Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936 film)

Plot

The film opens in 1936 as a barber tells a patron the story of Sweeney Todd. In 1836, Todd runs a barbershop near the London docks. He watches Johanna Oakley and Mark Ingerstreet, who are in love, but Mark is about to sail on the ship The Golden Hope and cannot afford to marry Johanna because her father, Governor Oakley, disapproves. Johanna's servant Nan asks Mark's fellow sailor Pearley to buy her luxury goods, but Pearley has no money.

Todd observes potential customers and considers the money he can make. Todd receives a new apprentice, the orphan Tobias Ragg. Next door, Mrs. Lovatt runs a meat pie shop with a cellar connected to Todd's. Todd buys a share of Oakley's shipping company and hopes to marry Johanna. He lures wealthy customers into his shop, sits them in a special barber's chair, and sends Tobias to Mrs. Lovatt's for a pie.

Todd pulls a lever, flipping the victim head-first into the basement. Mrs. Lovatt disposes of the bodies for a share of the stolen money, but grows annoyed that Todd robs the bodies and takes more than his share. The Golden Hope returns with Mark now wealthy. Todd lures Mark into the shop, sends him down the chute, but Mrs. Lovatt hides Mark in a cupboard.

Todd, finding no body, takes Mark's fortune. Mrs. Lovatt helps Mark escape. Disguised, Mark returns to the barbershop and sends Tobias to fetch Johanna. Todd prepares to shave Mark, but Pearley sneaks into the cellar. Todd pulls the lever, but Mark holds on, and Pearley helps him down safely.

Production and style

Two earlier British adaptations of the character preceded this film: Sweeney Todd from 1926 starring G.A. Baughan, and a 1928 version with Moore Marriott as Sweeney Todd. Jeffrey Richards described the film as a simplified version of George Dibdin-Pitt's dramatization, with events rearranged and some characters eliminated, retaining familiar melodramatic elements such as secret passages, disguises, and star-crossed lovers. Ian Conrich noted that British horror cinema of the 1930s is often absent from historical discourse, and that films like Sweeney Todd were intended as melodramas—highly theatrical, mischievous, and pantomimical—rather than true horror films.

Reception

Upon initial release, Kinematograph Weekly praised the production as a colourful period thriller smoothly adapted, while the Monthly Film Bulletin stated that the direction and much of the action belong to the stage, but that some gruesome atmosphere was captured and the story itself gave the film some success. On its 1939 United States release, Variety criticized the film, saying Tod Slaughter overacts ridiculously, and that the picture is stamped with mediocrity from action and dialogue to direction, with photography below standard. In a retrospective review, Kim Newman gave the film three out of five stars in Empire, calling it a wonderful Victorian horror melodrama with Tod Slaughter on top form.