10 to Midnight

Plot synopsis:
10 To Midnight is a drama that mixes elements of police and slasher films. It portrays the homicidal behavior of Warren Stacy (Gene Davis), a young office equipment repairman who kills women after they reject his sexual advances. And his attempts at flirting are always seen as "creepy" by women, resulting in frequent rejections. His first victim seen in the film is Betty, an office worker of his acquaintance. He tracks her down to wooded area, and observes her having sex with her boyfriend. He ambushes the couple, kills the boyfriend, and then gives chase to the naked woman. He stabs her to death.
Two Los Angeles police detectives, Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) and Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens), investigate his murders. Kessler is a seasoned veteran of the force, while McCann is considerably younger. Stacy avoids prosecution by constructing sound alibis and assaulting his victims while naked except for a pair of latex gloves to hide fingerprints, thus minimizing evidence. This was before obtaining DNA evidence became possible.
Laurie Kessler (Lisa Eilbacher) is the only daughter of Leo and an acquaintance to some of the victims. A student nurse herself, she becomes a target for the killer. McAnn refuses to go along when Kessler plants evidence in order to frame the suspect. Stacy goes on another rampage, killing three nursing students who are friends with Kessler's daughter.
When he is caught, stark naked in the street, Stacy boasts how he will say all the things that will "prove" that he is crazy: he hears voices telling him to do things, etc., so that one day, he will be back on the street and Kessler, as well as the "whole fucking world," will hear from him again. Kessler replies, "No, we won't." He then shoots Stacy once in the forehead, executing him and leaving all other considerations aside. The film then ends with a bird's-eye view of Kessler standing over the body, surrounded by police as the camera slowly zooms out.

Tags: comedy, suspenseful, cruelty, murder, neo noir, cult, violence, flashback, insanity, revenge, sadist

Review:
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.
Charles Bronson plays a veteran cop who's with a young idealist cop is after a very smart and dangerous killer who likes to slice pretty and innocent chicks.
In Los Angeles, the rookie Detective Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens) teams up with the veteran Detective Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) to investigate the murder of Betty Johnson (June Gilbert) and her boyfriend that were stabbed by a naked serial-killer in a park.
The killer Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) goes to the funeral and overhears Betty's father telling Detective Kessler that his daughter had a diary.
The performance from Gene Davis, (brother Brad was in MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) is astounding; you really feel like you're in the presence of a serial killer.
J. Lee Thompsons "10 To Midnight" of 1983 starring the great late Charley, is a decent cop flick, not nearly one of the most memorable Bronson flicks, but still a pretty suspenseful little thriller that will highly entertain all my fellow fans of everybody's favorite no-nonsense ass-kicker.Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) is a psychopathic serial killer who gets his kicks by running around naked and stabbing his victims to death.
Lisa Eilbacher, who play's Bronson's daughter, is very cute, and Geoffrey Lewis is great as the killer's sleazy lawyer.
"10 To Midnight" may lack depth, but it is a suspenseful film, certainly no masterpiece, but nonetheless a decent thriller that Bronson fans should like.
Special credit for Gene Davis 10 to midnight is obviously one of the best maniac-killer movies presented by legendary Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.
Lieutenant Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) and detective McAnn (Andrew Stevens) are investigating a murder of sexual character.
Lee Thompson and frequent collaborator Charles Bronson.The basic premise is as follows: a cop is after a serial killer.
Sure, some will throw they're vote to Death Wish or Telefon, but 10 to Midnight provides such a rich tapestry of Bronson cop movie cliches that to my mind it is all one need see.The film has minimal Bronson action, the best Bronson lines (choice sample You know what this is for, Warren?
and moves along at a clip.Another of those fascist post-Dirty Harry cop roles where the viewers' is sealed early as the movie goes to great lengths to make it clear that the killer is guilty even before we see Bronson.Fantastic Bronson stuff..
Cynthia Reams also gave us a full show in her only movie.Lisa Eilbacher (Beverly Hills Cop, An Officer and a Gentleman) plays Bronson's daughter.
