Venetian Bird

Unrated

4/22/19531h 34m

Theatrical Release (US)

Overview:

Private eye Edward Mercer travels to Venice to locate a man due a reward for his aid in the war. Shortly after arriving, he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his local contact. In his quest to clear his name, Mercer uncovers a conspiracy. Even the local magistrate seems to be working against him, and Mercer begins to suspect the man he came to find is behind it all.

Director:

Ralph Thomas

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

coup d'etat
british noir
private detective

Cast

Richard Todd

~ as ~

Edward Mercer

Eva Bartok

~ as ~

Adriana Medova

John Gregson

~ as ~

Renzo Uccello

George Coulouris

~ as ~

Chief of Police Spadoni

Margot Grahame

~ as ~

Rosa Melitus

Walter Rilla

~ as ~

Count Boria

John Bailey

~ as ~

Lieutenant Longo

Sid James

~ as ~

Bernardo

Martin Boddey

~ as ~

Gufo

Michael Balfour

~ as ~

Moretto

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 2 year(s) ago
6
Richard Todd is PI "Mercer" who is sent to Venice by a grateful French insurer to track down a man whom they want to reward for his sterling service during WWII. On arrival, however, things start to go seriously pear shaped, corpses abound and soon he must stay one step ahead of traitors and police alike as he tries to fathom out what's going on - and to save his own bacon. Despite a cast including a glamorous but rather static Eva Bartok ("Adriana"); an efficient George Coulouris as the dodgy Police chief "Spadoni" and an oddly cast John Gregson ("Uccello") this film doesn't really catch fire. Maybe it's the fallibility of the underlying premiss, or the really stilted performance of Todd - either way, it doesn't really go anywhere for much of it's 95 minutes and but for quite an exciting rooftop chase near the end, would probably sink without trace. The writing and direction needed much more pace, the story isn't developed nearly so much as it could have been and I was sadly disappointed by the rather meagre end product.