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The Mechanic

  • 1972
  • PG
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
17K
YOUR RATING
Charles Bronson in The Mechanic (1972)
Watch Trailer [EN]
Play trailer1:07
1 Video
99+ Photos
CaperSpyActionCrimeThriller

An aging hitman befriends a young man who wants to be a professional killer. Eventually it becomes clear that someone has betrayed them.An aging hitman befriends a young man who wants to be a professional killer. Eventually it becomes clear that someone has betrayed them.An aging hitman befriends a young man who wants to be a professional killer. Eventually it becomes clear that someone has betrayed them.

  • Director
    • Michael Winner
  • Writers
    • Lewis John Carlino
    • Monte Hellman
  • Stars
    • Charles Bronson
    • Jan-Michael Vincent
    • Keenan Wynn
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.8/10
    17K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Michael Winner
    • Writers
      • Lewis John Carlino
      • Monte Hellman
    • Stars
      • Charles Bronson
      • Jan-Michael Vincent
      • Keenan Wynn
    • 123User reviews
    • 65Critic reviews
    • 51Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer [EN]
    Trailer 1:07
    Trailer [EN]

    Photos106

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    Top cast39

    Edit
    Charles Bronson
    Charles Bronson
    • Arthur Bishop
    Jan-Michael Vincent
    Jan-Michael Vincent
    • Steve McKenna
    Keenan Wynn
    Keenan Wynn
    • Harry McKenna
    Jill Ireland
    Jill Ireland
    • The Girl
    Linda Ridgeway
    • Louise
    Frank DeKova
    Frank DeKova
    • The Man
    • (as Frank De Kova)
    James Davidson
    James Davidson
    • Intern
    Lindsay Crosby
    Lindsay Crosby
    • Policeman
    • (as Lindsay H. Crosby)
    Steve Cory
    • Messenger
    Tak Kubota
    • Yamoto
    • (as Takayuki Kubota)
    Patrick O'Moore
    Patrick O'Moore
    • Old Man
    Martin Gordon
    • American Tourist
    Celeste Yarnall
    Celeste Yarnall
    • The Mark's Girl
    Athena Lorde
    • Old Woman
    Alison Rose
    • Young Girl
    Howard Morton
    • Car Polish Man
    Enzo Fiermonte
    Enzo Fiermonte
    • The Mark
    Gerald Peters
    • Butler
    • Director
      • Michael Winner
    • Writers
      • Lewis John Carlino
      • Monte Hellman
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews123

    6.817.1K
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    Featured reviews

    9saykeng

    Watch Charles Bronson in his best action role!

    Since the sixties, most of the movies in which I have watched Charles Bronson, he was always the tough guy...gritty man of action...macho man (The Great Escape, Magnificent Seven, Chato's Land, Mr Majestyck, Death Wish I to IV, Family of Cops I to III, Telefon, Murphy's Law, Red Sun, 10 to Midnight, The Evil That Men Do...) except for one, The Sandpiper, in which he played a painter, opposite Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor. I have always enjoyed watching his movies.

    I consider this particular one as the best of his action movies.

    The storyline is pretty straight-forward, except for an unexpected twist at the end: A contract hit-man, seemingly about to retire, took on a cocky young man as protégé, who eventually turned the table on the master.

    Charles Bronson, played the contract hit-man (hence, the name, The Mechanic), Arthur Bishop. He was a loner but had expensive tastes. He worked for a sinister group known only as The Organisation, which issued all the contract hits. (It so happened that all the hits were criminals.) He took on Steve McKenna (played menacingly by Jan-Michael Vincent) as his protégé. His mind was cold as ice & apparently twisted. They screwed up one hit assignment while working together, after which The Organisation, was upset & put out a contract on Bishop. Apparently, McKenna took up the contract. The rest of the movie was a battle of wits among the two hit men.