10 TO MIDNIGHT Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: MonoA world-weary LA cop (Charles Bronson) plants evidence on a young man (Gene Davis) suspected of the serial homicide of several beautiful women, but the plan backfires and Davis subsequently targets Bronson's grown-up daughter (Lisa Eilbacher)...One of a series of gritty urban thrillers inspired by the success of DEATH WISH, J.
well, you get the picture), though cinematographer Adam Greenberg (GHOST, RUSH HOUR, the "Terminator" series) turns visual cartwheels to avoid full frontal nudity (and a potential X rating).Thompson - who gravitated towards Hollywood after forging a successful career in the UK, where he directed a number of popular mainstream entries like YIELD TO THE NIGHT and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE - takes enormous pleasure in foregrounding the more exploitable elements of William Roberts' lively screenplay, though an unpleasant sequence near the end of the film evokes queasy memories of Richard Speck's true-life killing spree in 1966, when several nurses were slaughtered in a Chicago townhouse in a fashion similar to the killings depicted here.
It's cheap, manipulative and cynical, but it's also undeniably effective, and Bronson's closing line of dialogue is guaranteed to arouse guilty fascist impulses within even the most liberal viewers.Davis is the spitting image of his actor brother Brad (the late and much lamented star of MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) and is quite effective in a difficult role, though his subsequent career appears to have gone nowhere, which is a shame.
Bronson plays Leo Kessler, a cop ready to do anything, legal or not, to bring Stacy in.There really isn't much more to say about this movie.
And this time, right is not legal.I'll give 10 of 10 for few reasons; it's very entertaining, Charles Bronson makes good work on his role, killer is very good also, and because of J.
About the time "10 to Midnight" was released, I read an interview with Charles Bronson in which he was asked why he continued to make one "Death Wish" clone after the other with bad hack directors instead of taking over his career and taking chances like his contemporaries Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood.
So bad were his '80's films in fact, this one is one of the best, even though it still is a pretty mediocre, and at times terrible, film.The difference between "10 to Midnight" and say, "Kinjite," is that Bronson actually has a pretty good supporting cast to work with, including Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Geoffrey Lewis and Wilford Brimley.
Enter Leo Kessler (Bronson) who surveys Stacey's carnage and comes up with the perceptive observation:  "His knife must be his penis."  Together with partner Andrew Stevens, he has no trouble fingering Stacey as the killer; unfortunately, the psycho is an expert at establishing airtight alibis.
In fact, Thompson's directing here is so routine and at times inept, it is almost impossible to believe that the same man was responsible for the authentic classic "The Guns of Navarone."All-in-all, "10 to Midnight" has to classify as the ultimate good/bad film.
Charles Bronson(Leo Kessler) & Andrew Stevens(Paul McAnn) play a veteran and rookie detectives on the L.A. police force who are hunting a vicious psychopath who has been murdering innocent women with a knife.
So convinced that the killer will not be convicted, Leo plants evidence on the suspect, which of course is discovered by the defense team, leading to a dismissal of charges(and Leo's termination) that put them on a collision course of more killings.Bronson seems to be playing a less responsible cross between "Dirty Harry" and his "Death Wish" character(Paul Kersey), but those two men never falsified evidence, which clearly crosses the line, leading to a morally muddled film that is also quite unpleasant and routine, though I admit it does have a memorable ending...the only successful thing about this film..
Leo Kessler (Bronson) is a detective who is after a sicko (Gene Davis) who kills women while nakid.
Great Fun. 10 to Midnight (1983) **** (out of 4) Extremely well-made and suspenseful police drama has tough as nails cop Charles Bronson trying to track down a killer.
Leave it to the keen detective skills of Charles Bronson (who acts like every other actor in the film is just there to annoy him while he earns his check) who gives us this trenchant insight: (read in Bronson-voice)..."His Knife is his penis." Or was it, "His Penis is his knife." I can't remember.The entire second act is a lot of dull cop drama stuff that makes the mistake in thinking we care at all about Bronson's relationship with his daughter, or that we care if his beefcakey partner ever hooks up with her.Just stick to the opening thirty and the last twenty, which gives you what you want: A lot of naked knifings, bare breasts, and blood spatters.Consumer Note: At no point in the film is it ever ten to midnight..
Charles Bronson plays Lieutenant Leo Kessler who is searching for a killer that has a unique taste in murdering his victims.
