler. Take for instance the scene where he finds the chief-suspects electric vagina, the look on Bronson's face is worth the price of admission alone! And the interrogation scene later where Bronson confronts the suspect with his sex toy: priceless!

The finale deserves notice for being both disturbing and downright scary, with it's echoes of the real-life Richard Speck-massacre in 1966.

If you are a Bronson-fan you are almost guaranteed to like "10 to Midnight", one of his best from the 1980's.