This movie is pretty darn delightful, right from the first scene where Mr. Tod Slaughter is seen hammering a spike into an unsuspectingly asleep man's head! He then impersonates the man, gaining admittance into the man's estate that had just been willed to him. You get to hear Tod say, "I'll feed your entrails to the pigs!"!! Don't pass up a chance to see it.
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sabata11 June 2000
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Terrell-422 October 2008Think of a cross between Alan Mowbray and John Barrymore in his last, eyebrow-wagging years and you might have some idea of Tod Slaughter. He was a large, fleshy man with, when he lowered his head, a magnificent double chin. Not a man to hide his hamminess under a cloak of talent, he brought delight to evil with lip-smacking relish in any number of British movies and stage plays. As the false Sir Percival Glyde in Crimes at the Dark House, he brings to mustache-fingering and lascivious chuckling a kind of lovable, horrid fascination. We learn the kind of role Slaughter was noted for when, at the start of Crimes at the Dark House, in the year 1850, he uses a mallet to drive a chisel into the neck of the real Sir Percival, all the while snickering with pleasure.
The movie is based, sort of, on Wilkie Collins' grand old Victorian melodrama, The Woman in White. It races by in just 69 minutes, far too fast for us to be bored. Is the movie as bad as some of the acting? Not at all. In fact, like the book, it's quite a page turner, complete with lethal stratagems, a mad woman roaming the grounds of a lonely mansion, one hidden marriage and an unwelcome one, strangled women and cold cells in an insane asylum. Of course, there is love as well as death, and cleansing retribution comes in the engulfing flames of, what else, a family church.
Above all, there is the great, hammy performance of Tod Slaughter. He chisels to death the real Sir Percival Glyde in the Australian outback, then assumes Sir Percival's identity when he returns to England to his victim's' ancestral home, Blackwater Park. He expects to find an inheritance of great wealth. Instead he finds nothing but mortgages and debt. Ah, but then he learns Sir Percival and the lovely Laura Fairlie long ago had been pledged to marriage...and Laura will have her own riches when she marries. He also learns that Sir Percival may have married a woman before he left years earlier for Australia, a woman who bore a daughter...a daughter who now is mad and confined to an insane asylum...an insane asylum run by the unctuous and unprincipled Dr. Fosco...the same Dr. Fosco who...you get the idea. Laura Fairlie hates the idea of marriage to this portly, maid-groping, leering degenerate. She has discovered real love with her art tutor, a young man with impeccable upper-class enunciation. Yet she does what her guardian and propriety insist. She weds the false Sir Percival and, with her sister Marion, comes to live at Blackwater. It's not long before the mad girl escapes, Sir Percival and Fosco plan a cruel deception, and Sir Percival chortles his way through three more murders. If this sounds like lip-smacking Victorian melodrama, it is. And it's not bad for, as some critics like to say about popular melodrama, what it is.
Crimes at the Dark House is a Tod Slaughter potboiler, but my favorite in the cast is Hay Petrie as Dr. Fosco. He was a very short man and a versatile actor who caught Michael Powell's attention. Petrie played small but notable parts in the Powell/Pressburger movies Contraband, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, A Canterbury Tale and The Red Shoes. He could give a pungent, memorable performance when it was called for. Just watch him in One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing, Contraband and A Canterbury Tale - Criterion Collection.
If you're interested in just how good a Victorian melodrama The Woman in White can be when adapted with style, you need to watch the fine, multi-part BBC production from 1997. Marion Fairlie is our narrator, and she takes us into a more restrained but just as dangerous, moody and threatening a world. You'll be impressed, I hope, with Marion's (Tara Fitzgerald) bravery and resourcefulness; you'll sigh along with Laura Fairlie's (Justine Waddell) fears and hopes; be impressed with her tutor's (Andrew Lincoln) steadfast love; loathe Sir Percival's (James Wilby) ruthless caddishness; be fascinated by Count Fosco's (Simon Callow) cruel stratagems and be captivated by the hypochondria of the Fairlie sisters' scene-stealing guardian (Ian Richardson). -
Hitchcoc14 February 2007I 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.