In fact, even with the high ratio of bad actors and technical shortcomings, films like "Evil That Men Do" and this one, "10 to Midnight," kick modern hardboilers right in the balls.In any case, I've read some comments by folks who don't understand the title "10 to Midnight." Here's what it means: the killer's alibi is that he was seen at a theater watching a movie that ran between 10 pm and midnight, the same time the murder took place.
"Leo Kessler" (Charles Bronson) is a Los Angeles detective who has had more than his share of drama in his life due to a stubborn daughter by the name of "Laurie Kessler" (Lisa Eilbacher) who doesn't understand or appreciate the demands the job places on him.
Bronson plays a tough old homicide detective Leo Kessler who is on the case of a very nasty & violent killer played really great & creepily by Gene Davis,this guy is a real sicko & extremely disturbed & menacing.
This feels very much like a typical 80's slasher flick like most that was coming out at the time but with lots of added layers & depth such as getting a super star like BRONSON to star in this as the cop tracking the killer was excellent casting as Bronson brings all that seriousness & mood to his perfect & the movie, i mean c'mon this is Charles Bronson Mr.vigilante here in this slasher flick so right away it's clear that this isn't just a cheap low budget throwaway film it's something abit more with real thought put into it.
It feels like they're attempting to make both a Friday the 13th and a Death Wish movie AT THE SAME TIME!Charles Bronson plays a tough cop dedicated to his job.
Bronson actually seems to care about his performance (not always the case in his later films), the villain is creepy and frightening (he likes to attack his lady victims while he is totally nude), and the kills are intensely effective.
Just like his Death Wish days, Charles plays a cop who shuns ethics in order to bring in lawless scum.This film pits Bronson against a fiendish sex maniac who kills girls in order to get off.
I was just starting to "look a boys" at 11 years old (coming-of-age era) and thought about being hurt or worse by the person I may date one day.This movie is very thrilling and may frighten women more than men to watch due to the nature of the film.
A LAPD detective (Charles Bronson) is on the trail of a very handsome young man (Gene Davis) who had been seducing and slashing many young women to death.Violent and with unseemly subject matter, "10 to Midnight" drew scathing reviews from film critics, including a "zero stars" rating from Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times who wrote, "I admire (Bronson's) strong, simple talent.
Handsome psycho (Gene Davis who very much resembled his more famous brother, Brad, especially in his voice) who loves film, karate, and sex toys, has a lot of problems with women, and strikes out a lot, as seen at the start when coming onto two girls at the movies, one finding him cute, the better looking and stuck up one, finding him repulsive.
Of all the career ending movies Charles Bronson made for Cannon films in the mid-to-late eighties, "10 to Midnight" is the best.
Lee Thompson masterfully blends the Dirty Harry Rogue Cop thriller with some slasher film moments of brutal terror that will have viewers squirming in their seats.Gene Davis" plays a sexually repressed psychopath whom of course has "mother issues" he kills women while he is nude,so killing while naked was fashionable way before Christian Bale's "Patrick Bateman" did it.This film has elements of the Richard Speck story "Chicago Massacre" but still stays original.
The story is good and the action is nonstop.Bronson is on top of his game in this movie especially since the character that plays his daughter "Lisa Eilbacher" lives in the student nurse dorm that is being terrorized by the naked killer.
Chuck Bronson stars as a detective who plants evidence on a serial killer who kills in the nude, only because Bronson's daughter is the one being stalked and therefore it's personal.
Chuck Bronson (The world's coolest action hero) is good as is Andrew Stevens and Lisa Eilbacher but Gene Davis' performance is utterly woeful.
It is an exploitive film about Charles Bronson, who looks like he's sleepwalking through another role, taking on a serial killer.
From Paul Kersey (the Death Wish films) and Charlie Congers (Love and Bullets) to Jack Murphy (Murphy's Law), Bronson's squinty-eyed machismo was second only to that of Clint Eastwood.In 10 to Midnight Bronson plays the same ol' vigilante (Leo Kessler), who this time must protect his daughter and her college coed friends from a serial killer.
For the first part of the picture, Bronson works with the cops, and for the rest of the movie, he does his "Death Wish" routine.
First of all, I see that I finally watch a suspense movie from Charles Bronson because I see mostly action films from him and Director J.Lee Thompson.
