375-379 The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter

[MichaelB]

Final specs:



Disc One:



Disc Two:



Disc Three:



Disc Four:

[reaky]

Just arrived, with this cute enclosure.

[MichaelB]

Enjoy!

(Although I honestly can’t imagine anyone not enjoying these.)

[MichaelB]

A typically massive review from CineOutsider:

My eyes are opened. As I noted at the start of this overlong review, my early memories of Tod Slaughter were coloured by the narrow tastes of youth and the shocking state of the prints that were screened on the small-screen TVs of the day. The British film history owes a debt to those who carried out the restorations of the eight films in this set, and watching them has been an immensely enjoyable revelation. A glorious octet of films by one of the unjustly unsung superstars of early British sound cinema, looking better than any of us could ever have imagined, each with a terrific commentary track and backed up by a wonderful set of extras. No question, this absolutely gets my nomination for Blu-ray box set of the year. Tod Slaughter rules!

[reaky]

It’s Never Too Late to Mend is topped and tailed with homilies about prison reform and features a cleric who brandishes crucifixes like a Home Counties Van Helsing, but it remains a vehicle for Tod to abuse his position as squire, lech after a local girl, twirl his moustache and as ever, get backed into a corner by his nemeses at the end and threaten them with a one-bullet flintlock. The steel wallmounted “jacket” they squeeze a teenage prisoner into is truly nightmarish.

[therewillbeblus]

It’s Never Too Late to Mend is interesting if viewed as a black comedy on prison reform, and particularly how the adults who despite and condescend to children to gain a sense of power have no higher skills, maturity, or morality of their own. The absurd nature of Slaughter's performative brand helps, as he's evilly passionate about upholding his superior position and nonsensical in his logic when communicating in polite society. He barely skates by, and one wonders how he himself evaded the fate of these children while growing up! The melodrama amongst other characters is so heightened that it becomes alien (e.g. the third-act soliloquy from a cell) and humorous as a zoomed-out macro look at how adults are no better than children, even the moral and skilled principals. They can be worse, though, because there's no excuse for infantile behavior anymore! Too bad I didn’t like the movie itself, but it was an interesting one to think about.

So far, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke is my favorite, because Slaughter's mania just feels so much more appropriate as a sociopathic omnivore. The opening, which MichaelB explained the shock details of upthread, really sets the tone for what kind of character this is, and so everything through the ending felt earned due to the portrayal's consistency. Sometimes Slaughter seems like he's just laying back until he lashes out, but in that one, there was a constant sense of menace hidden underneath, just barely, even when he's 'fitting in'. I love that subtle shift in attention, gravitating more to his idiosyncratic tics than the activity surrounding him.

I'm hoping the back half of the set gets even stronger - so far, it's okay, but I do feel like I'm getting in a rhythm.

[MichaelB]

The general consensus is that the last one is the best. And I entirely agree with Kim Newman when he says that if you want the best Tod Slaughter performance (i.e. in terms of range and facility), it's probably in The Ticket of Leave Man, but if you want the most "Tod Slaughter" performance (i.e. in terms of going stratospherically over the top from first shot to last), this is unquestionably in Crimes at the Dark House, one of the most ludicrously entertaining films I've ever had the pleasure of working on. (I subtitled that one myself, and it was an absolute joy.)

[therewillbeblus]

The Ticket of Leave Man had a good central conceit to play with, but the restriction of space to a theatrical, almost-chamber piece spoiled many opportunities to do so - taking a page from The Crimes of Stephen Hawke here would've made for a solid film - if Slaughter had used that acting 'range' across a range of scenes in new locations or scenarios with some movement..

Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror seems to be the film most people online are piling on, but I liked it! These films work better when everyone (and everything) is rather silly, so having a young goofy Watson-wannabe contending with Slaughter is effective in the moments when the pair isn't ultra-serious. The cat-and-mouse stuff works once it starts going, because contrary to the last film, this one moves - with alien Judex-style dated contraptions, ostentatious costumes, dastardly set pieces, and random characters entering and exiting the narrative. Everyone here is 'after' something, on the chase, and it's a treat to watch an array of characters who ostensibly have opposing morals, but all operate with similarly-driven personalities. I wanted more Slaughter, of course, but I didn't mind how everyone had an undercurrent of maniacal obsession in their motives, so his presence was felt in the energy of those calmer interactions between the straight(er)-man players. I particularly liked the use of the (reversed?) pre-dated femme fatale type whose force never rises above a simmer, in step with the vibe of these films. But it boggles my mind that folks on LB are calling this Slaughter's worst and the only one that doesn't merit revisits. So far, it's the film I see myself revisiting the most. There's an agile energy, creative evil ideas, and flashy fun action. What more do people want from these?

Oh, and this is the kind of time and attention spent on a "Death Chamber" that I was craving from The Face at the Window - which improves upon the visual ideas, but only gives us a brief sampling at the end

[therewillbeblus]

Crimes at the Dark House, one of the most ludicrously entertaining films I've ever had the pleasure of working on. (I subtitled that one myself, and it was an absolute joy.)

Yeah, this was unquestionably the highlight of the set and exactly the kind of fun I felt was promised by it, though I had hoped more of the preceding films would operate similarly. It feels like they go out of their way not to milk the potential of Slaughter's persona unleashed into a narrative, perhaps out of fear it would be 'too much' for audiences. Anyways, "ludicrously entertaining" sums it up, and I loved your subs too. I just wish I could be as enthusiastic about the others.

Still, the look, shot compositions, etc., even in the bad ones, have "Hammer" written all over - a perfect set for this label to release

[GaryC]

The BBFC recently reinstated cuts information to its database, or at least advising if a film was cut. So I wondered how Slaughter's films fared with the BBFC of the day.

Records of cinema passes for Maria Marten and The Ticket of Leave Man are not currently on the database (homevideo passes only) and It's Never Too Late to Mend is missing altogether. But of the rest, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke and Crimes at the Dark House were both cut for A certificates, which is the rating all the features in this set got on their original releases. (Confirmed for the latter two titles via the Monthly Film Bulletin, which doesn't appear to have reviewed Maria Marten.) Does anyone know what was taken out of the two which were cut? Details of specific cuts by the BBFC for films this old no doubt no longer exist.

This does suggest that the makers of these films generally had a good idea as to what they could get past the BBFC. The H certificate was available from 1937 but would presumably have been commercially undesirable. In fact, only two British films were ever given the H and neither featured Tod Slaughter.

[MichaelB]

Annoyingly, all detailed pre-1960s BBFC correspondence was junked in a vandalistic act of storage rationalisation (this happened long before digitising was an option, and they clearly didn't think it was worth microfiching), so unless the correspondence from the other end survives – as is sometimes the case with things like Hammer titles – or it got press coverage at the time, it's pretty much impossible to find out precisely what was cut and why.