I've recently been on a Tod Slaughter binge and this was one of the films I saw along the way.
Fans of his may be surprised to know that he plays it totally straight here. He is The Snake, a supervillain along the lines of Moriarty, who runs some kind of group of gangsters who somehow control most of the crime in the world.
So, as you can probably guess, we're in solid pulp territory here. Our hero is the supremely bland Sexton Blake, whose interesting traits include whatever they nicked from Basil Rathbone's Holmes, but played with none of the charm.
And he ruins the film.
Blake is Holmes. He even lives on Baker Street. But even though the film desperately tries to portray him as this super intelligent hero, he's actually just a bit dim.
An early example of this is when he fails to recognise what co-ordinants are in a clue he comes across (despite being able to tell where a man is from just by looking).
Our hero then goes on to blow a French operative's cover while being a condescending jerk towards her.
"This is no place for a woman!" He says, even though she's already infiltrated the big baddie's organisation and he's JUST catching onto the fact that they exist.
His meddling gets him captured about halfway through the film in the most ridiculous way. The idiot runs towards the baddie (instead of shooting him) and falls down a hole into a net. He then has to be saved by the very woman who he said he had "rescued one too many times before".
It plays almost like a satire of the men's adventure story and hero. Blake bumbles along, not getting anywhere or generating any real evidence, and all along the female French operative played by the excellent Greta Gynt is just getting things done.
If Blake had kept his bleeding nose out of the whole affair, Greta would have captured the main villain without any trouble, since her plan was working until the idiot sexist that is Sexton Blake blew her darn cover.
And I know for a fact the movie isn't a satire, cause Blake somehow manages to bumble his way into saving Greta and his assistant, who were captured BECAUSE OF HIM.
This could have worked a lot better if we'd been followed Greta's character, and Blake had been the bumbling moron somehow just keeping pace with her. It could have been a fine satire of the sexism of the time.
Instead, we're forced to believe that Sexton Blake is some kind of hero and lady's man, even though he's useless at heroics and even worse at flirting.
Sod this film.
And sod Sexton Blake, the useless twit.
