The Lion of St. Mark

Luigi Capuano made significant savings :for this movie and " il boia di Venezia" , he used the same settings (the palace , the tavern, even the convent !) and the same scenes of the carnival ,complete with masks and farandoles. Two movies for the price of one!

As Lex Barker was the son of a doge in the other swashbuckler , so is Gordon Scott ;but the screenplay is botched, less interesting than that of "il boia " ,and the hero is some kind of Zorro (the lion of Saint Mark ) who does not like his aristocratic fiancé and who falls for a woman pirate (Gianna Maria Canale); the rest is so predictable that no surprise lies in store for the viewer ; the cinematography is splendid, but the paucity of the story does not help .

If you want to see a swashbuckler set in Venice, take "il boia " instead. Not much food for thought ,but entertaining all the same!