Crimes at the Dark House

The Woman in White, a great novel penned by Wilkie Collins, serves as the backbone for this Reader's Digest version of the novel adapted by Edward Dryhurst and produced/directed by Tod Slaughter regular George King. Slaughter also served as a producer, and this films has higher production values than most of Slaughter/King's previous efforts. While I enjoy the movie vastly, I am hesitant to call it the best of Slaughter's work. Give me The Face at the Window or even better Murder in the Red Barn where Slaughter leers more in one movie than twelve men could in twelve movies! Notwithstanding that this film is quite good as Slaughter opens the film drilling a nail/spike into a sleeping man's head in the Australian outback and assumes his identity going to England as the new lord of the manor. Slaughter immediately takes note of the young blonde maid who he raise up to chambermaid. With Slaughter's eyes rolling, his heavy-handed gesturing, and his tone and inflection, you know exactly what his intentions are at every moment. I know of no other actor who acts this way and could get away with acting this way. Slaughter does it so effortlessly, and let's be honest - if you are watching this film it is more than likely to see him. He is larger than life. The thickest slice of ham I have ever seen in films. The adaptation of Collin's novel has many shortcomings but stays surprisingly faithful to the main parts. The direction of King is adequate and the other performers are really rather good. Slaughter dispatches of people with glee and has some wonderful scenes with Hay Petrie as Isidor Fosco - a scoundrel of a different stripe so to say. Leering, drowning, hackling maniacally all are part of the Tod Slaughter package here. If you still have not seen one of his films, this one is as good as any to begin seeing what all the fuss - deserved and still not completed in any way - is about regarding Tod Slaughter.

Tod Slaughter. 60 years ago he dominated British B movies, 30 years ago no one remembered him, to-day he is being re-discovered and given the respect he has always deserved. Welcome back Tod! Modern film historians compare him to Boris Karloff and while that is a nice accolade it is not entirely appropriate. If we have to compare Tod to another British screen villain I would choose Lionel Atwill. Oh yes, Boris could be menacingly evil but there was always a motivating force behind him, a drive that so obsessed him he lost sight of everything else (check out THE DEVIL COMMANDS or THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES or even BEFORE I HANG to see what I mean.) Lionel and Tod were evil for no other reason than they simply WANTED to be; they were mean and they liked it!

That having been said now lets discuss this movie. You know you are in for a great time when the picture has only just begun and a killer strikes by hammering a wooden spike into the ear of a sleeping man! That killer is our Tod (what a surprise!) and he impersonates the dead man, Sir Percival Glyde, to take possession of a large inheritance. Trouble rises when Tod discovers he has inherited nothing but a big stack of bills and if he wants to avoid Debtor's Prison he'd better find a rich wife right away! Is that a problem? Not for Tod, he has set his sights on a lovely young maiden in a nearby estate. So what if she is young enough to be his daughter she is rich and who knows, she just might have an . . .er . . . "accident" not long after the wedding.

This is melodrama at its best. The false Sir Percival is hardly inside his manor house before he begins canoodling with a buxom chambermaid. When she informs him that she is expecting his child he leads the gullible girl to the boat dock where he strangles her ("You wanted to be a bride? I'll make you one! A bride of Death! Heh, heh heh!") Meanwhile there is another woman hanging around who claims that Sir Percival is already married . . . to her, and they have a daughter! Honestly stealing a fortune is such a very complicated thing! Tod has to find a way to eliminate them too. Does he? You will find out.

Part of the fun of watching a Tod Slaughter film is seeing just how perversely evil he can be and knowing that at the end his fate will be a fitting one; this movie does not disappoint on any level.

Is this his best film? Some people say so; though my personal favourite is THE FACE AT THE WINDOW. Now sit back, imagine yourself in a British theatre back in the Victorian days and enjoy the show. Feel free to hiss the villain and cheer the hero and heroine. Enjoy!

you just gotta love our evil character, he kills a guy in the beginning,, takes his ring,, his estate and takes over his whole entire life,, get's to marry one of the richest and prettiest maidens around,, he got a houseful of servants, and one cute one too boot, this movie is so funny , from start to end,, it was hard to keep a straight face,, so many lines from the butler , the lawyer, to sir Percival, were just too darn funny,, all of the killing he must do in order to keep his secret.. he has to get rid of several meddling people in order to keep everything on the up and up,, and the way he goes about it so nonchalant like it doesn't even bother him to kill these people.. and he is so jolly about it,, always twirling that mustache of his, there are a few people trying to stop him,, but they don't really show up till near the end of the movie. his assistant is probably the best character in the movie,, doesn't want to drink, but obliges, he get's cast deeper and deeper into Percival's sick plot, and soon the two are thick as thieves. well this was an amazing movie,, will watch again next year definitely.

Now you could never describe Tod Slaughter as versatile, but as a pantomime baddie-cum-cad, you'll struggle to find someone better. Sure, his style of acting probably did lend itself better to silent films, but in this rather enjoyable drama he comes across quite mischievously. We start when he kills the real "Sir Percival" in the far-flung Australian gold fields then returns to claim his family fortune. Snag? Well what he actually inherits is £15,000 worth of debt. A massive sum at the time and so an advantageous marriage is required. Up steps "Laurie" (Sylvia Marriott). Long promised to "Sir Percival", she agrees to obey her father and go through with the marriage. Now there is a fly in the ointment for our impersonator, here. Virtually nobody remembers him after his twenty year absence except one woman who claims he fathered a child with her before he left. He denies it, as does she - but that's because she calls him out. That intrigues the local keeper of the sanatorium "Dr. Fosco" (Hay Petrie) who sees an opportunity to line his own pockets. None of this bodes well for "Laurie". Can her sister "Marian" (Hilary Eaves) and friend "Paul" (Geoffrey Wardwell) manage to save her from her increasingly lecherous, murderous, husband and his venal cohort? The poster describes this as ideal for midnight theatre on a Friday night and that's about right. There's not much jeopardy, but Slaughter overdoes it nicely as he hams up his performance towards the denouement that I was slightly disappointed with. Still, I don't suppose the baddie can ever win.... Fun, this - worth a watch.

I have to admit to having never seen a Tod Slaughter movie. What a great screen presence. What an absolute cad. He is the consummate conniver and master of perversity. He kills a man in Australia and takes over his identity. He becomes the Lord of the Manor and runs the household on his own rancid terms. He gets a servant girl pregnant. He marries a local landowner's daughter and does anything to get his hands on the money available to him. There are some wonderful performances, especially that of Hay Petrie, the great sniveling character actor. He consorts with Slaughter with hopes of getting some of the money himself. There are convenient murders and acts of desperation. Through it all, Slaughter laughs at the suffering of others. There is only one person in his world.