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Released by: Raunchy Tonk
Released on: 2/24/2009
Director:George King/George King & David MacDonal
Cast: Tod Slaughter
Year:1936
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The Movies:
While the packaging for this Raunchy Tonk DVD release may claim 'Beautifully restored & classically reframed! First time on DVD!' the fact of the matter is that this is a slightly different version of a DVD that Legend House put out in 2008. The only difference? It's got a couple of exclusive extras and better cover art.
Tod Slaughter (born Norman Carter Slaughter) got his start as a stage actor where he spent most of his career playing villains. He proved a natural and a few of the plays he starred in were filmed fast and cheap throughout the 1930s by a film producer named George King, who was able to capitalize on Slaughter's penchant for hamming it up and delivering some deliriously over the top performances. Two of the films that Slaughter made for George King are presented together on this double feature DVD from Legend House....
SWEENEY TODD - THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (1936):
Before Johnny Depp and Tim Burton teamed up for their Oscar winning musical adaptation in 2007, Tod Slaughter brought Britain's most notorious barber to life. Though not the first filmed version of George Dibdin-Pitt's play (two silent versions were shot in the 1920s), it was likely the most widely seen version until Burton resurrected the character thanks to its public domain status, which has resulted in countless low budget home video releases over the years. It was also the first version of the story to be filmed with sound.
Slaughter plays the titular barber who, after taking on an orphan boy to use as his shop assistant, sets about luring in wealthy men to his barber shop. His location, conveniently situated near the ships that the more affluent citizens of London use for international travel, allow him a steady stream of customers. Unfortunately for them, Todd has a trap door in the floor of his shop which drop customers into the basement below. Once they arrive in the basement, Mrs. Lovatt (Stella Rho), who runs the pie shop next door, disposes of the bodies once the loot has been removed.
Todd has one weakness, however - he lusts after Johanna Oakley (Eve Lister). Though she is promised to another, Tobias Rag (Johnny Singer), Todd has a plan to get him out of the equation and to have her all to himself. While she wants nothing to do with him, Sweeney Todd is not a man to take no for an answer.
While the direction and cinematography are a little sloppy and the production values are unimpressive, Slaughter is so into his diabolical role that you can't help but enjoy this cheaply made B-movie. He grimaces and wiggles his fingers around with remarkably sinister enthusiasm and if he overdoes it throughout most of the picture, so much the better, as it adds to the movies darkly humorous slant. While the picture isn't scary, it's completely entertaining and if the plot is thin and predictable, the picture is at least paced very quickly ensuring that even if we know where it's all heading, it's never dull. Slaughter is the real reason to watch this one, however, and his screen presence in this picture is undeniable.
CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE (1940):
The second film on the disc tells us how a madman (Slaughter) kills an Australian named Sir Percival Glyde by hammering a spike into his head while he sleeps, only so that he can assume his identity and steal his inheritance. From there, he does pretty much everything that he can to milk the estate for as much money as possible, all while acting a complete bastard to everyone around him. He soon realizes, however, that his inheritance is nothing but debt and bills and that if he doesn't do something about he's going to wind up in prison.
He impregnates one of the young servant girls and then strangles her before proceeding to trick a wealthy landowner into letting him marry his daughter all so that he can get his hands on more money. Helping 'Sir Glyde' is a sniveling doctor named Isidor Fosco (Hay Petrie), who is just as rat like as he is. On top of all of this is another woman who shows up claiming that Glyde is already married... to her and that they have a child together.
As melodramatic as a film can get, Crimes At The Dark House (based on the novel The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins) finds Tod Slaughter in fine form indeed. He cackles his way through one evil deed after another and chews through the scenery like like a rabid beaver! Hay Petrie is almost as sinister as Slaghter and makes for a great supporting villain, while the rest of the cast are all pretty much there for him to harass or take advantage of. Like Sweeney Todd, this is very cheap film but Slaughter is the reason you'd want to watch this in the first place, not the production values or camera work. At one point he actually twirls his moustache and he threatens to feed some poor sap's entrails to the pigs. Good stuff!
Video/Audio/Extras:
The back of the packaging for this Legend House release states that the two films have been restored for these new transfers taken from some unearthed prints and that they've also been reframed. Without another version on DVD to compare it to, it's hard to demonstrate the difference and, as Legend points out in the supplements, there are still some spots where the tops of people's heads are missing. That said, while neither film looks as good as some of the Universal fare made around the same time, both films are certainly quite watchable here, particularly when you consider their age and their public domain status. Expect to see some print damage throughout as well as periodic wonky contrast but for the most part the black levels stay pretty solid and the black and white picture shows a pretty nice level of detail. These aren't reference quality but they're sharper than previous DVD incarnations from Alpha and Rhino. That said, flagging the films for progressive scan playback would have been nice.
There's a bit of hiss heard pretty much constantly throughout both films on the DVD but it's not that hard to get used to it and while it would have been nice had the audio been cleaned up a bit more, what's here works.
Here's where this release differs slightly from the Legend House release that come out in 2008. Carried from that disc is a seven minute featurette entitled Legend On Slaughter in which Johnny Legend discusses how he came to know the Tod Slaughter films and how he's always wanted to give them a decent DVD presentation. Once Legend is finished talking, we're treated to a couple of trailers for other, unrelated, older gothic horror films.
New to this disc is a segment called Vintage Slaughter Art which is still gallery of four images from a few old Slaughter movies. Also new to this disc is Tod Slaughter Live! (12:37), which is a nifty old radio broadcast of Slaughter and a few unidentified performers delivering an enjoyably horrific tale of terror.
The Final Word:
Tod Slaughter may not get the respect that the Universal legends of horror do, but the two films on this DVD prove him to be a comparable performer. While these pictures might seem hammy by today's standards, they're interesting artifacts of early British horror and Slaughter makes for a completely enjoyable villain.