30 years ago on March 11th 1983, the most talked about movie of the weekend was no witches, no wizards, no magic, no surprises. But the “scummy sewer movie” “10 to the Middle” packed houses and continues to show the disgusting star power of a not-so-handsome brute named Charles Bronson, who wanted to be a man and didn’t hide from women. if the murderer were to come after him.
“X to the Middle”
Charles Bronson, Andrew Stevens and Gene Davis
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Plot: A naked serial killer (Gene Davis) stalks the women who rejected him and stumbles upon them. efficiency Leo Kessler (Bronson) and a handsome young man (Andrew Stevens), a killer caught by a veteran detective between the cop and the killer turns revenge on Kessler’s daughter, setting up a cat and mouse between the cop and the killer that tests the limits of law and morality.
Review: Roger Ebert called “10 to the Middle” a “scummy sewer movie” and this is not mere hyperbole. “10 to the Middle” is a despicable piece of nonsense that ranks alongside “Spit on Your Grave” and Eli Roth’s oeuvre in the pantheon of sick and twisted movies. Hard? Hardly the film makes a big laugh of naked women in fear of the killer and even the killer of the killer being thrown away naked to kill him. Bronson gets more laughs than drama from his reading of dialogue as abysmal as “Whoever does this like (sponsor stabbing a naked victim), his knife is a slave.”
Trivia: “10 At Middle” features an early performance by Kelly Preston, as Kelly Palzis (we know you from Kelly’s savvy film career), and pre-“Thriller” Ola Ray, both of whom play Bronson’s daughter’s collaborators.
Final Thoughts: Why didn’t Andrew Stevens make it as a star? It was a matter of fact.
The title “10th century” means absolutely nothing. The title is never hinted at in the film that it was chosen at random by producers Menachem Golan and Yuri Globus.
Golan and Globe are two of the scuzziest producers in Hollywood history. Their something for the goat style of making movies led to the release of six films in 1983, none more memorable than “10 to the middle”.
The tamer movies have grown since the beginning of the 80’s. It seems hardly possible that a sadistic, misogynistic, and almost bare-flesh movie as necessary as “10 to the Middle” could be made in this day and age. And again, it can also be an example of the evolution of taste; after all the audience once believed in the double act, the one note tough guy like Charles Bronson was the star, whose presence was worth the price of admission.
Grade F+ (The plus for a few unintentional laughs the film elicits).
