Pulp Features

Tod Slaughter would definitely be one of the screen’s greatest and most under-rated villains. He saved countless films from disaster with his campy, over-the-top performances and the relish with his portrayed a heel.

Born in England in 1885, Slaughter got his start on the stage before going into movies, where he found himself continually thrown into horror films and dark, gothic dramas.

Among his varied films were A Ghost For Sale, It’s Never Too late To Mend, Murder In The Red Barn, Sexton Blake & The Hooded Terror, The Curse Of The Wraydons, Murder At The Grange, Murder At Scotland Yard, and Darby & Joan.

Slaughter might best be remembered for his role as the key villain, Lucio, in Face At the Window. The script itself left a lot to be desired. A monstrous howl would sound, the intended victim of an unstoppable serial killer stalking Paris named The Wolf would be struck and while the knife blade flashed, the soon-to-be dead man would be distracted by a ghoulish monster looking in the window. In the end, the murderer was tricked into confessing his crimes, revealing the “monster” and partner in crime was his half brother, and well…

Slaughter pulled this silly product off and made it work. He smirked, he leered, he relished in his own villainy and oozed slime. To look at him back then, on screen, was to deplore him, with viewers forgetting the whole thing was a movie (and not a good one on the surface). They cheered in the theatres when he died.

Even those in modern times who have braved this movie have panned the script, but praised Slaughter for a masterful and totally annoying performance.

This movie is out on video and is worth watching simply for the “Slaughter show”

Likewise, Slaughter played Sweeny Todd in The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, long before the famous musical which depicted the crazed killer in an entirely different light. On Slaughter’s version, Todd uses his barber shop to attract victims, where he kills for profit and greed, rather than revenge like in the far more famous musical. Once again, he was utterly loony.

In judging films of this type, however, they are easy to pan when compared to modern standards. When one judges them from the time in which they were made, however, one appreciates Slaughter all the more, for he had the ability to make his villains creative, memorable and outlandish, in spite of few special effects, heavy censorship and studio sets that looked like they were designed by some school kids.

Slaughter likewise gave a credible showing in The Greed Of William Hart. Though the title sounds like some type of mafia movie or western with prospectors shooting it out in Gold Rush days, this was actually an outright horror story about grave robbers dealing with the business of reselling corpses for medical research. The names were changed, but the movie was based on the real life criminals, Burke and Hare.

The historical villains on whom the movie was based took to robbing grave and stealing corpses, which were sold to a doctor. They later found it easier to kill people, rather than sneak through the tombs and use these for the doctor’s needs. The devilish duo ended up getting caught, with one being hanged and the other turning evidence against his former friend for a plea bargain.

Though The Greed Of William Hart took liberties, no doubt existed upon whom the movie was founded.

In this film too, Slaughter maintained his arrogant, sleazy, vile image, playing the key villain with utter glee. As par for the course, he met an unpleasant fate in this one too, all to the joy of the theatre audiences of his day.

Slaughter died from coronary thrombosis in the 1950’s, yet the net pays homage to him with several articles and sites, even now, long after his passing. In the time gone by, among certain horror fans he has found a cult following he never truly had while alive. Granted, people always seemed appreciative of his skills, though among the bulk of horror fans, he remained and remains one of the screen’s most underappreciated villains. Too often, his work has been overlooked and lost in the shuffle, except for the diehards on the web and in the fanzines, keeping his visage in circulation.

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