Rating: C+
Dir: George King
Star: Tod Slaughter, Stella Rho, Eve Lister, Bruce Seton
This was the third movie adaptation of the story in a decade. There was a brief (fifteen minute) version in 1926, followed two years later by one which was at least feature length, though still silent. The role of Sweeney Todd was one with which Slaughter was already familiar. He had played it in the theatre: an audio recording of excerpts was released by Regal Zonophone Records in 1932. He was thus the obvious choice to star in a film version, especially one directed by King, the producer of Maria Marten. This movie cemented it as his signature role, and Slaughter would continue to depict the character on stage for the remainder of his life, until his death in 1956.
The story likely needs little repeating. Barber Sweeney Todd (Slaughter) makes money dumping customers into his cellar and slitting their throats. He has a partnership with Mrs. Lovitt (Rho, also the gypsy fortune teller in Maria Marten), who runs the pie-shop next door, to use the corpses in her product. Although in this version, the connection is only implied, and left up to the audience, presumably to avoid problems with the censors. The closest the movie gets to stating it, is a comedic moment where someone wonders how Todd disposed of the corpses, while chowing down on one of Mrs. Lovitt’s delicacies. [Ninety years earlier, the original penny dreadful story which introduced the world to the saga of Todd, The String of Pearls, was able explicitly to state, “The pies are made of human flesh!”]
Running alongside is the romance between sailor Mark Ingerstreet (Seton) and merchant’s daughter Johanna Oakley (Lister). Her father disapproves of this, instead welcoming Todd’s creepy attentions. Considering Slaughter was more than twice Lister’s age, the modern audience will be firmly on her side. Naturally, Mark returns from gaining his fortune in Africa, just in time to save her. Although he survives his time in the barber’s chair, it is only with the help of Mrs. Lovitt. She is motivated either by jealousy of Johanna, or greed – it’s not completely clear. But the relationship between them has felt a little fraught from the beginning: she suspects he is not being straight with her, in terms of divvying up their ill-gotten gains.
Slaughter commands attention throughout, and is incredibly creepy from the first time we see him, lounging against a wall down by the docks. He gets good help from Rho, and I must also mention John Singer, playing Sweeney’s little apprentice Toby – the eighth such boy, in less than a couple of months. The terror on his face, as Todd beckons him with both index fingers and asks, “Are you afraid of me, Tobias?” (top) seems completely genuine. Inevitably, the romantic angle works less well, and there’s a lengthy diversion to Mark’s adventures in Africa, which is thoroughly unnecessary, bringing the film to a grinding halt. It remains better than the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version, I’d say: the absence of Sondheim here is a clear mark in its favour.