Hard Times (1975)

Director:

Walter Hill

Writers:

Walter Hill (screenplay) and
Bryan Gindoff (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 September 1975 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

New Orleans, 1933. In those days words didn't say much. [DVD]

Plot:

In the depression, Chaney, a strong silent streetfighter, joins with Speed, a promoter of no-holds-barred street boxing bouts...

Plot Keywords:

New Orleans | Gambling | Tough Guy | Bare Knuckle Fighting | 1930s

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Chaney
James Coburn	...	Speed
Jill Ireland	...	Lucy Simpson
Strother Martin	...	Poe
Margaret Blye	...	Gayleen Schoonover (as Maggie Blye)
Michael McGuire	...	Gandil
Felice Orlandi	...	Le Beau
Edward Walsh	...	Pettibon
Bruce Glover	...	Doty
Robert Tessier	...	Jim Henry
Nick Dimitri	...	Street
Frank McRae	...	Hammerman
Maurice Kowaleski	...	Caesare (as Maurice Kowalewski)
Naomi Stevens	...	Madam
Lyla Hay Owen	...	Waitress

Also Known As:

Street Fighter (Philippines: English title)
The Streetfighter (UK)
Ciplak yumruk (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Ein stahlharter Mann (West Germany) [de]
El luchador (Spain) [es]
Haastaja (Finland) [fi]
L'eroe della strada (Italy) [it]
Le bagarreur (France) [fr]
Lutador de Rua (Brazil) [pt]
Med de bare næver (Denmark) (TV title) [da]
O Lutador da Rua (Portugal) [pt]
O viaios (Greece) [el]
Streetfighter (Denmark) [da]

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:AA (original rating) | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 (video rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The producers were going to release the film under the title "The Street Fighter", but when the Sonny Chiba film of the same name came out first (Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken (1974)), they reverted to the original screenplay title.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Chaney shoots up Pettibon's "place", he fires 8 shots from a revolver which only has 5 or 6 chambers.

Quotes:

Jim Henry: [speed is being held hostage by Gandil's thugs] If things don't work out, who gets to do the job on him?
Card player: We take turns.
Jim Henry: Uh-uh. This time, I get to do it.
Speed: That's right; you ain't won one in a while, have you?
[grins at Jim Henry]
Speed: He really cleaned your clock, didn't he?

Movie Connections:

Remade as Sucker Punch (2008)

Bronson's best

No question about that. Great period piece with fantastic action fight scenes and terrific finale. James Coburn is beautiful as an incredibly sleezy frontman for Bronson's stoic warrior. The only downside to this film is Bronson's fanatical obsession with employing his wife, Jill Ireland, in some elevated role in which she typically doesn't belong. A very tiresome habit and a major distraction in this movie, otherwise flawless. 9/10