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JohnHowardReid12 November 2008Crimes at the Dark House (1940) was adapted from the famous Wilkie Collins novel, The Woman in White. Warner Bros made an outstanding (and far more faithful) version, directed by Peter Godfrey in 1948, with Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker and Sydney Greenstreet (which is not at present available on commercial DVD). This one was obviously filmed on the cheap. Nonetheless, despite Slaughter's fulsome melodramatics, it has its suspenseful and even horrific moments, plus a delightful interpretation (the extreme opposite of Greenstreet's) of Fosco by diminutive Hay Petrie. Geoffrey Wardwell (in his last of six movies) is a dead loss as the hero, but Sylvia Marriott manages her dual role quite ably. Stage actress Hilary Eaves also makes a considerable impression in one of her rare movies (she made only three), while Rita Grant is an absolute stand-out as the maid of no account.
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CinemaSerf4 December 2023Now 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.
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wes-connors27 February 2009"A deranged man murders another man in order to assume his identity and take over a recently inherited estate. Soon after arriving at the estate, the psychotic man finds he must continue his murderous tendencies in order to keep his charade from being exposed. As the number of victims increase, along with his deepening madness, it becomes a matter of time before all is revealed and the man's true identity is exposed," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.
Thespian Tod Slaughter (posing as Percival Glyde) receives a rude awakening when he discovers the man whose head he hammered to death, "Sir Percival", was penniless. In order to keep the man's estate, he goes ahead with an arranged wedding to pretty Garbo-light Sylvia Marriott (as Laurie Fairlie). After a tearful wedding night, Ms. Marriott tries to distance herself from the repulsive Mr. Slaughter, who is trying to get her to sign over her fortune.
When Marriott won't cooperate, Slaughter has her locked in a cell as "The Woman in White", a ghostly apparition seen around the family mansion. Slaughter must also contend with cast members he hasn't been able to murder, like wormy Hay Petrie (as Isidor Fosco). "Crimes in the Dark House" isn't very successful at adapting the Wilkie Collins novel, but it makes a great vehicle for Tod Slaughter - a thoroughly delightful actor in peak performance mode.
******* Crimes at the Dark House (1940) George King ~ Tod Slaughter, Sylvia Marriott, Hay Petrie -
mark.waltz3 March 2006Wilkie Collin's novel "The Woman in White" has been the subject of two films and an Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical that recently had a brief run on Broadway. It is basically a story of scandal and fraud amongst Europe's upper crust. This is the first film version, made in England during a period that many poverty row studios were making abridged versions of classic novels. Some of these, such as a British version of "Scrooge", are actually pretty good, but most of them, like "Jane Eyre", "Oliver Twist", and "The Scarlet Letter" come off as abridged versions that barely attempt to give any sort of character development. In the case of "The Woman in White", this 69 minute film goes into a little more depth than the ones listed above, but rather than being presented as a representation of the Gothic novel it was based on, it is more of a horror film made to show off the hamminess of its leading man, Tod Slaughter.
As the fake Count Percival Glyde, Slaughter takes over the estate of the man he is seen brutally murdering in the first scene of the film. Slaughter sneers and laughs as he goes through his horrific actions to keep control of the status he has achieved through nefarious means. Slaughter is so over the top that he makes Charles Laughton seem subtle in comparison. His acting style is so close to camp that you can't help but laugh every time he commits a horrible crime. In the four films that I have seen of his so far, I felt that his films seem like they were meant for the silent era. His villains all seem so one dimensional of the mustache twirling school of acting. Even Bela Lugosi in his Monogram cheapies showed some underlying motivations for his criminal actions, yet Slaughter's acting is so silly you'd think you were watching a live version of cartoon characters Snidely Whiplash or Boris Badinoff.
In that sense, these films are fun to watch because they are so delightfully bad, like an old silent Pearl White serial or an early 20th century stage melodrama. I wonder if Lugosi and Karloff watched these films and toned down their performances based on their reactions to his performance. It is also interesting to note that Slaughter's looks were not transfered over into the recent musical version to his character, but to Michael Crawford's (in London) and Michael Ball's (both in London and on Broadway) character of the comic villain Dr. Fosco (played here by Hay Petrie).
I always thought that every Tod Slaughter movie should include that line, "You shall be a bride. A bride of death!". He first used that line on screen in "Murder in the Red Barn" and repeats it here again to a buxom parlor maid. It's sort of like Mel Brooks' constant use of the lines, "Walk this way" and "It's good to be the king!". No Tod Slaughter movie should be complete without it.
