Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1939)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lacking the motivation that made the musical Sweeney Todd more understandable (if equally as reprehensible), Tod Slaughter's Sweeney is a barber of impeccable reputation who seems to slit throats just in order to rob his victims. Of course, he's also a dyslexic Sweeney, flipping the switch to have his barber chair turn upside down, knocking his victims out, and then slicing and dicing so meat pie shop owner Stella Rho can grind em' up. Most of the musical's characters are there, but the villainous Judge Turpin has been changed into a local aristocrat without the lecherous motivations that made that character's dispatchment the most anticipated murder in the musical. The rivalry is between Sweeney and the character of Mark, a sailor in love with Johanna, the governor's daughter. Mark, of course, became the character of Anthony in the musical, a friend of Sweeney's, but here, Slaughter's intentions are to knock him off so he can get Johanna (his daughter in the musical) for himself.The character of the Beedle, so slimy in the musical, has simply been changed into an imperious authoritative character, almost the twin of "Oliver Twist's" Mr. Bumble. The art direction of the connected shops is fascinating, watching Mrs. Lovett leave her pie shop (after giving poor Tobias a huge pie for a penny) and go into the catacombs to get into Sweeney's barber shop. There's no love lost between the two, as evidenced by his cheating her out of half the take of one of his victims, so most of the classic conflict is gone. Even at just over an hour, this "Sweeney" is rather boring, even when comparing to Slaughter's other histrionic melodramas and not taking into account the musical which help make this tale even more of a legend 40 plus years later.

In the Nineteenth Century, in London, the barber Sweeney Todd invites lonely and wealthy costumers in the port to his barbershop on the nearby Fleet Street and murders them to take their money, while his associate Mrs. Lovatt and owner of a bakery below is barbershop gets rid off the bodies. Sweeney uses his fortune to help the fleet owner Stephen Oakley with the intention to force his daughter Joanna to marry him. However, the beloved Joanna's boyfriend Mark Ingerstreet returns rich from his last voyage and Sweeney decides to kill him and steal his fortune in pearl, making Mrs. Lovatt jealous with the situation.IT's a very dated looking movie but also very watchable.Try it and see if you like it.Lots of hammy over acting.

In an attempt to clean up the soundtrack, which is rather scratchy and noisy, a digital audio remastering was done. The problem with this remastering is that between every line of dialog (where the background soundtrack noise would be audible) has now been reduced to absolute silence. The effect is jarring when you watch the movie as the dialog appears to start and stop. It is bad enough when listening via regular TV speakers but when run through an amplified system it becomes unnerving. Additionally, when there is background music in these segments between dialogue the music sounds incredibly muted. The same problem exists on Alpha Video's companion DVD "Horror Maniacs" so beware. These movies are 70+ years old and some leniency must be allowed when viewing these old prints. In this case, those who transfer these items to digital should have left well enough alone.

This movie is a blast to watch. It has the perfect blend of horror and comedy and is actually pretty darn hilarious at times. I have now seen 3 adaptations of the Sweeney Todd story; Tim Burton's version, the 1982 version and of course, this one. I still have to say that Burton's version is the best but this one is definitely great and should not be overlooked one little bit.Tod Slaughter is awesome as Sweeney. I can definitely see where the hype for him comes from after seeing this film. The story is slightly different from the musical but I guess it's more true to the original story. It's definitely a simple and cheaply made film but it wins in my book with a great cast and a wonderful story.You'll like this movie if you're a fan of the other Sweeney Todd films. Check it out.