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Venetian Bird
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Wikipedia article
'Venetian Bird' is a 1952 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Richard Todd, Eva Bartok and John Gregson.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044378/plotsummary IMDb Plot Summary: The Assassin] The screenplay was adapted by Victor Canning from his own 1950 novel of the same title. It was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Venice. The film's sets were designed by the art director George Provis. It was released in America by United Artists where it was titled 'The Assassin'.
Production
Michael Balcon originally rejected the idea of a film based on Canning's novel because it was set in Italy and dealt with Italians, not Britons. Betty Box appealed to Earl St John who over-ruled Balcon. Italian censors did require the script clear up the portrayal of political struggles in post-war Venice that were in the novel.[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=UyYTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA386&lpg=PA386&dq=vincent+porter+sue+harper&source=bl&ots=978Q3rMq7B&sig=R2UhMp6T53KbfjIFniBqZYP0amw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLzJmegsPMAhUB_2MKHZcZDfEQ6AEIQzAI#v=onepage&q&f=false 'British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference'] by Sue Harper, Vincent Porter Oxford University Press, 2003 p 38
The film was shot entirely on location in Venice. Box and Thomas decided not to use colour as they felt it would not suit the genre.
Plot
British private detective Edward Mercer (Richard Todd) is employed to travel to Venice and locate an Italian who is to be rewarded for his assistance to an Allied airman during the Second World War. Once he arrives in Italy, however, he becomes mixed up in an assassination plot enveloped in a great deal of mystery. Central to it is whether Renzo Uccello (John Gregson) actually died a few years earlier in World War II or not.
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
* David Hurst as Minelli
* Walter Rilla as Count Boria
* John Bailey as Lieutenant Longo
* Sid James as Bernardo
* Sydney Tafler as Boldesca
* Miles Malleson as Grespi
* Eric Pohlmann as Gostini
References
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