Charles Buchinsky, better known as Charles Bronson, was a World War Two veteran who went on to superstardom as one of the most iconic “tough guys” in film history.
Balladeer’s Blog has reviewed several of his westerns so far, but this time I’ll examine Bronson’s offbeat, uncharacteristic starring roles.
SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR (1971) – This Eurothriller directed by Nicolas Gessner was also released as Two Minds for Murder. Charles Bronson stars as an amnesiac patient of sinister brain-surgeon and psychiatrist Laurence Jeffries (Anthony Perkins himself).
Jeffries knows his wife is cheating on him and subjects Bronson – billed as the Stranger – to unethical psychological programming to make him think the brain surgeon-psychiatrist’s wife is really his wife, then manipulate him into murdering her.
In the role of unfaithful wife Frances Jeffries is Bronson’s wife Jill Ireland, since we’re in the period when Charles dragged her into everything with him like she was Linda McCartney to his Paul. The story isn’t plausible, of course, but artsy Eurothrillers always accentuated atmosphere and “what if” situations over realistic plots.
Anthony Perkins tones down his twitchiness a bit and Bronson is credible as the manipulated amnesiac thinking he’s met the wife his memory loss wiped from his mind.
To say anything more would give away too many spoilers. Continue reading
BREAKHEART PASS (1975) – (Frontierado is coming up August 2nd and, as always, it’s about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality.) Alistair MacLean may be more closely associated with espionage and crime thrillers like When Eight Bells Toll, The Eagle Has Landed and Puppet on a Chain but his lone Western, Breakheart Pass, is a very solid story which transfers MacLean’s usual themes to the American West. 
Some critics bash this above-average film because they apparently thought Alistair MacLean’s name on the script meant it would be an over-the-top Western Spy actioner along the lines of Robert Conrad’s old Wild Wild West television series crossed with Where Eagles Dare. Instead, Breakheart Pass comes closer to grittiness than slickness and is all the more enjoyable for that. 
Leone and his co-writers on the script ( Bernardo Bertollucci and Dario Argento. I’m serious!) intentionally used the framework of an archetypal western plot about the railroad, land-grabbing and westward expansion, yet made it all seem fresh. 
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