Would you buy a used melon from this man? Mr Majestyk & Sidebar: John Houseman

Although never the greatest actor in the world, Charles Bronson could rise to the occasion when required and deliver a performance that combined coiled violence with humour.

Case(s) in point 1974's Mr Majestyk, St Ives (1976) and Telefon (1978)

Mr Majestyk  benefits greatly from an original script by Elmore Leonard, which gives Bronson (as the titular melon-farmer) a chance to crack wise for a change.

A surprisingly relevant storyline sees Majestyk defending his melon farm and migrant Mexican workforce from an enraged mobster Frank Renda (Al Lettieri) who he ticked off when in prison custody under a false charge.

You may well recognise Lettieri from his memorable performances as Virgil 'The Turk' Sollozzo in The Godfather and Rudy Butler in The Getaway (both 1972).

Here he gives another scary profile in thuggish villainy:

St Ives (1976) sees Bronson essay the role of a laconic Los Angeles shamus hired to retrieve the McGuffin of some mysterious ledgers for millionaire Abner Procane (John Houseman).

Houseman of course was a producer with Orson Welles before he began a second career as actor, where he made an impression in pictures such as The Paper Chase (1974), Three Days of the Condor, Rollerball (both 1975) and The Fog (1980).

The first of no less than nine movies with director J Lee Thompson (Guns of Navarone/Cape Fear), the cast also includes Jacqueline Bisset, Max Schell a young Jeff Goldblum (who also starred with Bronson in 1974's Death Wish) and the always watchable Harris Yulin (Night Moves/Cutthroat Island).

And finally Telefon, a preposterous but enjoyable Cold War thriller directed by the great Don Siegel (Dirty Harry/Charley Varrick)

Of the picture Siegel said "I have to face the fact the story is cockamamie at best, so I've been particularly painstaking to give the movie a feeling of authenticity."

"It was a typical Siegel film," he later said. "It made absolutely no sense. I did the film because basically I'm a whore."

Bronson plays a taciturn KGB agent who teams up with Lee Remick to foil a rogue operative's (Donald Pleasence) revival of a shelved Soviet sabotage campaign in the US.

Sidebar: John Houseman

After mentioning John Houseman in my previous article on Charles Bronson, I was reminded of what a unique presence the producer/director/actor was.

Jerry Seinfeld even went so far as to riff on Houseman's very distinctive way of speaking:

You may recall that he starred as the salty old sea dog Mr Machen at the beginning of John Carpenter's The Fog (1980).

Personally I always felt it slightly odd that such as obviously well-educated elderly gentleman was spending his time spinning spooky yarns to kids or practising bow-line, reef, sheet bend, clove hitch and other nautical knots.

Maybe he just liked hanging out at the beach after dark...

Here's some other classic (and not so classic) Houseman roles: