Mark Turner Growing up and hitting the movie theaters on my own in the seventies I grew up a fan of the then hot star Charles Bronson. DEATH WISH came out just about the time I was able to start driving on my own and with that film he began a string of hit movies that as a teen we all had to see. Bronson made a habit of starring his wife Jill Ireland in his films once he achieved enough clout, an excellent actress who did make a living on her own. But it was nice to see them on the screen together. Perhaps their best film together is the little known or seen FROM NOON TILL THREE.Bronson stars as Graham Dorsey, part of an outlaw group intending to rob the local bank. With their horses tiring out, they stop at a remote house on the prairie owned by a widow named Amanda (Jill Ireland). There are only enough horses for part of the gang so Dorsey, uneasy at best about the planned robbery, volunteers to stay behind and keep an eye on Amanda with the gang returning once the job has been pulled off.Over the next three hours Dorsey and Amanda get to know each other. Dorsey tries to be a gentleman but her attempts at escape leave him no choice but to find a way to make her stay. As they become acquainted Amanda falls for the charm that Dorsey displays and they end up in bed together. It's a case of love at first sight but eventually part of the gang returns. It seems the robbery went bad and most were killed. Now they head out, leaving Amanda behind.In an attempt to disguise himself Dorsey poses as someone else. Unfortunately that man is wanted for fraud and he is taken off to jail. The man he switched identities with is killed and thus Amanda fears that Dorsey, the man she fell in love with, is now deceased.What happens next is a comedy of errors. Amanda takes her romance to heart and pens a first-hand account of the events that took place. Embellishing is not the word for it as her tale turns from potential kidnapping to a romantic tryst with a notorious outlaw. The book is a major success and spawns both a play and a hit song about the events, "From Noon Till Three".The movie gets funnier still when Dorsey is finally released from prison, when he tries to return to Amanda and…well watch it to see what happens. The movie offers some truly hilarious moments and shows the Bronson had a knack for comedy that not many would have suspected. Ireland is tremendous in the role of Amanda.True fans of Bronson will not want to miss this movie. It is by far one of his best in my book. Not only will you get to see how good of an actor he was you'll have a lot of fun with this one as well. As with all Twilight Time releases this is limited in number so if you see it, order it today!

fedor8 FNT3 is a clever little, original western that lulls you into a false sense of security. I'd imagine female viewers in particular will be disappointed by how the plot evolves. Essentially, the first half is the blooming romance between Bronson and Ireland (not the country, he's Lithuanian), and one is cleverly lulled into believing that the movie will continue to go on in her house.Wrong. If someone had told me the plot would eventually lead us to China and Italy (if only briefly), I wouldn't have believed it. Bronson's gang getting slaughtered was not the plot-twist I expected (though that might be because I'm a little thick occasionally; he DID have that dream, after all, which was a hint). Once he leaves Jill's house the film moves into entirely different territory. Gone are the romance and the pond-bathing bliss. This is where the real story occurs.Female viewers, I imagine, will be fooled by Bronson tricks (feigning impotence, romanticizing his past, boasting by pretending to be modest) which were quite obvious. Most guys watching this movie (aside from nerdy left-wing film buffies who have extremely limited experience with women) will instantly recognize Charlie's desperate attempts to get Jill into bed, to be liked by her. He will do and say anything to reach this simple but (at least for a while) elusive goal.A highly-principled, moral, well-educated woman meets a common thug, and the contrast does offer some points of interest. It also explains why she shot herself.Toward the end, I felt FNT3 was starting to get aimless but was curious how it will end without being a disappointment. Fortunately, the final twist is clever and neatly wraps up the story.