In the 1940's British cinema made many technical strides that made some of their films seem almost modern in comparison to American films of that era, but many of the films made there in the 1930's seem quite creaky when compared to those made just a few years later. The 1948 Warner Brothers version had more of a Gothic style to its storytelling (and a much higher budget and well known cast), and the musical's filmed background gave the impression that the character's lives were as flat as the setting.
It is interesting to have seen this story done by three different perspectives that I wonder how it would work as a film today. I had no idea that the British version of "The Woman in White" had even been made until I purchased it on DVD as part of my ongoing film study. Interesting to note that this is one of two Tod Slaughter films made that were later turned into musicals (the other is "Sweeney Todd", which a revival of ironically opened around the same time as "The Woman in White"). -
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! -
Rainey-Dawn4 May 2016Tod Slaughter is just as fun to watch as ever in this mediocre crime melodrama - he makes the film as he usually does. His flamboyant style shines here.
As a I mentioned, the film is mediocre - it's the screenplay that makes it that way. The atmosphere in the film is creepy like any other old dark house type of film. There is murder, mention of ghosts, windy nights, the air of madness and a shyster played by Slaughter so it does have elements of horror although it's not a horror film.
The film is worth watching if you like the older style of acting, dark house and crime films and it doesn't hurt if you like Tod Slaughter since he actually "makes" the film worthwhile viewing for his antics.
7/10 -
Chase_Witherspoon16 June 2012Callous thief and murderer kills the real Sir Percival Glyde whose gone bush down under for more than a decade, then returns to England impersonating his victim to inherit the vast estate. With a litany of perjury to maintain, things soon begin to unravel for the "false" Sir Percival, as his lechery and lies quickly catch-up leading to ever more desperate and depraved crimes.
Tod Slaughter is suitably nasty as the greedy deviant whose unsophisticated ruse barely adheres through a mutually beneficial alliance with crooked Doctor (Petrie) who catches on to the deceit early in the piece, then becomes complicit through escalating blackmail. The sheer abhorrence of the imposter's crimes is breathtaking for a film made in 1940, and he surely ranks as one of the most unconscionable villains of that decade (his dismissive immorality is right up there with Richard Widmark's giggling killer from "Kiss of Death"). His vulgar disposal of one of the victims in particular really is quite shocking when you consider the motive.
Memorable dialogue ("double cross me and I'll feed your entrails to the pigs") and plot twists (the apparently illegitimate daughter who's a basket case, and just so happens to be a dobbleganger for Sir Percival's reluctant wife), keep the momentum constant, and combined with Slaughter's wicked characterisation, it's worth hanging in just to anticipate his comeuppance. -
chrismartonuk-110 February 2007It seems surprising - not knowing the copyright situation with Wilkie Collins original - that a quota quickie producer like George King should be able to get his hands on a respected literary source like THE WOMAN IN WHITE. However, the script rewrites the story so it is entirely told from the viewpoint of the false Sir Percival Glyde. Other adaptations might tell the tale from the viewpoint of the heroines as they struggle to unravel the mystery - but we are aware of the deception from the start as Tod creeps into a sleeping gold prospectors tent and dispatches him in a manner that suggests he's read Hamlet.
The disadvantage of this approach is that the fascinating, complex characters of Collins' text are flattened to one-dimensional cyphers. Laura is as much of a shrinking violet as she is in the novel but the fascinating figure of Marion (sapphic hints well suppressed here) is sidelined for much of the time. The annoyingly-hypochondriac Mr Fairlie seems more robust and more of a stock-comic figure. But the reduction of the fascinating figure of Count Fosco to Glyde's stooge is the most grievous oversight. Fosco - a roly-poly lovable eccentric who liked dogs and sunlight - was all the more chilling for being above suspicion unlike the obviously-villainous Glyde. For all that Hay Petrie brings to the part, it's just a shadow of what it could be. Still, Petrie and Slaughter make a fine pair of rogues - a cut-rate British version of Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.
