I think this film is a cut above the general response on the board, and interesting beyond it being the cause of Peter Falk's first (and interesting) lead performance. Unlike the more playful "Bucket Of Blood" this movie is down on the beatnik scene (in the way it's presented here, which may well have never existed) and tacitly blames it for the cruel mayhem at the center of the plot. The acting is fairly good overall. The plot contrivances bring the movie to a fast conclusion, but this is probably all for the best. Well worth seeking out by those who enjoy low budget films trying to work a little thoughtfulness into the mix.

The Bloody Brood would be a much forgotten film except for the presence of Peter Falk in his first big screen role. In his second big screen part that Abe Reles in Murder, Inc., Falk got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I have no doubt that his casting in The Bloody Brood led to the latter breakthrough part.In this film Falk plays part hoodlum, part beatnik who when he sees an old man who delivered newspapers to the club he frequents die of a heart attack, he decides just for kicks to kill somebody. As has been pointed out before, echoes of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and I also might add Compulsion which came out the same year as The Bloody Brood.To satisfy his sick humor Falk feeds a telegraph messenger boy a hamburger with ground glass in it. The police are stymied in their investigation, but the kid's brother Jack Betts doesn't stop until he has the culprits identified and pulls a trick from the beatnik lifestyle to expose the culprits. I should also say that Falk's own greed has a lot to do with his eventual problems.The Bloody Brood was an independent production shot in Canada and at that time Canadian production facilities weren't the greatest. Some of the noir stuff earlier in the decade had better values. Still Falk's performance is mesmerizing and gave a big clue as to what a great talent he developed into.

Poorly acted, poorly scripted, choppy edited, and poorly transfered onto DVD, this film barely gets above sedate pulse rate mode. The plot promises much, man takes investigation of murder into his own hands due to ineptitude of investigating detective, well that last line I wrote is about as good as the film gets !. It would be nice if the villain of the piece was actually villainous, but sadly Peter Falk as Nico just doesn't instill any sort of menace and worse still is that he is surrounded by cartoonish followers who act like they are in a Bugs Bunny cartoon instead of the beatnik classic some seem to think this is.There is no tension worth writing about, and the finale brings about cries of relief that it's over rather than the nod of approval I'm sure the makers were hoping for, I have no idea what the budget for the movie was, but if it was more than the price of a bacon sandwich then the makers should spend 52 weeks in the stocks whilst we throw rancid tomatoes at them.I give it a generous 2/10 for the delightful Jazz beat score and the brave attempt from Barbara Lord to act with any sort of honest dignity in amongst the swamp of pain.Pah.

As a kid I grew up watching Columbo, so seeing "The Bloody Brood" recently was an exciting experience. Falk plays Nico, a drug dealing thug, who hangs out at beatnik parties. Just like in "Rope", he talks about committing murder and getting away with it cuz he's bored with the scene, man! He feeds a hamburger laced with ground glass to kid who dies. The kid's brother starts to investigate the crime and infiltrates the beatnik scene.The hip talk are priceless and Falk is brilliant and scary in his 2nd role - fans of Corman's horrorbeatnik epic "A Bucket Of Blood" (from the same year!) should be able to get their bongodrummin', poetryreadin' thrills! Not for squares, man!