Screen legend Charles Bronson (Rider on the Rain, Mr. Majestyk, Breakheart Pass) is Joe Martin, a quiet American living the quiet life in the South of France renting boats to tourists. He’s happily married to Fabienne (Liv Ullmann, Persona) and has a twelve-year-old daughter named Michèle (Yannick de Lulle). But this quiet man has a past... Ten years before, Joe (then Moran) escaped prison with four other convicts, Captain Ross (James Mason, The Man Between), Whitey (Michel Constantin, Violent City), Fausto (Luigi Pistilli, For a Few Dollars More) and Katanga (Jean Topart, Trap for the Assassin). After witnessing the sadistic ex-mercenary Katanga brutally kill a cop, Joe abandoned his accomplices and left with their getaway car. One night, his peaceful life comes to an end, when the four men re-appear and kidnap his wife and daughter asking the seasoned ex-military Joe to get involved in a shady smuggling operation to save his family’s life. Beautifully shot by Jean Rabier (Les Biches, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and wonderfully directed by James Bond veteran Terence Young (Thunderball, The Rover). Based on the novel Ride the Nightmare by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and co-starring Jill Ireland (Assassination).
