St. Ives (Blu-ray)

Ex-crime reporter Raymond St. Ives (Charles Bronson) has elegant taste, a yen for gambling, and an unfinished novel in his typewriter. When he crosses paths with a sinister man by the name of Procane, he gets something else: a price on his head. St. Ives is a hard-boiled update of classic mystery thrillers, particularly The Maltese Falcon. Charles Bronson is smoothly right as the clever title character, at odds with petty crooks and high rollers, among them Maximilian Schell as a whining lackey and Jacqueline Bisset as a modern femme fatale. But the show is stolen by John Houseman as the devilish Procane, a worthy successor to Sydney Greenstreet. Elisha Cook, Daniel J. Travanti, Jeff Goldblum, and Robert Englund are also featured in this sleek, funny caper.