DONATO AND DAUGHTER

US, 1993, 89 minutes, Colour.
Charles Bronson, Dana Delaney, Xander Berkeley.
Directed by Rod Holcomb.

Donato and Daughter is a routine police thriller. It is in the vein of the series of films made by Charles Bronson focusing on the Family of Cops. Bronson made it when he was seventy, and was to make a few films afterwards including Death Wish V.

He appears as the patriarch of the family, keeping family secrets, tough in his work, risking to sacrifice his reputation for his family. The murder mystery is interesting, the serial killer is murdering nuns. It transpires that he was rejected by a girlfriend when they were young, as she was going to join the convent. He has been vindictive against nuns ever since.

The police person in charge of the case is played by Dana Delaney, playing tough, after her success on television in the series China Beach. She plays Donato's daughter and the screenplay wrings out the tensions between the two, working together on the case with some hostility, finally reaching a reconciliation as her father rescues her from the killer on the top of a building. Xander Berkeley is the self-confident killer.

1. The popularity of this kind of police investigation film? Murder mystery? The police procedures? The audience knowing the murderer before the police and watching the confrontations and chases?

2. The Los Angeles settings, precincts, the apartments, streets? Atmosphere of authenticity?

3. The title and its focus on the father and daughter, the family relationships, the tensions, the love? Working together, clashes? Reconciliation?

4. The opening, the murder, the beginning of the investigation? The victims as nuns, the horror of their rapes and murders? The superior and her reluctance to collaborate? The discovery about Dorothy leaving the killer in order to enter the convent? Her death? Subsequent murders? The murderer masquerading as a nun? The nuns accepting him - in his disguise as a policeman escorting the nun to her convent?

5. The personality of Mike Donato, rough, success on the force, his bashing people? The secret about his son being a drug addict and his not telling the rest of the family? The strained relationship with his daughter, knowing that she was strong but not affirming her? His wife, her exasperation, her having to leave the city, an ultimatum to her husband that things would have to change? Her living with tension?

6. Dina and her abilities, in charge of the squad, selecting it, the interactions with her father, the squad observing the relationship? Her skills, the interrogations, the information, the footwork? Her father interpreting her and her reaction? The discovery of the murderer, the confrontation, the interview with the eccentric artist, discovering that the killer was supremely self-confident, resenting the psychological description put out, feeling humiliated?

7. The psychologist, the television conference, her profile? Putting out the opposite? The provocation of the killer, with his wife, his disguises, the rapes and murders? Business, dinners? The restraining order? The Donatos driving past him, having their meals? The confrontations, visit to his apartment? Their going back, his wanting to destroy the evidence, stabbing his wife?

8. Dina going to the apartment, the confrontation with her, her saying that she wanted to apologise, discovering the dying woman? The police coming, his taking her as hostage, her father following to the roof? The helicopter, the police and the confrontation?

9. The members of the squad, sardonic, reluctant to work with a woman, their friendship with Mike Donato? The pregnant woman, the pathos of her being killed? Being observed by the killer, his photographs?

10. A satisfying entertainment, murder investigation, portrait of a serial killer, a family of cops, tensions and reconciliation?