Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

When UK Channel 4 first showed this in the '80's I couldn't initially figure out what they were playing at with such a cheap creaker. But I quickly got sucked into its murky realms, more importantly got into the spirit of the thing and enjoyed it immensely. It's not essential but hissing, booing, stamping your feet and cheering in the right places would help too. Over the years they showed lots of Tod Slaughter's other barnstorming efforts for the Quota-Quickie (George) King, but none turned out as satisfying overall as this is. I'm glad to see it's out there on DVD just in case they never show it again.

Sweeney Todd is an avaricious lecherous conniving violent barber who thinks he is a "tender-hearted chicken" and who has two sidelines: polishing off his customers well and helping the next door shop's production of meat pies. First sensationalised in a play in Victorian times it was supposed to be based on fact; nowadays they're content just to rip you off and not to pieces. Hairy Bruce Seton was the goodie in love with the capitalist's lovely daughter whom Sweeny Todd also actively coveted. Slaughter's performance is a masterclass of Victorian melodrama, no one else ever intentionally equalled him on film – if you let him he can replace any derision with admiration for such a marvellously over the top melodramatic performance … and his razor-like wit. Same as with the cannibalism the moustache twirling was only implied. His was a style of acting that had died away with the Edwardians but was deliberately continued by him over the following decades, much to the delight of the many theatre audiences who saw him and who interacted with him accordingly. The sweetly melancholic and insistent background music reminds you that you are watching a nostalgic portrayal of a dead world, which would have provided an indescribable frisson to the older members of the original audience watching it at the cinema who perhaps might have first seen the play 50 years before. Slaughter managed to play Todd on stage over 4000 times, but died at age 71 in 1956 just after performing Maria Marten or the Murder In The Red Barn at the Derby Hippodrome – now under threat of demolition. I won't ever be watching the new musical because the words "gruesome gory graphic violence" cropped up in reviews – why waste my short time left on Earth being debased?

So: an ultra cheaply but lovingly made nostalgic tongue in cheek melodrama – a unique priceless treasure indeed.

The aptly named Tod Slaughter stars as legendary barber Sweeney Todd, who 'polishes off' his customers in order to steal their valuables, while at the same time supplying baker Mrs. Lovatt (Stella Rho) with plenty of filling for her tasty meat pies. Investing his ill-gotten gains in the latest project of ship-builder Stephen Oakley, Sweeney uses his financial leverage to force the businessman's daughter Johanna into marrying him. When Johanna's seafaring fella Mark returns to England a rich man, and goes for a shave at Todd's establishment before meeting his girl, the wicked barber sees an opportunity to get even richer whilst removing an awkward obstacle.

Although the plot for this version of Sweeney Todd is fairly predictable Victorian-style melodrama, the film is still a lot of fun thanks to Slaughter, who gleefully hams it up with a memorable lead performance that positively invites boos and hisses from the audience. Cackling like a maniac as he goes about his work, dumping unsuspecting victims into his cellar with the aid of a special booby-trapped chair, slapping about his 12-year-old apprentice (his 8th, the previous seven having mysteriously disappeared), and lusting after Johanna, Todd is a truly loathsome character, Slaughter's over-the-top mannerisms perfect for the role.

Admittedly, it's a fairly repetitive film and all gets very silly towards the end, with Johanna going to Sweeney's shop in disguise as a young lad (Todd failing to recognise the woman thanks to her clothing and a few cinders rubbed on her face), and the barber failing to make good his escape, instead re-entering his blazing barber shop to deal with Mark, but to be honest, any film that features the word 'Lumme' is fine by me. Look out too for an African native called Snowdrop (I'm surprised that the PC brigade hasn't 'fixed' the film for a modern audience).

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

In the Nineteenth Century, in London, the barber Sweeney Todd (Tod Slaughter) invites lonely and wealthy costumers in the port to his barbershop on the nearby Fleet Street and murders them to take their money, while his associate Mrs. Lovatt (Stella Rho) and owner of a bakery below is barbershop gets rid off the bodies. Sweeney uses his fortune to help the fleet owner Stephen Oakley (D.J. Williams) with the intention to force his daughter Joanna (Eve Lister) to marry him. However, the beloved Joanna's boyfriend Mark Ingerstreet (Bruce Seton) returns rich from his last voyage and Sweeney decides to kill him and steal his fortune in pearl, making Mrs. Lovatt jealous with the situation.

The original "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is a dark and macabre tale of greedy. It is funny to see only insinuation of cannibalism and that Mrs. Lovatt is the lover of Sweeney Todd. Pearly questioning how Sweeney Todd gets rid off the bodies of his victims while eating one of Mrs. Lovatt's pies is hilarious. Tod Slaughter performs a great villain, but the conclusion with Sweeney returning to the barbershop on fire to be defeated by Mark is weak. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Diabólico Barbeiro de Londres" ("The Diabolic Barber of London")

A nice gem from England done in a very Dickensian style, with Tod Slaughter performing in such a way as to rest all doubts about his great ability to make a cardboard villain into a full-blooded character that we both despise and delight in at the same moment. There can be no false assumption that this is not the work of a group of talented stage performers, which is how the infamous Mr Slaughter made his living in travels about the country, performing in plays of the macabre. He would seem to be a person who'd scare you upon first introduction without really trying. Unfortunate that he never performed in a Hitchcock film, for that would have been a grand collaboration.

Tod Slaughter was England's answer to Lugosi and Karloff. Where Bela and Boris often showed great dramatic range, Tod Slaughter comes from the era of Victorian style theatrics. Not since John Wilkes Booth's "Sic Semper....." bit, have we seen such 19th century style scenary chewing. But, this is a horror film about a killer barber, so we're here to be entertained. That's what Tod does, keeps us entertained, with his grand delivery (Whenever he corrects his little boy helper. "I once knew a little boy who spoke a bit... too ....... much!") and gestures (Tod, as Sweeney Todd, is always grinding his hands, and giving with that enormous, evil, braying laugh.) Rhino Video has released the film on video, and it's well worth the rental. I wish Tod did more movies!