10 to Midnight (1983)

Paul Talbot (0:05)

Welcome to the commentary track for Scream Factory's blu-ray of the Charles Bronson Canon Group Classic 10 to Midnight.

We see the Canon logo, but not the famous animated version where the C and the arrow came together from different parts of the screen to form the symbol. My name is Paul Talbot. I'm the author of the books Bronson's Luce, The Making of the Death Wish films, and Bronson's Luce Again on the set with Charles Bronson. I'm obsessed with Charles Bronson. I'm going to tell you some history behind this movie. This crazy guy, Nester, is played by Irish actor Shay Duffin. He had worked with Bronson before in The White Buffalo, where he played the owner of the Frozen Dog Saloon. His best-known movie role was in Leprechaun, where he played the guy that steals the gold from and captures the title creature. Duffin died in 2010 The movie opens with confusion by dropping us into this scene at a police station where Bronson as Lieutenant Leo Kessler and two other characters discuss a murder that we know nothing about. In fact, it's a murder that hasn't even happened in the film yet. In the original cut, the Kessler character didn't appear until about 12 minutes into the film. Cannon was afraid that audience members would think that they had stumbled into the wrong movie if Bronson wasn't seen right away. So the film was re-edited to open with this Bronson scene, which originally didn't appear until 25 minutes into the movie. The later Bronson Cannon movie, Murphy's Law, also originally began with a non-Bronson scene, but it was re-edited to open with the scene with the star. The Cannon group was a film company that was run by the Israeli cousins Manahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In 1982, Cannon had their first big hit with the Bronson movie Death Wish 2 Naturally, Golan and Globus wanted to make another Bronson movie, and they started raising money for it immediately. Cannon didn't even have a story in mind, but producer Pancho Koner, who had already produced four Bronson films, came up with the title Ten to Midnight. So Golan and Globus had Bronson, a title, and a budget, but there was no movie. Meanwhile, producer Lance Hull, who had produced the Bronson movie Cabo Blanco, was developing a thriller called Bloodbath with director J. Lee Thompson, who had already directed three Bronson movies. So Canon merged Bronson into the Bloodbath project and called it Ten to Midnight, even though the title Ten to Midnight means absolutely nothing in the resulting film.

We dolly from Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles, which is now a bank of America. This is the scene that the film originally opened with, before it was decided to open with the Bronson scene. This location is at the Civic Center District of downtown Los Angeles. At the time of filming, this building in the background was called the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration. It is now called the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration. The script actually called for this specific location to be used. This area is near the courthouse that we see later in the film.

We see the killer Warren Stacey played by Gene Davis. We can guess from the strange, stoic expression on Warren's face that something isn't quite right about him. As Warren watches Betty get into the van, he flashes back to a confrontation he had with her. This is the first of several flashbacks and flash forwards that Warren has in the film. We hear a strange, repetitive electronic musical cue that offered accompanies the image of Warren.

Here we hear the song, Look at Me, for the first of several times in the film. These vocals were performed by Bruce Scott, who had performed in Los Angeles stage versions of Jesus Christ Superstar, where he played Jesus, and the Rocky Horror Show, where he played Riff Raff. On the mirror, if you look close, you see photos of Warren with his arm around other men and photos of him working out with shirtless men. The script described Warren as, quote, his face is boyish, handsome, his body lithe, fluid, and strong. He is in his late twenties. Warren is punctilious in all things, speech, manners, especially in appearance. If he is pleased, we are not permitted to know. His face is without expression, eyes like curtain windows, disclosing nothing of what's inside. Unquote. At this point, the script read, quote, holding the knife against his abdomen, he presses the release. The shining blade springs forward, not unlike an erection. Unquote. The Warren role was initially offered to Bobby DeSico, a popularly young actor of this era, who had been in movies like 1941 and The Big Red One. When Bobby DeSico turned the offer down, dozens of actors aged 18 to 30 were auditioned, including the pop singer, teen idol, Lafe Garrett.