O Maquiavélico William Hart

Knowing that this movie is Tod Slaughter's take on the tale of Burke and Hare promises a great deal more than this tawdry, cheap little bore could possibly deliver. It's shot on cramped, ugly sets, the story moves in fits and starts, it's endlessly talky and never gives Slaughter a chance to cut loose in his grand style. The movies he made in the 1930s are all entertaining and, for the tolerant, enjoyable and watchable even today. But if you like those, you can safely skip this one. Slaughter is given few chances to emote in his gloriously florid style; instead, he's handed reams of dull lines to read, as is everyone else. He has a few moments, but not many; more are provided by Aubrey Woods as Jamie with the barrow.

In an attempt to clean up the soundtrack, which is rather scratchy and noisy, a digital audio remastering was done. The problem with this remastering is that between every line of dialog (where the background soundtrack noise would be audible) has now been reduced to absolute silence. The effect is jarring when you watch the movie as the dialog appears to start and stop. It is bad enough when listening via regular TV speakers but when run through an amplified system it becomes unnerving. Additionally, when there is background music in these segments between dialogue the music sounds incredibly muted. The same problem exists on Alpha Video's companion DVD "Sweeney Tood" so beware. These movies are 70+ years old and some leniency must be allowed when viewing these old prints. In this case, those who transfer these items to digital should have left well enough alone.

Surprising to find this was filmed in 1948, it has that same very slow pacing of the pre-war classic horrors such as the incomparable Dracula in 1936. It is very much in the tradition of Victorian stage melodrama and there was no greater exponent and resurrectionist of the genre than Todd Slaughter, florid theatrical actor-manager and famous ham who here makes his last film outing. Surrounded by some excellent character actors - Henry Oscar and Aubrey Woods, the normally OTT Slaughter is more confined but perhaps more effective. In a way this is a film noir - for reasons perhaps of economy, exteriors are all studio bound at night but in portraying the dingy canyon like lanes of Edinburgh works very well. The production is rather stagey - but stage melodrama was Slaughter's speciality. The plot is wordy but quite involving and genuinely grim

Not exactly a must-see but for those interested in the more curious British films certainly well worth watching. Thanks yet again to Talking Pictures TV for screening it

A 6.5

This film is not at all "under one hour of running time", I suspect that some US video collectors saw only a cut version. The original running time - in Great-Britain - was 79 mins (7005 feet). It was released in the USA (as "Horror Maniacs") in the early Fifties, as part of a double-bill with another Tod Slaughter film ("The Curse of the Wraydons", renamed "Strangler's Morgue"), cut to 72 mins. And more recently, an American video company "offered" a totally butchered version, reduced to 53 mins!

Happily enough, the complete 79 mins version is now available from some video companies.

Atmospherically lit but studio-bound and talky. Having made several Old Mother Riley films with Arthur Lucan, Tod Slaughter must by comparison have seemed to director Oswald Mitchell like a Method actor; and although he cackles diabolically a couple of times his performance actually seems rather subdued set beside his thirties villains and Robert Newton's Bill Sykes the same year.

Aubrey Woods as poor 'Daft Jamie' came fresh from playing Smike the previous year in Cavalcanti's 'Nicholas Nickleby'; while it would be another twenty years before Eddie Malin became a familiar face on TV as Walter Tattersall in 'Nearest and Dearest'.