UK censors have always been more concerned about violence than their equivalents in the US, which makes it all the more surprising 1936 British thriller The Crimes of Stephen Hawke is about a villain who breaks the spines of their victims. What’s even worse is Tod Slaughter, as that fiend, tends to giggle mischievously after these homicides.
The authorities don’t seem to have the first idea who this serial murderer might be. Personally, I think they should be looking for a professional wrestler. But then I would also be wrong, but Slaughter’s character is actually a moneylender. I accidentally typed “monkeylender” in that previous sentence initially, and my mind reels as to what that career might entail.
This is a dark film. In the opening scene, he actually kills a child though his trademark technique, albeit off-screen. He did this because the lad, in Little Lord Fauntleroy drag, caught him spying on the family mansion he had been casing. Slaughter had lured the child closer by saying he had a rare flower from India to show him. Is that something little rich sissy boys were interested in back then?
What is interesting is Slaughter has an adopted daughter (Margorie Taylor) he genuinely loves. This is different than the letches he played in Murder in the Red Barn and Sweeney Todd.
Unfortunately, one of the very few still alive who suspect him is her fiancée (Eric Portman). Not wanting to break her heart, he runs her father out of town and is now actively pursuing him so as to bring him to justice. I found Portman’s behavior baffling. I can understand either turning him over the police or running him out of town, but not both.
Another person who has leapt to the correct conclusion is Gerald Barry, who unwisely blackmails Taylor into marrying him, lest he divulge to the world her father is the killer. It’s no surprise he shouldn’t have tried this.
Like the previous two Slaughter films I have seen, the performances are played very broadly, most particularly that of our star. I once again found his hamminess to actually be a bit disturbing, like a real murderer is playing one in the movies and mocking the audience for thinking it is all a game. Except this time, his method of killing is so disturbing as to make this too much to accept. It’s like the difference between Vincent Price in the Corman Poe features, and his genuinely nasty turn in Witchfinder General.
That there is black humor is a given. One moment I especially like is Slaughter at breakfast, chastising his servant with, “You know I can’t eat meat in the morning. Delicate stomach.” That breakfast was stuffed sheep hearts, and I wondered if that has ever been anybody’s chosen repast, anywhere, at any time in history.
One of the weirdest elements of this production is Graham Soutten as that servant. Not only was he one-legged in real-life, but he is also wearing a eye patch here. Given this character’s poor luck, I can help but wonder if he only has one part of the male anatomy that normally comes in pairs.
Even the framing device around the central story is odd this time. There was a similar wraparound story in the previous two films, such as starting with a barber in the present day telling the story of Sweeny Todd. This time, it is a radio program, where Slaughter is the third guest, appearing as himself, to tell about his most recent deliciously evil role.
This is after such baffling performers as the musical comedy duo of Flotsam & Jetsam, who sing the news. Wonder if they were still doing their act when such events as Pearl Harbor or the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps happened, and how these guys handled those. My guess would be not so pithily.
The Crimes of Stephen Hawke is a genuinely unpleasant film, even if it is presents itself as being a ridiculous and over-the-top entertainment. Still, I look forward to seeing the next Slaughter film, if only to wash the taste of this one out of my mouth.
Dir: George King
Starring Tod Slaughter, Marjorie Taylor, Eric Portman
Watched as part of the Powerhouse/Indicator blu-ray box set The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter: Eight Blood-and-Thunder Entertainments, 1935-1940