    What struck me most about the movie was the quiet characterization of a contract hit during the first fifteen minutes or so. No dialog at all,...only a very sober music score. Bishop studied the habits, life-style & schedule of his target, with meticulous observation & detailed planning. Thereafter, the movie went on to show Bishop, working with McKenna, going after different targets - each with different circumstances & each executed differently...ruthlessly, of course. The hot-pursuit action sequences - there were many of them - in the movie were beautifully orchestrated,...really exciting, especially the motor-cycle chase segment.

    There seemed to be one puzzling part in the movie: McKenna happened to be the son of one of Bishop's hit victims. Bishop knew McKenna's father, Big Harry (played by Keenan Wynn) since he was a kid. In fact, Big Harry was an associate of Bishop's own father, who also happened to be a founding father of The Organisation. I can only conclude this way: hit men have certainly to be cold-blooded animals. Not only that, they have to be calculatingly efficient in their work.

    The last fifteen minutes of the movie were quite unexpected. I would have preferred a totally different outcome. Go & watch this movie to find out what I meant.

    On the whole, I find The Mechanic, to be an intelligent action thriller, with Charles Bronson in his best action role!
    7claudio_carvalho

    Murder Is Only Killing without a License

    The forty-two year old hit-man Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is frequently hired to kill without a trace and he carefully studies the profiles of his victims to find the perfect and clean way to execute them.

    When he is hired to kill "Big" Harry McKenna (Keenan Wynn), who was a former friend of his father, Arthur meets his son Steve McKenna (Jan- Michael Vincent) asking money to Harry at home. Later in Harry's funeral, Steve asks for a ride to Arthur and they become very close. Arthur finds potential in the twenty-four year old Steve to become a professional killer and he invites the youngster to form a partnership with him. However his attitude displeases the Powers that Be and Arthur is sent to Naples to kill a mobster. Arthur finds a file about him in a drawer at Steve's house but he invites Steve to travel with him to Italy. Sooner they learn that someone wants them to see Naples and die.

    "The Mechanic" is an engaging film by Michael Winner with another great performance of Charles Bronson in the role of a "mechanic", meaning a hired hit-man that kills his victims without leaving a trace. One of the best lines in this film is when he tells to Steve that murder is only killing without a license. Jan-Michael Vincent has one of his best performances in the role of a youngster that believe that he has learned how to lure an experienced man. My vote is seven.

    Title (Brazil): "Assassino a Preço Fixo" ("Killer at a Fixed Price")
    7sol1218

    Charles Bronson Thriller with a wallop of an ending

    Fascinating film about the life and lifestyle of a professional hit-man, a Mechanic, and how dangerous that lifestyle can be not just for the person that gets "Hit" but also for the "Hitman" himself. Arthur Bishop, Charles Bronson, is the top "Mechanic" in the business and we see in the beginning of the movie how he does his job.

    Getting his orders through the mail Bishop sets up his victim by casing out his hotel room and then planting an explosive in his bookcase and rigging his gas-range to leak slowly so he wouldn't notice. Then wait hidden ,across the street facing his intended victim's room, until the time is right for him to get off a shot. Not at the victim but at the bookcase to make it look like the he died in a tragic accident instead of an assassins bullet.

    You see this all happening in the first fifteen minutes of the movie without a single word of dialog but it's done so well that you know exactly what's happening on the screen. The "hit job" that Bishop had at the start of the movie turned out to be a flaming success.

    One afternoon Bishop gets a call from a old friend "Big" Harry, Keenan Wynn. McKenna about some trouble he's having with the organization and if Bishop can help him out. Being that Bishop's father was one of the founders of the organization "Big" Harry feels he can get whatever trouble he has with it smooths out. Bishop tells "Big" Harry he'll see what he could do.

    The next morning Bishop gets an envelope in the mail from the organization for his next hit and the person Bishop is contracted to knock off is non other then "Big" Harry. Going through the motions as usual Bishop plans his "Hit" on "Big" Harry with cold calculations and no emotions at all even though he knew "Big" Harry since he was a little boy.

