It’s odd how some very dark moments in history can become popular stories in later eras, ones that are told over and over again. In the fourteenth century, there was a French barber killing the wealthiest customers and stealing their money, only to turn their bodies over to the pastry chef next door for fresh meat for pies. In the 20th century, the tale was turned into a popular Broadway musical starring Angela Lansbury, and then a Tim Burton movie in the 21st. I expect there will be comedies about the horrors of Jeffrey Dahmer in whatever media we’ll have in the 25th century. I kid, of course. The tenor of contemporary comedy is so overly cruel as to leave me surprised we haven’t already had a sitcom centered around him airing on broadcast television.
While the premise is not a story I am particularly enamored with, I was very impressed with Tod Slaughter’s 1936 film Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Then again, when you adopt the stage name “Tod Slaughter”, it seems inevitable one would eventually star as a murderer named Todd.
The film opens in what was then the present day, and some poor shlub goes into a barbershop for a shave. It is only after the customer is prepped and sitting in a chair that the barber proceeds to wax eloquently about how Todd was the greatest artist of the blade the world. That’s when the customer should be beating a hasty exit. It would be like a leather goods producer waxing fondly on the work of Ed Gein.
Instead, we journey to the past, where Slaughter, as the title character, plies his trade at his shop near the docks. He is way too excited to offer a shave to men fresh off the boat and about to reenter society proper: “Lots of throats! Beautiful throats! Waiting for the touch of the razor.” A skeezy guy talking loudly in this manner would seem to be fair warning to not use this guy’s services, yet many take advantage of his offer, with the wealthiest being “polished off” by him, as he keeps telling people who are oblivious to his real meaning. Also, how does nobody notice so many people are missing, and following the trail to where they were last seen entering his establishment?
What is ever more peculiar is, given we’re talking about a murderous man who wields a straight-razor, his method of extinguishing his customers is bloodless. I assume this is because of the censorship rules at the time. But this picture turns that liability on its head, as Todd literally turns the customers on their heads when he, with the pull of lever, upends the unsuspecting into a trapdoor behind them.
I am surprised by how smart these films are. There’s a neat bit towards the beginning where two departing sailors are having basically the same conversation with their respective girlfriends, and the editing cuts between each of them basically finishing each other’s lines. Through a shared based with the bakery next door, he turns the bodies over to Stella Rho who uses them as meat in her wares.
Once again having to circumvent tight film regulations of the time, this feature only makes the vaguest suggestion as to the contents of those pies. Still, it is a strong enough hint that my stomach lurched when the latest young apprentice of Todd (John Singer) sinks his teeth into one, oblivious to its origins. That Todd gave him a penny to acquire that, and he doubtlessly knows the nature of what is in the pastry, is doubly repellant. Also, I found it interesting nobody seems overly concerned the previous seven orphans brought to Todd for apprenticeships all disappeared, and that is doubtlessly a sadly true aspect of that period in time.
But there wouldn’t be much of a film here if there weren’t additional complications, and that arrives in the form of wealthy shipbuilder D.J. Williams and his comely daughter, played by Eve Lister. Todd has entered into an arrangement to fund the father’s latest project, and those terms will put that man’s firm into jeopardy, thereby making him more receptive to his proposal of marriage to Lister.
Needless to say, Lister isn’t receptive to that arrangement. For one thing, she’s already in love with a sailor played by Bruce Seton. In a bizarre subplot, Seton will return to England with his own means of support, courtesy of some pearls a dying man gave to him in Africa. When I think of potential riches in Africa, I think of diamonds primarily, and maybe gold a distant second, but never pearls. Maybe these especially valuable beauties in his possession are from the continent’s legendary pearl mines. *cough*
As tends to happen in my viewing experiences, I found many of the secondary characters to be even more interesting than our leads. Jerry Verno is quite effective as Seton’s friend and obligatory comic relief. I liked this exchange between the two friends: “You’re a pessimist.” “Yes, because you’re right. And, no, because I don’t know what it means”.
Even better is Davina Craig, as Verno’s girl and Lister’s best friend. This character, Nan, is so quirky in some regards that I almost wonder if this was partly the inspiration for the David Walliam’s character of “Ann” on Little Britain. That said, Craig does not make a painting using her own bodily waste as the medium.
There is one line in the film that struck me as funny and that is when a passenger thanks the captain for how quickly a voyage had been on a sail ship. I mean, as if the captain could possibly make more wind. All I can think of is the line from The Princess Bride that made me laugh the most the last time I saw it: “Are they using the same wind we’re using?”
Since watching Sweeny Todd, I have read some reviews of it online and am appalled by the general sentiment towards the film. “Creaky” is a noticeably recurring adjective. As for myself, I found it to be surprisingly modern in its tone, despite the vaudevillian trappings. Even Slaughter’s wildly over-the-top performance reads like mockery and, in that, seems to suggest a genuinely nasty person within the character. Those other reviews lead me to paraphrase that line I liked so much from The Princess Bride. Were they watching the same movie I was watching?
Dir: George King
Starring Tod Slaughter, Stella Rho
Watched as part of Powerhouse/Indicator’s blu-ray box set The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter: Eight Blood-and-Thunder Entertainments, 1935-1940