This Amazon Prime banner - taken from a Blue Underground Blu-ray/DVD cover - sees salacious use of Susan George's fleeting black underwear scene.
BASED on Alan Scholefield's novel, this all-star mess at least made a change in an era of slashers and overblown make-up effects. Young asthmatic Philip Hopkins (Lance Holcomb) and his grandfather Howard (Sterling Hayden) - part of a wealthy hotelier family - are kidnapped by their chauffeur Dave (Oliver Reed), nanny Louise (Susan George) and her terrorist lover Jacmel (Klaus Kinski). With Philip's mother Ruth (Cornelia Sharpe) flying to Rome to meet her husband, the plan starts to unravel early, as Dave kills Police Sergeant Nash (John Forbes-Robertson) at the doorstep, and Philip brings home a Black Mamba in a mix-up between a pet store and the London Institute of Toxicology. When Dr Marion Stowe (Sarah Miles) receives a harmless snake in error, she too is ensnared inside the house thanks to the bungled negotiations of Commander Bulloch (Nicol Williamson). To add to the star power, Michael Gough appears late on as London Zoo's real life Snake handler David Ball, who acted as advisor.
VENOM's behind the scenes troubles are more famous than the finished product. Original director Tobe Hooper and cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond quit after ten days, citing obligatory "creative differences." Kinski has boasted that the cast and crew contrived to have Hooper replaced, and Piers Haggard - drafted in with little preparation - stated in a Fangoria interview that Hooper suffered "some sort of nervous breakdown." Apparently, the main problem was the caustic relationship between Reed and Kinski ("they fought like cats" claims Haggard), so much so that Piers claims the Black Mamba was one of the more congenial members of the production. Additionally, Hayden spent most of his time on set drunk, which accounts for his extremely uneven showing.
VENOM should be given kudos for having the audacity
of casting Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed in the same movie.