Overlooked Movies: Rider on the Rain

When I was a student at The University of Texas at Austin, the "art theater" was the Texas Theater, which was right across Guadalupe Street from the campus and a short walk from Parlin Hall, the English building.  So sometimes in the afternoons, I'd stroll over to see a foreign film or an American "art" film.  One that I saw there was Rider on the Rain.  

At the time I saw it, I was already a fan of Charles Bronson for his supporting roles in some of my favorite movies: The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Dirty Dozen.  I was also aware that at least one U. S. actor (Clint Eastwood) had gone to Europe and become a star in the movies he made there.  I thought it would be interesting to see if the magic could work for Charles Bronson, even if the movie was from France instead of Italy and even if it was a contemporary thriller instead of a western.  

The short answer is that it worked just fine.  Bronson plays a mysterious investigator who shows up in a French town where a woman has killed a rapist who followed her home and attacked her.  Instead of reporting the death, she dumped the body into the sea. Bronson seems to know a lot about what she's done, and there's a lot of cat-and-mousing as he continues to investigate.  Lots of twists and turns, too.  For one thing when a body washes ashore, it turns out not to be the rapist.  

This isn't the usual Bronson action thriller.  The pacing is leisurely, and there's a lot of dialog, which Bronson handles just fine, thank you.  The photography is great, and the opening scenes in the rain are really something special.  For a number of years I thought of this movie every time I heard The Doors do "Riders on the Storm," but I had no idea that Morrison supposedly composed the song because of this film.  That's supposedly true, however, and the song captures the mood very well.  Check it out if you get a chance.

Forgotten Books The Mechanic -- Lewis John Carlino

I haven't seen the new version of The Mechanic, but I have fond memories of the Charles Bronson movie. After I saw it, I bought the paperback, but I never read it. Until now, that is.

Carlino is a director and screenwriter, and in both capacities he's been involved in some famous films. I don't know if The Mechanic is a novelization of the movie or if it was before the movie, but I suspect the former. Not that it matters. The action is much like the movie, but the effect is a lot different because the book is much more an examination of Arthur Bishop's character. Bishop is a guy who looks into the abyss and sees the abyss staring back. All the time. Except, that is, when he's setting up and carrying out a hit. He's meticulous and careful, and when he lets down his guard even the tiniest bit, you know bad things are going to happen.

A guy like that shouldn't take on an apprentice, but Bishop does. He allows the son of an old friend (and victim) to become a part of his life. After that things get complicated, and the less said about them, the better for you to find out for yourself in either the book or the movie.

The book is short (144 pages), and a lot of it is more concerned with Bishop's mental state than with the action (though there's a good bit of that). There's a lot of very '70s stuff here, which you may find amusing. I found it nostalgic. I was bothered a little by the shifting points of view in some chapters distracting, but that might not bother you. It was fun to take a trip back to the '70s and to remember the Bronson movie. Maybe I'll see the new one (Carlino worked on the screenplay) one of these days.