Mordfall Tizian

One of the many movies made in the former Yugoslavia during the 1960s that is completely forgotten today is OPERATION TITIAN (1963). Itt was never released in America in the original version, instead it appeared as 3 different movies. There was PORTRAIT IN TERROR (1965) which was a shortened version shown only on TV. Then it was completely altered, combined with new footage and released to drive-ins in 1966 as part of a horror/sci-fi double bill. It was rechristened BLOOD BATH and now dealt with an insane painter who kills his models and then covers them in wax. It was altered again with additional footage when BATH was sold to TV as TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE with the painter turned into the title character.

I shall deal only with the original which has been rarely seen and deserves better. It all started in 1962 when Roger Corman went to Croatia (then Yugoslavia) to produce a feature film utilizing local performers and filmmakers. It was to be an International crime thriller involving a stolen portrait by Italian Renaissance master Titian. The two principal male roles were to be played by American actor William Campbell and Irish actor Patrick Magee. They had already worked with Corman on two movies that were shot in Ireland, THE YOUNG RACERS and DEMENTIA 13 which were both released in 1963. TITIAN was filmed in 6 weeks in the Fall of 1963 right after the other 2 movies.

The plot of the original involves a mediocre artist, who is descended from an aristocratic Italian family. He makes a deal with an Irish confederate who will steal his uncle's priceless Titian painting, sell it to a collector, and then they will split the proceeds. As so frequently happens with crimes committed in movies, things go terribly wrong. The Irishman kills the uncle while stealing the painting only to discover that it's a fake and the real Titian has vanished. So what happened to it and who has it? The artist, his former girlfriend, the Irishman's overnight acquaintance (an exotic dancer who performed earlier in the movie), or somebody else? Because of the uncle's murder, the Yugoslavian police become involved and then things spiral out of control. The ending comes as something of a surprise.

While OPERATION TITIAN is nothing extraordinary, the movie is entertaining and for those who like exotic locales in their movies , you get to see the resort city of Dubrovnik before the Balkan wars of the 1990s. All of the principal supporting players were from Dubrovnik. They could speak English so dubbing isn't an annoyance but their Slavic names were Westernized in the credits. If you enjoy international intrigue and are looking for something off the beaten track, then OPERATION TITIAN will fill the bill nicely. It is available on YouTube in the original and TV versions and as part of a special Blu-ray set from Arrow Video which contains all 4 incarnations...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Operation Ticijan (1963)

** (out of 4)

Ugo Bonacic (Vjekoslav Afric) is murdered in the still of the night and it appears to have been done due to a painting that he owned. As the police investigate his murder there's an American (William Campbell) who might have some sort of connection to the painting.

It's weird how film history works. Obviously there are masterpieces that continue to gain new fans each and every year. Then you've got some of the worst movies ever made that get a cult following because people want to see how bad they are. You've then got other types of movies that are known for one reason or another. In between the awful and the great movies are films that are just rather blah from start to finish, which is what we have with OPERATION TICIJAN.

Roger Corman helped fund this movie but when it was finished he realized that it wasn't sell-able so his producer brain kicked in. The film would eventually be released in a TV package with a shorter running time under the title PORTRAIT IN TERROR. Not happy with that, Corman would also have Jack Hill film new scenes and would release this version as BLOOD BATH. Finally, that version was too short for television so another director was hired to film even more new scenes and this version became known as TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE.

As far as OPERATION TICIJAN goes, it's a fairly well-made movie but there's just nothing here that makes it great or awful so what we're left with is a decent movie that would probably be forgotten if it weren't for the various versions of it that would be released over the years. It turns out that this original version was the least seen of all four and even though it features Campbell and Patrick Magee (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) it just doesn't have anything too interesting in it. There's some nice cinematography throughout the picture but the story is just downright confusing and never makes too much sense. Even worse is that the 95 minute running time feels twice as long.