Lo strangolatore

If you've never witnessed Tod Slaughter in action, then CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE is a great place to start. Slaughter truly lives up to his name, as he drives a stake through a sleeping victim's cranium in the opening scene! After assuming the dead man's identity, he learns that he's hit the jackpot, and has inherited an estate.

Upon arrival at his palatial new home, the new "Sir Percival Glyde" sets out to live a life of ease and debauchery with one of his cute chambermaids. Alas, "Glyde's" life gets complicated by several meddling pests, forcing him to kill nearly everyone in sight! Watch, as he gleefully dispatches his victims, then dumps their bodies in a secret burial ground! Listen as he chuckles, chortles, and cackles his way through his hideous crimes! This is Mr. Slaughter at his absolute best!

No one else could play the uproariously unscrupulous "Mr. Glyde" quite like this. Overwrought? Over the top? Of course! That's what's so bloody stupendous about Mr. Slaughter! He has been sadly overlooked, and deserves to be seen...

you just gotta love our evil character, he kills a guy in the beginning,, takes his ring,, his estate and takes over his whole entire life,, get's to marry one of the richest and prettiest maidens around,, he got a houseful of servants, and one cute one too boot, this movie is so funny , from start to end,, it was hard to keep a straight face,, so many lines from the butler , the lawyer, to sir Percival, were just too darn funny,, all of the killing he must do in order to keep his secret.. he has to get rid of several meddling people in order to keep everything on the up and up,, and the way he goes about it so nonchalant like it doesn't even bother him to kill these people.. and he is so jolly about it,, always twirling that mustache of his, there are a few people trying to stop him,, but they don't really show up till near the end of the movie. his assistant is probably the best character in the movie,, doesn't want to drink, but obliges, he get's cast deeper and deeper into Percival's sick plot, and soon the two are thick as thieves. well this was an amazing movie,, will watch again next year definitely.

Tod Slaughter plays(or over plays) another delightfully evil scoundrel in this British melodrama. The hard drinking and womanizing character Slaughter plays commits one evil act after another while delivering lines like "I`ll feed you`re entrails to the pigs" and "I`ll squeeze the life out of you`re greasy body". He actually gives his mustache a twirl ala Snidely Whiplash who could have been based on him. This is hardly even a B-Picture but its lots of fun.

Crimes at the Dark House is really one of my all-time favorites. Not only it's the best adaptation of Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (by far superior to the latter Hollywood version), but it's also the more perfect of the eight films produced/directed by George King with the great Tod Slaughter. This actor being one of my favorites, I like practically all of his movies, but the fact is that Crimes at the Dark House has better production values, witty dialogue, a better mobility of the camera, and wonderful actors, including the great Hay Petrie as the sinister Count Fosco, head of an insane asylum. The film has priceless value in keeping on film the performance of Slaughter, a really unique comedian, preserving one of his better characterizations. Sure, other titles like The Face at the Window, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke, and others, must have their partisans - in fact anything with Tod Slaughter is of interest, but Crimes at the Dark House is MY choice. Curiously, did anybody noticed than the print of this movie has no credited director? the British sources (magazines, books, pressbook) credit George King generally, at least a big full-page color ad of the time credits David Macdonald, but the film itself has no director credit!

This movie is pretty darn delightful, right from the first scene where Mr. Tod Slaughter is seen hammering a spike into an unsuspectingly asleep man's head! He then impersonates the man, gaining admittance into the man's estate that had just been willed to him. You get to hear Tod say, "I'll feed your entrails to the pigs!"!! Don't pass up a chance to see it.