What do we get in compensation for this? Two words - Tod Slaughter. His films are unique in that we get to view the story from the villain's perspective - imagine James Bond from Blofeld's viewpoint. He rises to the occasion here and is at his most lecherous - fixing his beady eyes on a comely maid whom he assigns "special duties", then strangles when she becomes inconveniently pregnant, gleefully snogging Laura upon first meeting her, and finally trying his evil way on her sister at the climax saying "I used to break precipitous horses in the Australian gold fields, and I'll enjoy breaking you!" Seldom has any villain cackled so evilly as Tod does here. Tod may start the film in an understated fashion as "Sir Percival" comes home but he's soon giving us the full melodramatic range - shifty up-to-no-good expression, comic exasperation as the bills pile up, and unashamed lechery as - convincingly sloshed on his wedding night - he ominously mounts the stairs as his squeamish bride waits fearfully in her bed. Incredibly, he is allowed to have his "wicked way" with her. Further examples of unbridled villainy include opening the window in the bedroom of the pneumonia-ridden Woman in White - having announced he expects a "change in her condition" - and luring one victim to her death saying she will, shortly, "be going on a long journey". Freddy Krueger could do with Tod's gag writers.
Something just occurred to me. We never discover the true identity of Tod's character. But examine the facts. A boozy, lecherous, overweight rogue from Australia who abuses a position of social authority and whose very repellent physical presence doesn't dampen his sex-drive for the ladies - was he Sir Les Patterson? -
Red-Barracuda16 January 2017Ah, you've got to love Tod Slaughter. As far as I can see, this English actor was pretty much forgotten for decades but has now rightfully been rediscovered in large part because of the glories of the internet and public domain DVD collections. It's via these two channels in particular that the great man has now become known to fans of movies from the less seen corners of cinema history. Slaughter made a number of British melodramas back in the day where he played a succession of utterly evil cads whose actions were totally immoral. Slaughter's performances in these movies were always the best things about them and it is only right that he is slowly receiving praise and fans many decades down the line.
Crimes at the Dark House is another typical Slaughter offering. In it he plays another nasty bit of work called Sir Henry Glyde, who not only is a serial murderer but who also replaces his wealthy wife with a look-a-like from the local asylum! He begins the story as he means to go on by entering a tent and hammering a spike into a sleeping man's head! He takes on this unfortunate individual's persona and travels to his estate in order to claim his huge inheritance, only to discover a pile of debts instead of a pile of loot. He then coerces a very young wealthy woman to be his bride, in order to ultimately claim her money.
This one is essentially business as usual for Slaughter. Again, he is on fine form in another boo! hiss! performance of quality ham. His actions are utterly deplorable of course but he ultimately meets a suitably macabre end which is as it should be. I personally wouldn't put this in the upper bracket of his films; it's more serviceable than especially good. But it's still one that should certainly be seen by any fan of this awesome old school actor! -
boraisailovic-5643817 July 2023This movie is very old as it's his school of acting. One can find lots of sloppy scenes. However, the main character is very interesting to watch as an actor. His face expressions and his body language are hilarious from today's point of view and aren't scary at all. At the time it probably was.
An estranged man, obviously lunatic and psychopath, killing all on his way. Even without any reasonable reason. His killing is more a kind of obsession than an utility.
Some scenes ARE terrifying, especially in the atmosphere of dark rooms, semetaries, foggy lakes and nights. If you're a fond of old cinematography the film can satisfy your curiosity but probably not more than that. -
todmichel11 December 2000Crimes at the Dark House is really one of my all-time favorites. Not only it's the best adaptation of Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (by far superior to the latter Hollywood version), but it's also the more perfect of the eight films produced/directed by George King with the great Tod Slaughter. This actor being one of my favorites, I like practically all of his movies, but the fact is that Crimes at the Dark House has better production values, witty dialogue, a better mobility of the camera, and wonderful actors, including the great Hay Petrie as the sinister Count Fosco, head of an insane asylum. The film has priceless value in keeping on film the performance of Slaughter, a really unique comedian, preserving one of his better characterizations. Sure, other titles like The Face at the Window, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke, and others, must have their partisans - in fact anything with Tod Slaughter is of interest, but Crimes at the Dark House is MY choice. Curiously, did anybody noticed than the print of this movie has no credited director? the British sources (magazines, books, pressbook) credit George King generally, at least a big full-page color ad of the time credits David Macdonald, but the film itself has no director credit!
