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Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Posted By: ChumPaa
Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)
A Film by Ralph Thomas
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | MPEG 2 | 4:3 | 1h 34min | 720x480 | 29.97 fps | AC3 2ch 192Kbps
Lang: English | Subs: None | Cover | 3.50 GB
Genre: Mystery | Thriller

IMDB
IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
Directed by: Ralph Thomas
Starring: Richard Todd, Eva Bartok, John Gregson

Storyline: Private detective Edward Mercer goes to Venice at the request of a French insurance company to locate a brave Italian whom they wish to reward for his part in the rescue of an Allied airman shot down during the war. At least, that is what Mercer thinks as he steps off the steamer at the Piazza San Marco and is greeted by a smiling street photographer, Cassana. Mercer makes his way to a shop and finds his first contact dead from a knife stab, and the trail leads him to Adrianna. He faces danger from police chief Spaloni and also from a group of foreign patriots, led by Count Borian and Lieutenant Longo, who want to use him as a stool-pigeon for a planned Coup d'Etat. A hectic race across the roof tops, high above the great square, brings Mercer to grips against his unknown enemy.
JohnHowardReid at IMDB wrote:
A millionaire hires a private detective to find and reward a wartime partisan who saved his life. Unfortunately, the man does not want to be found. Sound familiar? It ought to be. "Family Plot" is a blatant variation.

One of the best cinema translations of a mystery thriller ever made, the pacily-directed "Venetian Bird" started life as a gripping page-turner by Victor Canning who was, most fortunately, called upon to write the screenplay from his own book by astute producer, Betty Box, who saw to it that a fine cast of players headed by Richard Todd, Eva Bartok and Walter Rilla were assembled and flown to the suitably noirish Venice locations where the film was actually photographed.

From its attention-grabbing credits superimposed on a high angle over St Mark's Square, and underlined by Nino Rota's superlatively evocative music score, to the thrilling conclusion in that same square (astutely borrowed from Orson Welles' "The Stranger"), "Venetian Bird" is a high-flying movie. (What idiot changed Victor Canning's most appropriate title to "The Assassin"? No wonder all the movie's fans live abroad! The American title gives half the plot away before a patron even enters the theater or switches on the TV. As he twiddles his thumbs while he sits through all the now non-suspenseful exposition of the first half of the film, the American viewer must wonder why all the on-screen characters are so incredibly stupid. If you know the plot even before Richard Todd swings into action—and "swings" is the word, because he performs all his own breathtaking stunts—and the super-lovely Eva Bartok brings an otherwise spellbinding touch of mystery to her enigmatic role, you may well conclude that "Venetian Bird", despite all its atmospheric trappings, is no masterpiece of suspense.

All the same, it's still difficult to downgrade Ernest Steward's strikingly somber, moody camera-work, or the charisma of the players. Only the normally reliable John Gregson fails to convince. Fortunately, his part is small. The support cast is otherwise in the reliable hands of people like Walter Rilla's delightfully suave and sinister villain, and Margot Grahame's fine-tuned, carelessly guiltless charmer.
Screenshots:

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)

Venetian Bird / The Assassin (1952)