Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

A different way of telling a story

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

This is pretty darn good crime-drama - Peter Falk is our beatnik psycho who deals drugs and likes to kill people. He throws neat-o parties complete with bongo drummers and dancing chicks. But his favorite thing murder - murdering in creative ways (you'll want to think twice before you eat a hamburger after seeing this film... I don't think ground glass is a good seasoning).It's a pretty cool story, some neat cinematography in some scenes, swinging artsy fartsy beatniks, a bit of jazz music and some bongo music, a bit of a dark film overall... makes a pretty good prime time film I think or a late night flick! 7.5/10

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.

This movie is good. The beatnik scene, with its pseudo-intellectualism, is played to the hilt. The atmosphere brought to life via a knowledgeable use of black and white, with good sets and staging, helps a lot. Peter Falk ( and I'd never seen him play a role quit like THIS one before ) comes across as wonderful talent. Frankly, his portrayal of Nico has Oscar nominee written all over it. I've said it before and I say it here again ... Low budget doesn't mean no quality. This movie is good quality. Its a credit to the crime drama genre. And there is a sound psychology to both the plot line and the character development that I liked very much. Think: Peer pressure. The part I thought both funny and prophetic ... Heres the future Colombo with a detective on his tail. The name of the detective? McLeod.

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!