This film is about when a police detective (Bronson) is stalking a killer after being set free and he strikes revenge at him and his daughter.
Charles Bronson was really good as playing the detective and Gene Davis is good as the serial killer too.
It's not a Charles Bronson vehicle, because it has a lot of good elements by which this movie could still work very well if Bronson weren't playing the leading role.Kevin Bacon look-a-like Warren Stacy as the psycho killer switches swiftly between cruelty and self-piteous anxiety, with a funny Hispanic accent.
That resemblance - together with the hard-boiled style of action film-making nowadays replaced by bullet-time and the soundtrack - gives this movie that cool 80's feeling so refreshing to a child of the 90's.Charles Bronson is in great shape as the investigating detective, possibly because he sort of reprises his signature role, Paul "Death Wish" Kersey.
Make my day."My brother in law and I watched "10 to midnight" together, and when it first came on he told me I'd have to see the entire film to learn why a Charles Bronson line at the very end was in his opinion on a par with Eastwood's famous phrase.
Despite their better days having passed, '10 to Midnight' is a riveting film that comes early in Bronson and Thompson's exploitation output and features some of the talents for which they're remembered.Rehashing ideas from 'Dirty Harry,' Bronson plays Leo Kessler, a Los Angeles detective who is investigating the brutal murder of a secretary and her boyfriend.
Old-fashioned cop Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is assigned to catch the killer, and partnered with inexperienced rookie Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens).
With Kessler's daughter Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher) the next in line to be killed, it becomes a race against time to stop the psycho before he strikes again10 To Midnight is not an especially well-acted film.
A serial killer Warren Stacy (Davis) stalks women, mostly ones he knows and murders them while he's butt naked.
Part cop/vigilante film (It is a Charles Bronson movie after all), part slasher film (With effective white creepy kid psycho Gene Davis) and part nudie film.
What I didn't like is when Bronson lies about a diary a murdered victim had to the killer and effectively gets the dead girl's roommate killed.
I have no idea the significance of the title of this movie, but it is a sweet little thrill ride of a film.It's about a mixed up young man (Gene Davis) who is obsessed on the idea of killing any girl who has turned their back to him.
Once Detective Leo Kessler (Bronson) is on to him, he will not let up until justice is served.***possible spoilers***This is not just a simple little cat and mouse story here, there's a lot of good things going on in this movie.
The killer here was different and I liked that angle.***end of spoilers***This is not an action movie as most of Bronson's films were.
I eventually began to watch his films on my own and now he's one of my favorites."10 To Midnight" has to be, for my money, one of the greatest Charles Bronson movies ever made.
Lee Thompson's "10 to Midnight" tries to one up "Dirty Harry," but it takes a different path than you usually see in a Charles Bronson thriller.
Basically, Bronson is cast as a tough-guy detective who is searching for a serial killer that likes to carve up his victims while he is naked.
Bronson is in superb ass kicking form as detective Leo Kessler, on the trail of depraved creep Warren Stacey (Gene Davis), who gets back at the women who spurn his advances by brutally murdering them - in the nude, no less.
This is quite an unusual movie, about a serial killer (Gene Davis) who strips naked before slashing beautiful women to death.
But Karen had already delivered the journal to Kessler, who is sure that Warren is the killer and her plants evidence in his apartment.Now Warren is stalking his daughter to revenge against her father....In the eighties, The Cannon group made some really good films, the kind you would watch on a Friday night with your dad.
Tough and cynical L.A. detective Leo Kessler (the almighty Charles Bronson in peak hard-nosed form) decides to bend the rules in order to apprehend the unhinged Warren Stacy (a creepy and convincing performance by the handsome and muscular Gene Davis), a cunning depraved misogynistic psychopath who enjoys killing lovely young women while stark naked.
They get involved in the killer's business because Bronson's daughter, Lisa Eilbacher, knew one of the victims and becomes suspicious of the murderer, Davis.
In fact, I've done better in the movies, but my scenes didn't get on film.Anyway, you shouldn't go out of your way to see this -- unless you want to see a lot of blood and nudity, including an overdose of Davis's buns..
The problems are many but let's get the basic story out of the way first.Charles Bronson stars as a hardened cop (how original) with a new rookie partner (Andrew Stevens) out to track a serial killer.