Bad story, bad actors, bad soundtrack. Not much good about this - except the poor snake which had to endure typecasting of being a bad snake for the rest of it's film career.The snake was the only character that held any interest, but it wasn't in the movie long enough to be given top billing.Anybody else in this POS made horrible decisions to remain in the movie once they received notice of it.What has to be some of the stupidest police ever with absolutely no negotiating skills or sharpshooting skills and horrible police procedure.If the box cover enticed you like it did me...then you already lost. They won, you lost. Don't! Don't let them get you. It's not worth your time - even the final poorly developed shootout or what was of it was so poorly executed.The only good part about this entire thing is the credits rolling at the end to signify that the entire thing is over. Good!

A movie about a kidnapping? Cool. A movie about a kidnapping that degenerates into a hostage crisis? Even better! But howzabout a movie about the kidnapping of a seriously asthmatic kid, that turns into a hostage crisis, while the victims and criminals besieged by the law in a London town house are threatened by an escaped black mamba snake, the world's swiftest and most deadly? What could be better than that? Well, as the 1982 British thriller "Venom" demonstrates, perhaps an all-star group of performers to put this fun-sounding conceit over! Thus, we have an absolutely sterling cast here, consisting, in part, of, uh, Sterling Hayden as the asthmatic boy's supercool grandfather, Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed as the kidnappers (a terrific pair of bad guys, with Oliver's ultimate fate in the film giving new meaning to the old expression "trouser snake"), Sarah Miles as a toxicologist, Nicol Williamson as the police commander in charge of the crisis, and Michael Gough (wasted in a teensy role) as a snake expert. The picture has been directed for maximum suspense by Piers Haggard, with much of that suspense naturally arising from the fact that the viewer can never predict where or when that deadly mamba will raise its ugly head. Any opened drawer, cabinet or door in the picture can serve as a most lethal jack-in-the-box of sorts, and this knowledge keeps us primed and nervous throughout. With the exception of that final ambiguous shot of a snake in the town house's ductwork (I still can't figure out the meaning of that!), I found this film to be thoroughly satisfying and entertaining. And the further good news is that the picture has been given a great-looking treatment by the always dependable folks at Blue Underground. Thanks again, guys!

By all accounts this is basically a formulaic kidnapping flick that would be standard B-movie fare. Having a poisonous snake thrown into the mix only adds to the B-movie feel.However, it is saved by its A-cast. Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, and Nicol Williamson all chew the scenery as only they can (though one has to pity the director, who had to work with the 3 most ornery actors alive at the time). The only disappointment was that Sterling Hayden didn't get more material to work with for what would be his last movie.The other highlight is the fact that they used a real and professionally handled black mamba in most of the scenes. In most movies of this type, they would just throw in a harmless rat snake or something and hope that nobody would notice the difference.

I thought this was a rather fun film with a lot of suspense and a few shocks. It brought back some good memories of seeing some great actors from the past in some good performances; Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski. John Forbes-Robertson is still acting today. And I found out that the actor, Lance Holcomb, who played the kid in the film, a photo that looks like the child all grown up, comes up in Google as a salesperson for a Ford dealership in Washington! Some gruesome attack scenes in the film too! It brought several shocks. The direction is very good and the DVD that Blue Underground released the color is beautiful. Good Extras on the DVD too.