Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Karloff aSt the Monster, Lee and Lugosi as the Count, Lon Chaney jr as the Wolfman, Cushing as the Baron and Tod as Fleet Street's most notorious barber! Certain horror stars are destined to be associated with certain roles and Mr slaughter would forever be identified with Sweeney Todd. Provincial theatregoers and the outlying suburbs of London could be guaranteed a welter of blood - or beetroot juice - whenever Tod came to town for a 2-week residency. By the 30's, he was established as a star turn, having British B films built around him - his old-school melodramas being mostly rewritten from their stage versions to prominently feature him - see Jeffrey Richards excellent article on Slaughter in the book THE UNKNOWN 30'S.

Despite the distancing device of a prologue and epilogue in a modern barbers, the film holds up extremely well. The sailor's battle with the natives at Trader Patterson's shows the grasp of the film's budget exceeding its reach. But all the staples of Victorian melodrama are present - the villain, the hero and heroine, the older man (usually a disapproving Father of the heroine) and a comic couple. Modern day audiences may feel decidedly queasy about the film's maltreatment of Tobias Wragg. Threatened and intimidated by Todd, cheerfully guzzling down god-knows-what in Mrs Lovatt's pies and forced to wear the heroine's clothes - he must have grown into an adult certifiable for treatment. The ending is contrived with Johanna rushing - unconvincingly disguised as a boy - to Sweeney's barbershop and being left to perish in the flames as the villain covers his tracks. Even more unlikely is the way Sweeney stays to watch his emporium go up in flames instead of fleeing with his riches, then rushing in for an ill-advised fight with Jack Ingestre (who adopts a convincing Yorkshire accent for his farmer disguise). The tipping chair was adopted to prevent us actually seeing any throat slitting but it results in a suitably ironic finale as the unconscious Todd is despatched to the inferno below. There is now an official Tod Slaughter website so log on and lend your support to the greatest villain British acting ever produced.

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.

Sweeny Todd, for being as bizarre and crazy as it is, is very, very well made for the time, and for what I can only guess to be a somewhat limited budget. For that alone, George King deserves some sort of high recognition. The film is captivating and flies by as the viewer watches the tale of Sweeny, the homicidal barber. The movie has great comedic elements that show that the creators are not afraid to laugh at their own production a little bit. The aptly named Tod Slaughter does an amazing role as Sweeny Todd and has a creepy laugh that calls back to many an old silver screen sociopath. For a film that I got in a two-movie pack for fifty cents, I think I've certainly gotten a gem. Now, I best not take this gem to the local barber

A real curio here, with a totally old-fashioned production and the wonderfully Dickensian Tod Slaughter performance merging well with the intrinsically macabre tale. The subject matter, whether shown or suggested, is sinister, and played as gallows humour by Slaughter. The rest of the cast is hardly particularly impressive, but fits well enough into the story, allowing Slaughter centre-stage most of the time, although there is a bizarre foreign interlude that is somewhat out-of-place.

I love the recurring wistful, whistleable tune - absurdly Romantic, yet very low calorie British too - over the opening credits; very melodic and all the more striking as, besides this refrain, there is little or no other incidental music. The photography, could, I suppose, have been more conducive to 'atmosphere', but what is that but an expectation we have about noirish cinema? This is pure theatrical melodrama. The production is indeed spare and minimal, and we're left largely to enjoy the ripping old story and a fine 'turn' from the star. There are very good lines, presumably tailored to Slaughter's stage performances in the role; he delivers them with Dickensian gusto, in a gloriously theatrical performance, which is the main, if not quite the only reason to view this oddball, watchable antique piece.