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planktonrules14 May 2011I was surprised by this film. The featured review currently showing on IMDb for "Crimes at the Dark House" gave it a 10 and they obviously loved it. However, I found the film was pretty bad--mostly due to lots of very broad acting. No, perhaps BAD acting is what I should have said, as the acting is clearly from the Snidely Whiplash school of over-acting.
The film begins on a grisly but exciting note. In Australia, a man receives a letter that he's just inherited an estate--and his 'friend' kills him and takes the letter--planning on impersonating the beneficiary. Once in England, the fake heir learns that his grand estate is mortgaged and in debt...but there is some good news. It seems that a rich neighbor had betrothed his daughter to the heir--and once he marries the unsuspecting lady, he can pay off his debts and live the life of a country squire. However, problems arise and once again, the new lord of the manor needs to kill to keep his secret.
Tod Slaughter (great name) played the heir, Sir Perceval, with as much subtlety as Jerry Lewis or Pee Wee Herman. With mustache-twirling, bombastic over-annunciations and bluster, he's downright funny...though the film is meant to be a scary mystery-suspense film! Most of the rest of the actors are either adequate or bad--with no performance that rose above the crappy script. The script lacks subtlety as well--with too many very obvious moments and clichés. And, needless to say, with such bad acting, the direction was also quite horrid.
The bottom line is that the film has an interesting IDEA but does nothing with it. A bad film that could have been worth seeing had the folks associated with the production been even semi-competent. -
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.
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azathothpwiggins31 July 2020If you've never witnessed Tod Slaughter in action, then CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE is a great place to start. Slaughter truly lives up to his name, as he drives a stake through a sleeping victim's cranium in the opening scene! After assuming the dead man's identity, he learns that he's hit the jackpot, and has inherited an estate.
Upon arrival at his palatial new home, the new "Sir Percival Glyde" sets out to live a life of ease and debauchery with one of his cute chambermaids. Alas, "Glyde's" life gets complicated by several meddling pests, forcing him to kill nearly everyone in sight! Watch, as he gleefully dispatches his victims, then dumps their bodies in a secret burial ground! Listen as he chuckles, chortles, and cackles his way through his hideous crimes! This is Mr. Slaughter at his absolute best!
No one else could play the uproariously unscrupulous "Mr. Glyde" quite like this. Overwrought? Over the top? Of course! That's what's so bloody stupendous about Mr. Slaughter! He has been sadly overlooked, and deserves to be seen... -
blanche-217 March 2011The Wilkie Collins novel "The Woman in White" has been made into several films, a TV miniseries, and a Broadway musical by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. In this 1940 version, it's pretty much the same story, but acted in a somewhat over the top manner by Tod Slaughter, who plays an impersonator of Sir Percival Glyde after he kills the real Glyde.
Even though it's a short film, this movie seemed endless as Glyde gleefully kills anyone who stands in the way of the money from his alliance with Laurie Fairlie.
The rest of the acting is okay; Hay Petrie plays Isidore Fosco, and he's a small man, nothing at all like Sydney Greenstreet. Not having read the original novel, I don't know how much this veers from it, but it definitely veers from other versions.
If the entire film had been done in a tongue in cheek manner, it would have been one thing, but everyone played it straight except Slaughter. -
surman-221 November 2001Tod Slaughter plays(or over plays) another delightfully evil scoundrel in this British melodrama. The hard drinking and womanizing character Slaughter plays commits one evil act after another while delivering lines like "I`ll feed you`re entrails to the pigs" and "I`ll squeeze the life out of you`re greasy body". He actually gives his mustache a twirl ala Snidely Whiplash who could have been based on him. This is hardly even a B-Picture but its lots of fun.
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kairingler10 July 2013you 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.
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The extraordinarily popular novel THE WOMAN IN WHITE, written in the mid-to-late 19th century by Wilkie Collins, is the basis of this loose adaptation that serves as an opportunity for British horror actor Tod Slaughter to give another barnstorming performance as a moustache-twirling villain. Now, I've read TWIW and studied the novel at university, so I'm pretty familiar with the complex plot. CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE tears that plot to shreds. Sure, some of the names are the same, and events do loosely resemble those found in the Collins novel, but don't go in expecting the script to slavishly follow the original storyline. For example, the fire in the church is moved to the film's end, while another major sub-plot is a virtual retread of MURDER IN THE RED BARN!
