Venetian Bird (1952)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Perfect cast and a good story

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie is obviously a competent adaptation of a book. It is pretty good, if you like grade B noir, and we do, but the most fun is seeing familiar faces playing against type and/or putting on Italian accents.The villain in particular was a shocker, as I'd only seen him in light comedies. The most fun was looking up the bios of the actors on IMDb. It is one of those ones where a lot of the actors played roles in WWII themselves, some of them more dramatic than the parts they play here.IMDb requires 10 (!) lines of text, so I will say the pigeons of Venice are amazing, some of the best lines are idiotic in context, and why have a chase scene in a glass factory if you aren't going to break any glass? I guess they didn't have the budget as they filmed in a real glass factory. And, IMDb, "bios" is not a misspelling of BIOS, it is a common term for biography.

Just 7 years following WWII, Italy was just regaining it's favored nation status with Europe. And to reward a countryman for Anti-Nazi actions, a detective is sent to track one man down for proved to be a hero assisting the Allies against the Nazis only to discover he is recorded in public records as dying as a hero. As the story plays out, political intrigue enters the picture as attempts are to be put into place that will ruin the up-coming elections. The police are suspicious to a degree of the detective and keep him under watch. The plot to 'assassinate' the political front runner is directed toward the detective by the true perpetrators for cover. There is much of a Hitchcock-type landscape throughout the movie with twists and turns and intrigue that ends with moment to moment wonder... Will the truth unfold? Will the true assassin be exposed? Will the police get the right person?

This film, although not as well-crafted as THE THIRD MAN or THE MAN BETWEEN, is definitely in their league; it's a taut, post-war mystery in which a European city (in this case, Venice) is one of the most important characters. The main human character, Edward Mercer (Richard Todd), is a Hitchcockian protagonist: a man trying to prove his innocence in ever more dire circumstances.The plot does get convoluted at times, but director Ralph Thomas always keeps your eyes interested with wonderful location shots. The cast is solid, and Sid James is given a rare dramatic role. The ending, also with Hitchcockian overtones, is thrilling and a fine bit of camera work and direction. (May I recommend that after you finish the film, go back and watch the first few minutes again. You'll see how cleverly the motifs of the film are tied together.)

Dapper, debonair, Brit Richard Todd runs around Venice (in a nicely tailored suit) trying to detect and derail an evil plot.The best part of this is quite early, when we're not sure if Todd is a hero or a villain. Unfortunately they neutralize any of Todd's threat much too early and jump headlong into fairly disposable conventions (the burden of a female lead arrives). Todd's moral ambiguity ends far too soon, and once he's shown to be a run-of-the-mill straight shooter, things get less interesting.Still it does not look like a B noir. There's more than competent lighting, surprisingly difficult camera moves (carried off smoothly) and a serious mood. Talented people are at work. It's Hitchcockian, almost Welles-ian (George Couloris is in it). How many B Noirs are filmed on location in Venice? For that matter, how many A noirs are? It's shockingly cynical for this era (likewise for Frank Capra's State of the Union '48, and All the Kings Men '49). It has a few smart, bracing lines in it: "When a man faces a blank wall, he turns round and come back. But put him on the wrong path and he'll never come back." "Sometimes changing your habits at the right time is all it takes to save your life"As I watched, I wondered if this was the template for Ian Fleming's Bond? Did 'The International' borrow a ton from this? Both end with a rooftop pursuit. Richard Todd even resembles Clive Owen a bit. Far inferior things were made in the States that are still available (Frank Sinatra in Suddenly! ???) while this remains obscure.