Notes on "The Tale of Sweeney Todd"

The Tale of Sweeney Todd is a 1998 version of the London horror tale, not the Stephen Sondheim/Tim Burton/Johnny Depp musical currently contending for an Oscar. It turns out that the Fleet Street barber's story has been rendered to film quite often, going back to 1926. The version we saw was a made for TV movie, but it the title character was played by Ben Kingsley and the remaining cast was quite respectable. In this version the homicidal haircare specialist has a blood lust that grew from war experiences in Africa. There is, of course a vendor of meat pies. An American agent inquiring after jewels in the care of one of Sweeney's victims accidentally uncovers the whole nasty enterprise. London is portrayed as a grim, dark, damp, muddy place filled with nasty brutish crude louts with bad teeth and frayed whigs. All except the principals, who have good teeth and their own hair. Having gone to the expense of hiring first rate actors, decorating and peopling a dispiriting early nineteenth century world, that the movie would hinge on a melodramatic plot device out of Sergeant Preston and the Mounted Police or a Bond movie. What was the point of getting everybody mucked up for a deus ex machina?

- J