    Getting "Big" Harry to meet him in a secluded place by the beach Bishop takes a number of shot at him but not trying to kill him but to induce "Big" Harry to have a fatal heart attack which he does. This is doe by Bishop so that the police and maybe even his fellow mobsters wouldn't be suspicious of any foul play in "Big" Harry's death.

    "Big" Harry's son Steve, Jan-Michael Vincent who Bishop met when he came to see "Big" Harry begins to take a very strong liking to him after his fathers death. It's as if Steve wanted Bishop to be his fathers replacement. Even though at the time when Bishop saw Steve with his father they weren't exactly that close and Steve seemed to have a dislike and resentment for his dad even at his funeral that Bishop attended.

    It seems that Steve wants to become a "Mechanic" like Bishop and wants to learn the tools of the trade from him, who's the best in the business. Steve likes Bishop's pad in the country and fancy sports car and most of all the danger of his job that is very exciting for the young man who was bored with his life of unending parties. You start to wonder if thats really the reason Steve is so interested to be around Bishop? Does Steve want to get even with Bishop, who Steve seems to know, killed his father? And why does Bishop seem to be so agreeable with Steve in teaching him about the art of killing in secret? Or is Bishop not as naive as he seems to be and is setting Steve up for something?

    Intelligent film about the dirty business of the assassination game with Charles Bronson and Jan- Michael Vincent very good as cold-blooded killers who show no emotion at what they do. Slow in the action department, for a Charles Bronson movie, at first but better acted and written then most of the movies that he made back then in the 1970's. With an ending that's one of the best and most surprising finals you'll ever see in any movie.
    9lotus_chief

    A classic! One of the greatest movie endings EVER!

    Classic Charles Bronson. I've only recently really started getting more into his older films; I'm fluent with the Death Wish series. The Mechanic is one of his best, if not one of THE best action/thriller films I've seen. Very cleverly done, particularly his methods of killing. I also like the term used to describe assassins; that's new to me. The movie had me intrigued throughout, with Bronson playing the part very well; very few people could look as wrong as Bronson. But it's the ending that makes the movie that much better, because it's totally unexpected. I want to 'spoil' it so bad but I won't....although other user reviews here may have already. I'll just say that you'll be completely amped afterwards, your jaw will drop to the floor at how cool and unexpected it is. One of the true classic action films; the rating on here should be higher.

    ***1/2 out of **** stars.
    7bronsonskull72

    * * * 1/2 OUT OF FIVE

    Effective thriller stars Bronson as Arthur Bishop who teaches a younger assassin named Steve McKenna (Jan-Michael Vincent) the tricks of the trade. The Mechanic emerges at break-neck pace but once it gets started it becomes an engrossingly savage thriller. Also watch for the twist ending.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This picture is notable for a motorcycle stunt where a motorbike rider, at the end of a long chase, rides his bike off a 200 foot cliff. Husqvarna motorcycles were specially adapted to film the chase hitting speeds of nearly 110 miles per hour while filming on location at Indian Dunes, Newhall, California.
    • Goofs
      The Fiat car used by the Mechanic in the case in Naples area is blown up. However the car is used again a few minutes later. Not only is the registration plate the same, it still has only one brake light working.
    • Quotes

      [last lines]

      Arthur Bishop: [voiceover as Steve reads note] Steve, if you read this, it means I didn't make it back. It also means you've broken a filament controlling a 13-second delay trigger. End of game. Bang! You're dead.

    • Alternate versions
      The 1988 UK Warner video release was cut by 7 secs by the BBFC to remove closeup shots of a lock picking. The cuts were restored in the 2004 MGM DVD.
    • Connections
      Edited into The Clock (2010)
    • Soundtracks
      String Quartet Op.18 No.6 (2nd Movement)
      Written by Ludwig van Beethoven

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    FAQ15

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 7, 1972 (Italy)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • MGM
      • Official announcement
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Killer of Killers
    • Filming locations
      • 1235 Sierra Alta Way, Los Angeles, California, USA(Arthur Bishop's house)
    • Production companies
      • Chartoff-Winkler Productions
      • Carlino Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $10,000,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 40 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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