There was a time in the mid-1970s when Charles Bronson was one of the biggest stars in the world. Though he was never as huge in North America, during this time Bronson hit Schwarzenegger level popularity in Europe where he was literally a household name after starring in such hits as The Great Escape, Hard Times and the first of the Death Wish films. Though in his later years he'd fall into b-movie roles (most of which were made by the late, lamented Cannon Films group), he remains best remember by most movie fans for this period of work.

In one of the many films that Bronson made with director J. Lee Thompson (of Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects notoriety), he plays a mystery novelist named Raymond St. Ives who leads a rather odd life away from the typewriter in that he's connected. A comrade of his, Abner Procane (John Houseman of The Fog) is a criminal who finds himself a victim of crime when some leather bound books detailing his exploits are stolen. Houseman can't really go to the cops with this problem, so he turns to the next best thing, Raymond St. Ives, to solve the mystery of where his parcels went to and why.

Soon enough, the culprit has contacted them and is demanding a hefty ransom for the sum of one hundred thousand dollars and he wants Raymond to be the middle man for this transaction. Procane offers St. Ives ten thousand dollars for his services, a sizeable amount of money that he'd like to use to take care of a gambling problem seeing as his books aren't exactly making him rich. St. Ives shows up with a suitcase full of money but instead of finding the books, he finds a dead body stuffed into an industrial strength dyer. St. Ives heads out to figure out who killed the thief and why and to get his friend's books back before they fall into the wrong hands. Throw in a shifty but foxy lady named Janet Whistler (Jaqueline Bisset of Bullitt) as the requisite femme fatale and you've got yourself all the ingredients for a solid mystery.

Sadly, despite the fact that all the ingredients are indeed there, this mystery isn't much of a whodunnit. It's pretty easy to figure out if you pay attention throughout the film and the surprise ending is anything but. That doesn't make St. Ives a bad film though, especially if you're into seventies crime films and/or Bronson. He's got plenty of screen time in the movie and no shortage of witty one liners to dole out along the way. Though you're not going to see him sodomize anyone like in Kinjite or shoot up hundreds of people like in Death Wish III he's still got that perfect balance of tough guy coolness with a little bit of danger underneath the surface to be able to carry the film despite its shortcomings.

Aside from Bronson and Bisset, there's a fun supporting cast in the film. Watch for a young Jeff Goldblum (of Cronenberg's The Fly) glaring menacingly in a scene or two, and a young Robert Englund (best known as Freddy from A Nightmare On Elm Street) as well. Maximilian Schell (of The Black Hole and Cross Of Iron) has a decent supporting role and Harry Guardino from Dirty Harry shows up in this one as well.

While in terms of red herrings and plot twists, St. Ives is pretty pedestrian material but the fun supporting cast and a great performance from Bronson who, more or less, 'plays Bronson' in the film, make this one a decent slice of seventies crime/thriller entertainment. It won't change your life and it won't make you emote, but it's a fun movie and fans of the stone faced one should enjoy seeing their hero take the spotlight and run with it.

Video:

Warner Brothers' 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is quite good, but not perfect. There is some mild edge enhancement and line shimmering present throughout the film as well as a couple of scenes that are a little on the grainy side. That's where the complains end, however, as for the most part St. Ives looks very nice on DVD. The colors are rich and bright and well defined, the black levels stay pretty strong throughout the movie, and there aren't any issues with mpeg compression artifacts.