The Stone Killer (1973)

“[sees Lipper’s corpse] What hit him?” – Mathews

“[unemotionally] A complete state of death.” – Lou Torrey

Number of Times Seen – 1 (1 Sep 2022)

Brief Synopsis – A New York City Detective moves to LA and gets involved in a case that seems to be related to the Mafia back in New York

My Take on it – This is a film that I had never even heard of before hearing about it on one of my favorite podcasts – The LAMBcast where they discussed their favorite films of 1973.

I have seen numerous Charles Bronson films and unfortunately, most of them feel as if they are just regurgitating the same kind of plot over and over.

This film, tho, has a clever and innovative plot that is constantly on the move.

Bronson’s character is hard and no nonsense and that enhances things so much because it doesn’t feel at all like a generic procedural.

The story has very few down moments and there is always something happening as the story progresses.

The characters are all quite diverse and they do a nice job explaining the significance of each of the characters in the overall plot line.

Besides Bronson, the cast is great with Norman Fell, Ralph Waite, John Ritter and Martin Balsam all doing wonderful jobs with what they are given to work with.

The film is able to find a way to stay suspenseful throughout and the twists and turns in the plot help add so much to thrills as things constantly go in directions that one might not have expected

Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Michael Winner used many creative camera angles in all his films, especially the ones with Charles Bronson, including the very first shot which is intentionally symbolic of beauty being replaced with urban decay: The first thing we see is an extreme closeup of a fresh-green leaf from a tree: then the camera backs up quickly to the grungy streets, where Bronson parks his vehicle. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)