Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936 film)
| Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | |
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British release poster | |
| Directed by | George King |
| Produced by | George King |
| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Eric Ansell |
| Cinematography | Jack Parker |
| Edited by | John Seabourne |
| Distributed by | George King Productions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 71 minutes[1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1936 British drama horror film produced and directed by George King, and written by Frederick Hayward, H.F. Maltby, and George Dibdin-Pitt. The film features actor Tod Slaughter in one of his most famous roles as the barber Sweeney Todd.
Plot
Sweeney Todd (Tod Slaughter) is a barber with a shop near the docks of London.
Using his charm and tonsorial skills, Todd lures wealthy, respectable customers into his barber-shop at Fleet Street, where he settles them into a mechanical barber's chair which dumps them head-first down into the basement, ready to have their throats cut with a straight-edge, razor-sharp blade—if the fall does not kill them first.
Mrs. Lovatt (Stella Rho), a lady who makes meat-pies next-door, disposes of the bodies for a share of the stolen money.
Sweeney Todd has his eye on marrying the daughter (Eve Lister) of a local aristocrat, but her father (D. J. Williams) refuses him. When her lover, Mark (Bruce Seton), returns from an ocean voyage, Todd tries to get him out of the way.
The fall, however, does not kill Mark, and Mrs. Lovatt hides him, allowing him to escape. When he recovers, he returns in disguise to expose the barber.
Realizing that he has been exposed, Todd sets fire to his shop and is ironically killed by his own hand, setting his trap floor into motion at the end of the film.
Cast
- Tod Slaughter as Sweeney Todd
- Stella Rho as Mrs. Lovatt
- John Singer as Tobias Ragg
- Eve Lister as Johanna Oakley
- Bruce Seton as Mark Ingerstreet
- D. J. Williams as Stephen Oakley
- Davina Craig as Nan
- Jerry Verno as Pearley
- Graham Soutten (credited as Ben Souten) as Beadle
- Billy Holland as Mr. Parsons
- Norman Pierce as Mr. Findlay
- Aubrey Mallalieu as Trader Paterson
- Henry B. Longhurst as a man on the quayside who talks to Sweeney Todd (uncredited)
- Ben Williams as Captain Stephenson (uncredited)
References
- ↑ "Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (A)". British Board of Film Classification. 14 February 1936. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
External links
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Internet Movie Database
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is available for free download at the Internet Archive
- Watch Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at FreeMoviesCine.com