Scott LeBrun Charles Bronson stars as the title character in this twist-laden tale of intrigue. Raymond St. Ives is a crime writer who's currently in need of some cash. He's hired by a devious career criminal, Abner Procane (John Houseman), who's written down several journals of his misdeeds. It seems that Procanes' journals have been stolen, and he needs St. Ives to act as a "go between", or deliver money to the thieves while retrieving the incriminating documents. But nothing goes as planned, and St. Ives, an inquisitive sort as well as a cool customer, becomes determined to find out what he's gotten himself into.Even speaking as a fan of Mr. Bronson, it's really the supporting cast that brings this one to life. Bronson is fun, but the other parts are very well cast and each actor gets a chance to make an impact. Houseman is utterly delightful, looking like he's having a high old time playing such a likable scoundrel. The incredibly beautiful Jacqueline Bisset plays his associate Janet, and Maximilian Schell his psychiatrist. Harry Guardino, Harris Yulin, and Dana Elcar play assorted detectives (Elcar has the most priceless line reading in the whole movie), and Michael Lerner, George Memmoli, Dick O'Neill, Elisha Cook Jr., Val Bisoglio, Burr DeBenning, and Daniel J. Travanti fill out the rest of the main cast. One great joy is in seeing future stars Robert Englund and Jeff Goldblum (Goldbum having made his film debut in "Death Wish" as one of the muggers) as two of the young hoods who accost Bronson at one point.The story itself, based on a novel by Ross Thomas, does keep the viewers on their toes while they work, like Bronson, to figure out what's what. Director J. Lee Thompson, who would work with Bronson again throughout the 70s and 80s, handles it all with finesse, with fine cinematography by Lucien Ballard and equally fine music composed by Lalo Schifrin as additional assets.If you're fan of Bronson, Houseman, or Thompson, then by all means give this one a viewing.Seven out of 10.

AaronCapenBanner Charles Bronson stars as Raymond St.Ives, an ex-crime reporter hired by Oliver Procane(John Houseman) to negotiate the return of some stolen files that Procane desperately wants back. Soon after, he finds himself the target of killers, and determines to find out who wants him dead, and why, though the trail can't help but lead back to Procane in some way... Jacqueline Bisset costars as a mysterious associate of Procane, though that doesn't mean she is adverse to becoming involved with St. Ives.Unusual role for Bronson, who is still good, as is the rest of the cast, but story isn't too compelling, nor that satisfying to be of more interest, though it remains watchable enough.

Terrell-4 Ross Thomas was one of America's great thriller/mystery/political skullduggery writers. He wrote 20 books under his own name and five as Oliver Bleeck. One would think he'd have been fertile ground for Hollywood to till. In fact, only one of his books made it to the screen, The Procane Chronicle under the Bleeck name. The movie St. Ives, directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Charles Bronson, is the result. We can see why Hollywood never tried again. It's not that St. Ives is a poor movie. With Thomas' clever, twisty plot largely in tact, the last half of the movie moves briskly along. However, Ross Thomas and Charles Bronson make highly unlikely partners. Bronson's stoic, strong, silent guy-who-can-take-care-of-himself is not a good fit for what remains of Philip St. Ives' (now renamed, for some reason, Raymond). The second and more important drawback is that a movie of reasonable length will have a hard time coherently taking us through the twists and corners, the under-handed dealings, the false leads and the intelligent style in a Ross Thomas plot. Ray St. Ives used to be a big-time crime reporter. Now he's trying to be a novelist. He lives in the cheap Hotel Lido and brews chicory coffee in an old Bunn coffee maker. St. Ives gets an offer. The eccentric, wealthy, 65-year-old Abner Procane (John Houseman) had five brown, leather-bound ledgers stolen. The thieves want $100,000. For acting as a go-between, St. Ives will be paid $10,000. All Ray has to do is be at a certain laundromat at 2 a.m., give the money and get the ledgers. When St. Ives shows up, however, the only thing he finds, crammed into one of the dryers and slowly turning on the spin cycle, is a man with a broken neck. So after he leaves the police station, he reports back to Procane with the money but with no ledgers. He meets once more Procane's zaftig assistant, Janet Whistler (Jacqueline Bisset), and Procane's friend and psychiatrist, Dr John Constable (Maximilian Schell). By the time St. Ives goes through this one more time with the switch in a men's restroom, he's been Bronson-beaten and Bronson-victorious in an abandoned warehouse, gotten on poor terms with two cops, found another cop dead with an ice pick in the chest and finally returned those ledgers to Procane. St. Ives has also learned that Procane is not just an eccentric old gentleman who loves to watch The Big Parade. He is an elegant and supremely talented big-time thief. And one of the returned ledgers has had four pages torn out, the meticulous plans Procane developed to relieve some very wealthy business interests of $4 million. No spoilers here; this is just set-up for the main event. It all starts to come together in a drive-in theater one evening where the $4 million will be exchanged, where the ones who stole Procane's plans will act on them, and where Procane, St. Ives and Janet Whistler will be waiting to interfere as much as possible. With the exception of a few deaths, a couple of betrayals and a lit pool with one person oozing blood and life, it all works out as planned. Ross Thomas' books are such a pleasure to read because they are well and pungently written, we can savor the plot twists and we can enjoy the personalities of the characters that Thomas builds for us. Thomas also had a knack for coming up with memorable names. Some I enjoy are Otherguy Overby, Morgan Citron, Anna Maude Singe, Ben Dill and Velveeta Keats. His people are usually a bit cynical -- or at least supremely realistic -- about what they might encounter. The plots almost glow with the hypocritical nature of some of the people we meet. But try capturing that in a Hollywood movie without losing the intelligent style. The movie St. Ives proves it is just about impossible. For those interested in value, The Procane Chronicle sold for $5.95 hardback when William Morrow & Company issued it in 1973. You can find, sometimes, a first edition in fine condition with dust jacket equally fine for about $280. If you collect first editions of Ross Thomas, the $280 is not bad.

MARIO GAUCI Even if not filmed in that recognizable style, this thriller's plot could be deemed noir-ish – with Charles Bronson as the outwardly cool but increasingly bewildered hero, and where the Jacqueline Bisset character is eventually revealed as a femme fatale.This was the star's first of 9 films with director Thompson, and it's also one of his better vehicles (which, again, I had inexplicably missed out on several times on TV in the past). Generally enjoyable and fast-paced, though needlessly convoluted, it definitely benefits from a strong cast – including John Houseman as the mysterious old man (and something of a Silent movie aficionado) who gives Bronson a deceptively simple assignment which soon turns deadly; Maximilian Schell as Houseman's physician (suffering from a bad cold throughout) who also transpires to be not quite what he seems; ditto Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum cops Harry Guardino and Harris Yulin; Burr De Benning as a traffic cop with ambitions above his station; Dana Elcar as a sympathetic Police Captain; Michael Lerner (who appears far too briefly) as Bronson's flustered lawyer; genre stalwart Elisha Cook Jr. as a hotel desk-clerk who's perennially asleep on the job, and even Jeff Goldblum and Robert Englund as thugs (who contrive to throw Bronson down an elevator shaft)! There's also a good, upbeat score by Lalo Schifrin.Though the all-important drive-in sequence towards the end becomes unintentionally amusing – when the same stampede sequence (as far as I could tell, it's taken from the Warners-produced John Wayne vehicle CHISUM [1970]) is repeated over and over! – the film makes up for this with the busy climax, which as I said, provides a number of twists. It's capped, then, by a wonderful coda involving Bronson's bemused reaction to the incorrigible Bisset's wiles (he leaves her in the embarrassed Elcar's custody).