DEAD PIGEON ON BEETHOVEN STREET (KRESSIN UND DIE TOTE TAUBE IN DER BEETHOVENSTRASSE)

(director/writer: Sam Fuller; cinematographer: Jerzy Lipman; editor: Liesgret Schmitt-Klink; music: Can; cast: Glenn Corbett (Sandy), Christa Lang (Christa), Anton Diffring (Mensur), Eric P. Caspar (Charlie), Alex D’Arcy (Novak), Stéphane Audran (call girl); Runtime: 103; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Joachim von Mengershausen; Video Dimensions; 1972)
“This pic stinks more than a week old dead pigeon.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Made for German TV. The American B-film auteur Sam Fuller (“Run of the Arrow”/”Verboten!”/”Park Row”) stubs his toe on this misfire, an inept crime thriller shot in Germany. This pic stinks more than a week old dead pigeon. It’s bludgeoned to death by a stupid story and wooden acting from its stars Glenn Corbett and Christa Lang (Mrs. Fuller in real life).

An ambitious American senator is blackmailed with a nude photo of him and a hooker, and hires private detective Sandy (Glenn Corbett) to go to Germany to get the negative. In Germany Sandy’s partner is executed, and after investigating further Sandy discovers the girl in the photo is Christa (Christa Lang). He manipulates the femme fatale by drugging her coffee and getting her to think he’s also a blackmailer. Sandy thereby gets Christa to lead him to the international extortion ring’s big cheese, Mensir (Anton Diffring). It thankfully climaxes with a shootout in Bonn, at the street where the Beethoven museum is located, and the not too thrilling thriller mercifully ends with the killing of the pigeon (the loser).

This tongue-in-cheek film, shot toward the end of Fuller’s colorful career in film, is not funny. It might interest only completists of the crusty director.

REVIEWED ON 7/24/2013 GRADE: C