The Bloody Brood (1959)

Director:

Julian Roffman

Writers:

Anne Howard Bailey (story)
Ben Kerner (writer)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Your shocked eyes will see it... your stunned mind won't believe it... Never before... has vice and violence struck with such frightening force!

Plot:

Two beatniks get their kicks by dealing drugs and violence. |

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Glass | Fragments Of Glass | Delinquent | Party

Cast

Jack Betts	...	Cliff
Barbara Lord	...	Ellie
Peter Falk	...	Nico
Robert Christie	...	Detective McLeod
Ron Hartmann	...	Francis
Anne Collins	...	A Model
Bill Bryden	...	Studs
George Sperdakos	...	Ricky
Ron Taylor	...	Dave
Michael Zenon	...	Weasel
William R. Kowalchuk	...	Roy (as Bill Kowalchuk)
Sammy Sales	...	Louis
Kenneth Wickes	...	Paul the Poet
Carol Starkman	...	Blonde Neighbor
Rolf Colstan	...	Stephanex

Runtime:

80 min | USA:88 min (DVD)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Finland:(Banned) (1961)

Filming Locations:

Meridian Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Julian Roffman Productions

Movie Connections:

Edited into Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 9 (2002) (V)

Oh those terrible beatniks

This well-made thriller reveals the dark, criminal past of Lt. Columbo! A then unknown, screen-debuting Peter Falk plays the arrogant, manipulative, decadent, beatnik psycho Nico, who peddles drugs and like to commit the ultimate crime. He even has a submissive partner in crime. Nico gives a young delivery boy a sandwich with ground glass. The boy dies, and his older brother vows revenge and investigate the beatnik scene. And old detective warns him though: "Don't play a hero. Heroes die." The story is obviously based on the case of Leopold and Loeb, that earlier held inspiration for 'The Rope'. Similaryly, 'The Bloody Brood' faces the problem of having all mystery eliminated from the start. Yet it still manage to create some decent, hardboiled suspense scenes. However, the true fun is the exposure of the beatnik scene. The movie isn't very kind to the scene at all, and is once interrupted by a very moralizing dialog. Yet it totally win over with the colorful characters, set decorations and language. The opening features Nico and his gang in a coffeehouse talking about, how "the world is falling apart thanks to the eggheads", while an old hobo dies next to them! Nico also has two biker-henchmen for his drug deals, where one of them use a fork (!) as a weapon! The actors are mostly pretty good in these far out roles. In a party scene we get shot of a girl dancing in leotard. I don't know who she is or if she has been in any other movies, but she is absurdly beautiful and sexy. I think it is the same who do a topless (nipples obscured) modeling in another scene. Falk is a lot less squint-eyed here than he later was used to. Personally, I enjoy this a lot more than any Columbo movie.