St Ives

Previous Jeff Daniels

Next Jeff Daniels

Buy This Item St Ives by Warner Home Video  Available from Amazon  $14.98  on 9-23-2008     I am a big Charles Bronson fan. I've enjoyed all his movies. St. Ives was one that I did not have in my collection and needed to get. I also, enjoy Slueth type movies as well. Reader Reviews Although little loved by fans of Ross Thompson's novel, St. Ives is an entertaining thriller with largely unrealised aspirations to being seen as a throwback to Warners' 1940s detective movies. Charles Bronson's the heavy gambler, retired crime writer and would-be novelist of the title, hired by John Houseman's gentleman crook to act as go-between to recover a series of stolen incriminating volumes only to stumble across dead bodies in tumble dryers and burglars who've taken the shortcut to the sidewalk via the window. It's not an action film, an elevator shaft fight and a climactic shootout that enables Jacqueline Bisset to show off her familiarity with handguns notwithstanding. Instead it's a slightly quirky number full of neat little touches, be it Houseman watching The Big Parade and Birth of a Nation because, as his analyst Maximilian Schell explains, "Films really are dreams, especially old movies, and Abner loves them. They're good dreams for Abner. They're splendid, splendid therapy," Elisha Cook (no longer billed as Jr.) turning up as a hotel clerk who can even sleep through a shootout in the lobby or an amusing scene where a drop-off in the toilets in Union Station turns into a quirky discussion of restroom idiosyncrasies. With some surprising faces popping up in the cast (Daniel J. Travanti, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Englund among them), it's an enjoyable 90 minutes that aims to be nothing more than a good night out at the pictures, and in this case that's enough. Warners' DVD boasts an impressive widescreen transfer, original trailer and brief 4-minute behind-the-scenes short.

St Ives Available from Amazon Price: $14.98 Updated on 9-23-2008.

SPONSORED LINKS