This is melodrama at its best and the most entertaining I've seen of Slaughter's films – in fact, it rivals SWEENEY TODD as his best work! Slaughter is at his hammy best and not a scene goes by when he isn't cackling with mad glee or giving his sinister trademark throaty chuckle. The film begins with him hammering a stake into a poor soul's head (eat your heart out Peter Cushing!) and throughout he commits acts of villainy time and time again. When it comes to the ladies Slaughter is a particular cad here. The script also provides him with great lines, the best of which is undoubtedly "I'll feed your entrails to the pigs!".
The supporting cast is pretty decent, especially Hat Petrie playing Dr. Fosco. This slimy professional is such a creep that he almost rivals Slaughter and the ending provides him with a fitting send-off. You can tell that British films had become more Hollywood-ised by his period, as there are moments of comedy (intentional for a change) and even a reel of serial-style punch-ups. Camera-work and music are great and director George King handles the proceedings with aplomb. All in all a great B-movie, one of Slaughter's very best! -
chris_gaskin12321 November 2005The above statement is how I saw the great Todd Slaughter's role in this movie as he laughed every time he killed somebody.
He plays somebody who he has just killed and heads for England where he takes up residence in his victim's large and creepy mansion, the residents there not knowing he is a mad impostor. After several deaths, mostly women which he finds funny, a fire at the end claims him after his real identity is discovered.
Joining Slaughter in the cast are Sylvia Marriott and Hilary Eaves.
Crimes At the Dark House is a must for all old horror fans out there. Excellent.
Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5. -
An unnamed psychopath (Tod Slaughter) murders Sir Percival Glyde in 19th century Australia, then makes his way to London to assume Glydes' identity. He thinks that he will enjoy the mans' abode and fortunes tremendously, and is even more delighted to learn that Glyde was arranged to marry the equally rich (and young, and lovely) Laura Fairlie (Sylvia Marriott). He won't stop at anything to keep up the charade, and that includes committing various murders.
It's a ton of fun to see the wonderfully hammy Slaughter in his element in this B level Victorian melodrama. Not that many actors can play pure evil as deliciously as he does; he often commits crimes while cackling to himself, and is just such a cad that he's hilarious. He even makes time with a comely maid and then does away with her when she presents him with unfortunate news. Mr. Slaughter might as well have been constantly twirling his moustache throughout.
He's well supported by a cast including Hilary Eaves (as Laura's sister), Geoffrey Wardwell (as the young art teacher who truly loves Laura), Margaret Yarde as the unsmiling head servant, Rita Grant as that aforementioned maid, Elsie Wagstaff as Mrs. Catherick, and David Keir as the family lawyer. But the one performer who gives Slaughter some competition in terms of juicy acting is Hay Petrie as the ultra-weaselly asylum head who is always trying to get more money from the false Percival.
Producer / director George King, who also did another Slaughter classic, "The Face at the Window", gives this some good atmosphere for the modest budget, and keeps the story moving forward adequately. "Crimes at the Dark House" wraps up in a tidy 68 minutes, and has some gems of dialogue such as the memorable "I'll feed your entrails to the pigs!".
Based on the novel "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins; the novel would be adapted again under that title by Warner Bros. In 1948.
Eight out of 10. -
Aegelis17 November 2020Sure ghosts and monsters can be scary, but what's even MORE scary are people who have the ability and means to perpetuate evil. Story-wise, there's twists and turns, adventure, and a crescendo. Acting however shines through as the best feature of the film. A kind of theatrical play style made the movie engaging as well. Fast-thinking along with charisma carries the villain through some very tough situations, but will quick wit mean a clever escape? Or will his indulgent patterns be his undoing?
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richardchatten1 February 2020Probably the pinnacle of Tod Slaughter's film career before he returned to the boards for the duration of the war is this succulent Victorian melodrama which begins in Australia with Slaughter first seen cackling with glee having driven a tent peg into the head of the real Sir Percival Glyde as he slept; and back in Blighty the fun never stops as the fake Sir Percival wallows deeper and deeper in sin.
The sets by Bernard Robinson amply demonstrate the ability to suggest expense on a shoestring that he later brought to fruition on his work in colour for Hammer; while it's also good to see Hay Petrie in one of his most substantial screen roles as 'Doctor' Fosco (although one would like to have seen what Slaughter would have made of Count Fosco in a more straightforward adaptation of the original novel).