jaibo This odd Charles Bronson comedy western comes on like Support Your Local Gunfighter but turns out to be a strange, Jean Genet-tinged meditation on illusion, erotic games-playing, social construction and mythologizing. Bronson plays Graham, a two-bit outlaw who dreams that his gang's up-coming bank-job is doomed. On the way to town he loses his horse and the gang stop off at the ranch of a wealthy widow, Amanda (Jill Ireland); he engineers to stay at the ranch whilst the others go off to rob the bank.There follows a strange, BDSM-ish and role-playing erotic encounter between Graham and Amanda. The film makes it clear that they are immediately sexually attracted but they have a protracted session of pretence in which he plays the part of a mean outlaw and she the prim lady in mourning. He attempts to ravish her but, crucially, can see that her resistance is a socially restrained charade. To facilitate her acquiescence, he pretends to be impotent and she pretends to help him to a cure. Through these games, which include a fair amount of rough and tumble play-fighting, the two manage to reach a place where their desires can be fulfilled. They spend an idyllic three hours together until Graham learns that the bank raid has gone wrong and his fellow robbers have been arrested. Amanda, determined to create him as the man of her dreams, insists that he goes to town to rescue them. Determined to feed her fantasy, Graham affects to ride into town but contrives to fake his own death by exchanging clothes with an itinerant dentist. The dead body (face hidden) is shown to Amanda, who (wearing a Jezebel-like red dress she'd put on to eroticise her time with Graham) faints when the posse brings the outlaw's corpse to the door. Graham is arrested for the dentist's misdemeanours and ends up with a year in gaol.So far, the film has been pretty much contained within the enclosed space of Amanda's home, a kind of faux-European mansion in the middle of nowhere. Now the action opens up, with Amanda riding to town to be humiliated and scorned by the townsfolk as a scarlet woman, condemned for sharing illicit hours with an outlaw. Graham and Amanda's encounter suggests that a strange exchange takes place when an outlaw makes love to a respectable member of society – he has to give up his outlaw status and she has to take on a mark of sin. But now the plot turns again, as Amanda gives a rousing speech to the crowd in which she affirms that she loved Graham for the 3 hours they spent together and it redeemed her life. The townsfolk love this and a passing writer offers to turn her story into a book.The book about Graham and Amanda's encounter, romanticized and embellished, becomes a bestseller with spin-off song and other merchandise. When Graham is released from prison, he returns to the town in disguise to discover that it has turned itself into a theme-park, a memorial to the now mythic defeat of Graham's gang and the love of the outlaw and the lady. There are even tours to Amanda's mansion, which Graham takes. When he reveals himself to his love, she is none too pleased to see him. She'd remembered him and written him as taller and better looking! His meagre dream of escaping into a mediocre life of banking and marriage holds no appeal to Amanda, who wishes to uphold the myth for its worldwide audience of fans. Rather than give up the myth, Amanda kills herself, her real flesh disappearing to be replaced entirely by her legend.Where does this leave the real Graham? Of course, no one believes him when he tells them who he is – not even people who used to know him. They have all bought into the myth and the reality is no longer viable currency. Graham descends into a pitiful drunkenness. In ironic scenes, he interrupts songs and plays about his own life, only to be rejected by the audience. Finally he is left in a lunatic asylum – where, in a bitter twist, the delusional accept him for who he really is.From Noon Till Three tells an ambitious story of American mythologizing (reminiscent of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) but daringly combines it with a meditation on how the erotic is built on a fantasy which supplants the real. It is here the film resembles the plays of Jean Genet – the whole of society becomes grounded in an erotic fantasy and woe-betide anyone who can't live up to it. Entire lives become mere dressing up and pretence.The film is prevented by being great by the often pedestrian direction of its author, Frank Gilroy. There is a little visual flare in some shots but too often things feel like a television movie, lacking visual and cinematic poetry. This is a shame, because there are odd times when the sets are emphasised as just that – theatrical sets – and the theme of the film feels visualised appropriately. The opening – an deserted Western set onto which the outlaws ride to meet their doom in what turns out to be Graham's dream – is perfection and suggests that these characters lives are themselves dreams acted out in an entirely constructed society, where only sex and death are real. To Gilroy's credit as a director, he does get extraordinary performances from Ireland (the right mix of minx, coquette, prim and maniac) and Bronson, who stretches himself as never before and inhabits his series of disguises with aplomb, whilst never losing sight of the character's reality as a rather grubby nobody.

vada_rudolph This movie is utterly charming. When you contrast it with Bronson's usual roles, it's hard to believe it's a Charles Bronson movie. Who knew he could be funny??? And his love for his wife, Jill Ireland, apparent in all the films they made together, is even more obvious here. I really enjoy the fact that this film seems to be so out of character for him. He played the tough guy for so long, and in very dark films. This light, charming story is a wonderful counter to all his other movies. I bet he and Jill had a great time making this movie. I like several of his films: Breakheart Pass, The Mechanic, Hard Times. But this is my favorite.