Vendetta

Fritz Leiber has been assassinated. Proof in court has demonstrated that it was done by the bandit Donald Buka. However his daughter, Faith Domergue, believes the notes was forged and that he was assassinated by the family of Joseph Calleia because he believed in justice and ruled against him in court. She is intent on her vendetta. However, he brother, George Dolenz, who has been away for ten years fighting in war, believes in the rule of law, as does his fiancee, the English Hillary Brooke.

What do you get when three different screenwriters attack a Prosper Merimee story, which is that directed by five different directors, two cinematographers, and the biggest star is Nigel Bruce? A mes is what, with sexual innuendo of every variety dripping over the boggy set? You get an estimated four million dollar turkey produced by Howard Hughes -- who apparently was an uncredited sixth director of some reshot scenes) which took four years from initial shooting to getting released. Critics and the public were unkind to the movie, and it's easy to see and hear why: while every shot is fine, it just goes around and around until the bandit points a gun at a witness and he says he perjured himself, but all you can hear is Roy Webb's score quoting the same phrase from Puccini over and again.

The IMDb claims that Don Siegel was asked to look at the movie and salvage what he could from it. He fell asleep while screening it and said that Hughes was insane.