Leofwine_draca Tod Slaughter, Britain's first horror star – and still up there with the best – is at his lip-smacking, eye-rolling best in this decent horror offering that plays to his strengths. Directed by George King, who helmed many such pictures, this might not be as well known as SWEENEY TODD but it certainly packs a punch in its story of the 'Spine Breaker', a ruthless murderer essayed by Slaughter, who enjoys breaking the bones of his victims. Seen today, this film is still fairly shocking in places. It opens with the murder of a child, for instance, who we hear getting his spine snapped! From then on, there's a ton of plot packed into a barely hour-long running time. Slaughter sets himself up in a dual role as usual, with his innuendo-laden moneylender and sinister night-stalking killer. Watch out for the script that offers great lines for the actor, like "I'll get to grips with you soon enough" and "I'll be right behind you".Elsewhere there's a one-legged one-eyed hunchback hopping around for some menace, a ménage a trois between Slaughter's daughter, her lover and a creepy/lecherous aristocrat, and a sub-plot that sees our antagonist locked up in jail for nicking bread! Villains are whipped with cat-o-nine-tails, corpses raise beneath their death sheets, and there's a barnstorming climax that sees Slaughter being pursued to the rooftops! The other actors don't really get much of a look in, to be honest; this is Slaughter's film alone, and he makes a real ham of it. You don't see classic overacting like this in modern cinema! He's a real delight and this is one of his most entertaining flicks. As an added bonus, the film seems better for what precedes it: an excruciating comic-radio-duo, Flotsam and Jetsam, who sing for an age, and then the appearance of the infamous 'cats meat' man, a humorous butcher. Sure, it's dated, sure, it's cheap, but it sure is a lot of fun.

Rainey Dawn I'll admit it - I quickly became a Tod Slaughter fan. I *think* I first saw him as a kid but I can't really recall - I know about 3 years ago I started becoming very familiar with him and quickly became a fan. Like most people, I watch Tod Slaughter films for Tod Slaughter's performances. He's quite good - very theatrical and lively on film so he makes an otherwise mediocre film entertaining.Now this film is more than just Tod Slaughter being an entertaining, it's actually a pretty good story on top of it. One of Slaughter's best films.I love the atmosphere in this one. It's very much of a Victorian Gothic film - it's no masterpiece but it's one that really enjoyed watching.9/10

wes-connors "Stephen Hawke is a moneylender whose compassion for his clients is only outshined by his devotion to his lovely daughter. What she and the rest of the public don't know is that Stephen Hawke is leading a double life. At night, he becomes 'The Spine Breaker', a notorious killer with the habit of viciously killing his victims in the most horrible ways imaginable," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. Silly movie, enriched as much as possible by two under-appreciated British stars - murderous Tod Slaughter (as Stephen Hawke) and Shakespearian Eric Portman (as Matthew Trimble) - both deserving better productions.**** The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936) George King ~ Tod Slaughter, Eric Portman, Marjorie Taylor

gavcrimson You owe it to yourself to see at least one Tod Slaughter film. His signature movie Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street or the career overview Crimes at the Dark House are two of the best examples, but The Crimes of Stephen Hawke is a worthwhile introduction to his work. Like most of the early Slaughter movies it seems uneasy about the (then) new film medium favouring more common forms of entertainment. His debut film Maria Marten or the Murder in the Red Barn opens with the entire cast being introduced like in a play and Crimes opens like a radio show complete with some hard to watch variety acts (singers Flotsom and Jetsom and a `comic' butcher) before Tod Slaughter is brought on to introduce his latest piece of `Strong Meat'. In the subsequent film/ radio play Slaughter (real name: Norman Carter Slaughter) plays the title role, an outwardly respectable moneylender who is really serial killer `The Spinebreaker' nicknamed for his ability to snap his victim's spines. His long time friend Joshua becomes his latest victim, however upon discovering the guilty party Jossua's son seeks revenge, forcing Hawke and his sidekick, an eyepatch wearing, one legged hunchback to flee, leaving Hawke's adopted daughter in the blackmailing hands of an upper class `lecherous brute'. For a film that barely passes the hour mark this manages to cram allot in, including a fake `talking' corpse, Hawke sent to jail for a year (for stealing a loaf of bread!), the obligatory romance, the honest guy vs the slimey rich guy for Hawke's daughter's hand and even some unexpected sensitivity. Its worth noting that the British censors banned all horror films during the WW2 years, although this falls a few years short of the censor's ban, during that time Slaughter was still making `meldrodramas' with tent pegs pounded into heads, human flesh stuffed into meat pies and lines like `I'll feed your entrails to the pigs' that were far more lurid than any banned Hollywood horror movie. Crimes opens to a sadistic scene where a pompous child is attacked by Slaughter and has his back broken, such scenes like that are not common in British movies of the time. Equally don't look for sub-plots about people being tortured with whips in Ealing comedies. Yet Slaughter's performance is incredible, extremely theatrical and barnstorming par excellence. You can almost hear the boos from the audience as he exits a scene giggling and cackling after `coming to grips' with some unfortunate. Some of the berserk expressions he makes in this film as he breaks spines makes it hard to believe he hadn't completely lost his mind. Call it hammy or over the top, but you'll never forget it. The director George King deserves credit for preserving most of Slaughter's body of work on film (even if he doesn't do it very well). Seemingly more comfortable on stage than on film, Slaughter's movies are little more than filmed plays, with cardboard sets, minimal (if any) camera movement, and unexceptional repertory players. Slaughter is the only reason to watch any of his films, for further proof see King's other Slaughter-less films like The Case of the Frightened Lady (1941) the old magic simply isn't there. Tales from Slaughter's theatre days are both hilarious and the stuff of legend. Actresses not needed would dress as nurses (in case anyone died of a heart attack), while Slaughter reviled in the sort of grand guignol butchery that could never be shown on film and would walk around after the show in blood stained clothes. Whether all these tales are true its hard to know. My relatives remember seeing the guy `live' sometime in the Forties and the man himself definitely left an impression running around the audience covered in blood (actually beetroot juice), waving a big knife and offering to `polish people off'. Now dead for nearly half a century, Slaughter's films are the nearest we'll ever come to experiencing such mad genius first hand. Technically the movies should be unwatchable, but they exert a strange fascination that you'll have to see for yourself, there really hasn't been anything like them before or since.