Il boia di Venezia

Set during the Grand Inquisition, this is actually quite an entertaining little bit of Peplum. The Doge of Venice (Feodor Chaliapin Jr) has a handsome young son "Sandrigo" (Lex Barker) who has managed to irritate the Inquisitor "Zeno" (Guy Madison). The latter decides to frame the former for treason, and now it falls to Barker to save both himself and his father, whilst still keeping hold of his lady love "Leonora" (Alessandra Panaro). Luigi Capuano has packed quite a lot into ninety minutes here. The production standards are actually quite high, there is bundles of intrigue and swordplay, a soupçon of romance and Madison plays well as the baddie. The plot is pretty processional, the ending is never in doubt - but this is still quite a watchable action adventure that looks good and flows well.

Costumed actioner set in the city and benefiting from being filmed in and around the canals. the plot has to do with intrigue concerning the titled character and the inquisition. Its a costumed swashbuckler of the sort they don't make any more and rarely did they ever look this good or have such a great sense of place. Its a shame that a good letterboxed version of this film doesn't seem to be out there since the pan and scan version I saw often had confrontations with invisible men (speaking characters have been chopped out of the frame). the cast headed, by Lex Barker and Guy Madison, is quite good, even when dubbed into English. Its a nice movie for a rainy afternoon, when you want to just sit and watch some adventures from a bygone time.

In Venice,during the Inquisition,Sandrigo Bembo,the son of the Doge Giovanni Bembo,is falsely accused of treason out of pure malice by the Grand Inquisitor Rodrigo Zeno.

The villain here is Guy Madison, who is really good as the villain. He schemes and schemes so he can get the fiancee of Lex Barker's character. Lex Barker is in good swashbuckling form, though most of the sword play comes in the last thirty minutes. The first hour mainly consists of court intrigue and schemes. It's a fairly standard Italian costumer but a good villain, swordplay, an interesting lost son and father twist as well as the great Venice locales makes this quite watchable.

This is a great intrigue like from some of the great 19th century operas by the Italian masters, like Verdi and Ponchielli. The first scene introduces the two protagonists, father and son, without their knowing it, in a contest of force, where they have to axe a log, - who cuts the deepest is the winner. The father (Mario Petri) is the official executioner of Venice, a former pirate, and his son has been brought up by the doge (Feodor Chaliapin Jr!) as his own princely son, never suspecting his adoption. The crook of the play is the grand inquisitor (Guy Madison, slightly too handsome for the credibility of a grand inquisitor,) who is jealous of the doge's son who has won the heart of the beauty they both desire, Alessandra Panaro, and he finds out that he is actually the executioner's son. His intrigue amounts to the desired effect to have the executioner execute his own son to let the grand inquisitor acquire the bride, but you can't conceal the truth forever. An important supporting character is Giulio Marchetti as Sandrigo Bembo's (Lex Barker) blind mentor, who sees more than everyone else. To all this luxury of great action, dazzling adventure, flamboyant romanticism and all the magnificent beauty of Venice in a nutshell, is the splendid score by Carlo Rustichelli added, which aptly illustrates everything.

This movie tries to buckle the swash of the type of action costume drama that Errol Flynn, Burt Lancaster or Tyrone Power would headline for a Hollywood studio. For a product of the Spaghetti Western factories and their relatively limited budgets, the spectacle here is exceptional for sets, costumes and cast size. The big group clashes are well-staged, with clanging swords aplenty. And the whole thing comes in a tight 90-minute package, resisting the temptation to drag things out just because of how much they spent to create a lush Venice of yesteryear.

The bad is that Lex is a charisma-impaired hero compared to the aforementioned stars. He looks handsome and hunky enough, but his panache is pallid. Also, the script is about as paint-by-numbers as they come, including the seminal moment that turns the tide for the good guys. Don't watch this for a new experience. It can only satisfy as another bit of time spent in pleasantly familiar territory.

The weird - Anyone who grew up with Guy Madison as Wild Bill Hickock, or saw him as a hero in most of his other films will have some emotional whiplash watching him play this Machiavellian weasel. Even more unsettling in the English dubbed version is the wimpy, reedy voice used for him. Madison's voice was rich and resonant, making the dissonance even more distracting than the anti-type casting. If'n that don't bother you none, you might like this one more than I could.