Sunday, December 31, 2023

Love and Bullets (1979)

Detective Charlie Congers (Charles Bronson) of the Phoenix Police Dept. stops at the coroner's office to view the latest overdose death.  No sooner does he leave the building than he sees Officer Durant driving recklessly away, running over a sign and sideswiping another car.  He gives chase and confronts the officer.  Over coffee, Charlie asks what's the deal?  It turns out that the overdose victim was his fiancĂ©e.  Durant is furious since everyone knows that Joe Bomposa (Rod Steiger) runs the drug trade.  Durant declares his intent to do something about Bomposa himself since law enforcement has clearly failed.  He storms off, gets into his patrol car, and then the car explodes!  Wow, word traveled fast if Bomposa was able to get a car bomb deployed while Durant was having coffee.

Soon after, the FBI meet with Charlie and talk about Bomposa's girlfriend, Jackie Pruit (Jill Ireland).  Pruit had been called before Congress to testify and sounded like a ditzy blonde who knew nothing.  However, immediately after her testimony, she was spirited out of the country and is now in Switzerland.  The FBI suspects she does know something and would like to get her back into the US.  "Then go get her," Charlie suggests.  Well, the FBI has no overseas jurisdiction and she'll need to be convinced to come back.  Charlie agrees to go.  He manages to snatch her from a mountain chateau in the shadow of the Matterhorn and then the chase is on.  Her departure convinces Bomposa to order her assassination.  Can Charlie keep her safe against wave after wave of mafia hitmen?

While most of the movie takes place in Switzerland, Rod Steiger never leaves Arizona.  He plays Bomposa as a stuttering, lovestruck goof who doesn't appear particularly intimidating.  Henry Silva should have had a bigger part as the assassin pursuing Charlie and Jackie.  Jill Ireland's phony accent is not well done but does add to her bumpkin persona.  She pulls off the clueless ditz quite well, which makes it unbelievable that Charlie is eventually drawn to her.  Most of their interactions see them running from hitmen.  The chase, which often consists of getting onto a train then transferring to another train, is mostly boring.  One of the most irritating things is that Charlie is mostly unarmed.  He'll take out the guy with the shotgun and then leave the shotgun behind.  Take out the guy with a pistol and leave the pistol behind.  Wipe out a band of assassins with makeshift blowgun and, yes, leave all those guns behind.

At the end of the movie, Charlie realizes that Officer Durant had the right idea.  Standard law enforcement is worthless against Bomposa, his crooked lawyer (Strother Martin), and his coterie of mobsters.  Back in Arizona, Bronson switches characters and resurrects The Mechanic (1972).

Weak characters, run-of-the-mill action, and a nonsensical plot.  Disappointing.  Skip it.

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