4/5 TOD!!!!!
  by larryj1 (az)
This is another film with the great Tod Slaughter. The Alpha print's not bad, but you would be better served to get the DVD from Johnny Legend.

2/5 A "Quota Quickie" Of More Historic Interest Than Actual Entertainment Value
  by Gary F. Taylor (Biloxi, MS USA)
Although some have tried to argue that he was an actual person, it seems likely that the story of a throat-cutting barber Sweeney Todd arose first as a bit of urban myth that was developed into an 1846 story titled THE STRING OF PEARLS by writer Thomas Prest. A year later the story was adapted to the stage as SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. The story has remained popular into the 21st Century and is today best known as a musical by Stephen Sondheim.

The 1936 English film came about due to English laws which required film studios to produce a certain number of films for every film imported. George King was among the producer-directors who specialized in "quota quickies" and Tod Slaughter was his "star." Born in 1885, Slaughter was never among the great actors of his day--but he was a stage favorite with provicial audiences, most especially when he played villians, and most especially when he played Sweeney Todd.

This particular version of the story differs a great deal from later versions, but the basic story remains the same. Todd is a London barber who occasionally cuts a throat; Mrs. Lovatt (Stella Rho) is his partner in crime, who bakes the victims up into pies. Now, make no mistake about it: this version of SWEENEY TODD is essentially one made by a pack of hacks, so you'll find no art here. It really is a "quota quickie," badly written, badly filmed, with a cast that goes from adequate to inept. Even so, Slaughter and Rho are quite entertaining, playing so broadly and with melodramatic glee that offers a window onto the playing styles of a by-gone era. The whole thing is so over-the-top, ultra-Victorian, English-gothic that it really can be quite a bit of fun if approached in the right spirit.

It would, however, be quite a bit more fun if the DVD prints available today were good quality. They are not. Indeed they are so poor that the film is barely watchable, and it goes without saying that there are no bonuses of any kind. Recommended, but really only for those who are interested in tracing the history of Sweeney Tod in his various incarnations.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

4/5 (3.5 Stars) Todd Slaughter Is Sweeney Todd: Delightfully Melodramatic in Victorican Fashion
  by Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan)
The name of Sweeney Todd is, and will be, associated with Stephen Sondheim's great musical (and a Tim Burton film perhaps), but there once was another Todd, an underrated artist who played the role of this murderous barber like no one else could do. In fact, no actor can act like Todd Slaughter today, and even Sir Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal `Cannibal' Lector sitting at dinner table cannot beat Todd who gleefully hams it up, grinning like a true demon barber.

The basic premise of this British-made film (in 1936) is not much different from that of the Broadway musical. The barber `polishes up' his unsuspecting customers sitting in the ingeniously-made chair that drops the body into the basement. There Mrs. Lovatt awaits the poor victims who end up being meat pies made and sold by herself.

But of course this is not Sondheim. Though Sweeny Todd is romantically attracted to a young and beautiful girl Joanna, the film (directed by George King, who churned out numerous cheaply made thrillers during the 1930s and 40s) is nothing romantic. Except for the brief frame story at the beginning and ending, the film is a melodrama told in a purely Victorian fashion. If someone like Charles Dickens had directed a movie, it would have become something like "Sweeny Todd" with a terrified kid, the hero/heroine in disguise and comical moments before and after the suggested shocks. The story actually includes many plot devices you may find in Victorian novels, and even brief, unexciting scenes of the `natives' attacking the voyagers, most of which we rarely watch on screen today.

But the star of this real curio is Todd Slaughter, whose theatrical acting style is the exact opposite of the method actors'. His hammy performances as demon barber chuckling and cheerfully chattering about his `job' have a peculiarly attractive quality that only Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff could realize. Surely Todd Slaughter is Sweeny Todd, the Evil that is fun to watch, though uncomfortable to be with.

4/5 MMM-MMM Meat Pies!
  by Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein (under the rubble)
Sweeney Todd (Tod Slaughter) and his accomplice Mrs. Lovatt have a strange business relationship. Todd brings the rich victims into his barbershop, where he throws the secret switch to his trick barber-chair, sending them into the basement for a throat-cutting and fleecing. Mrs. Lovatt then makes mince-meat out of the poor saps in her shop next door. Sort of an ancient forerunner to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, SWEENEY TODD is a perfectly gruesome little story. I especially like the new apprentice, Tobias, who goes next door for those tasty meat pies whenever his new master gets a new victim for his razor. Tobias is the eighth boy in eight weeks to fill the job. The other seven have all gone missing! It's a crime that this film has not gotten the notice it deserves. It's creepy, ghoulish, and humorous. Tod Slaughter is menacing, and no more silly in this than Bela is in DEVIL BAT for heaven's sake! Sheesh! Well worth owning...

3/5 Blast from the past
  by Richard (north lindenhurst, NY United States)
The movie is a hoot, but the picture quality is poor, and the audio is just awful. But the movie is so off the wall, it's worth the $6.99 just as a history lesson, as they certainly don't make them like this anymore!