Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

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Stephen Sondheim's Victorian horror thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is generally considered his greatest work, macabre but darkly humorous with a viscerally powerful score that has found a home both on Broadway and in opera houses. George Hearn (who replaced Len Cariou of the original Broadway cast) plays the title character, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 18th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber), and Angela Lansbury plays his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, who finds a practical business use for Todd's victims. This combination of horror and humor is echoed in Sondheim's score: brooding menace ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "My Friend"), achingly beautiful ballads ("Johanna," "Not While I'm Around"), clever puns ("A Little Priest"), coloratura arias ("Green Finch and Linnet Bird"), and intricate choral and ensemble numbers.

Continuing a fortuitous tradition of capturing the Sondheim legacy on video recordings, this performance was filmed before a live audience in Los Angeles during the 1982 national tour. Almost 20 years later, Hearn returned to the role opposite Patti LuPone in an acclaimed concert production. But Sweeney Todd is an especially compelling experience in this 1982 version, complete with the clever staging tricks (e.g., the barber's chair) and as close to the original cast as we're likely to see. --David Horiuchi

Description

Times are hard in 1846 London and one must make do. So Nellie Lovett adds something extra to the meat pies she peddles on Fleet Street. The secret ingredient: freshly murdered victims of her partner in crime, barber Sweeney Todd. Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim refashions a macabre tale into a musical masterwork in this dazzling performance of the 1979 Broadway hit originally staged by Harold Prince. In her Tony-winning role (one of eight the show earned, including Best Musical), Angela Lansbury plays Nellie. George Hearn turns his stage role of twisted Sweeney into an Emmy-winning triumph. The score coils around itself in ever-tightening spirals. The lines ripple with black humor and madness. Enter Sweeney's tonsorial parlor. Attend the tale.

Customer Reviews:

Sweeney Todd Rules!.......2007-08-31

This is one of my Favorite Shows! I had a nice breakfast while watching my newly purchased DVD. I was Quite Happy!

pefect perfect.......2007-07-05

this is my FAVORITE show ever and im so thankful that the original/much better version is now available!

Film record of the stage production.......2007-02-01

Halfway between movie and stage is the filming of a stage production. It is difficult to capture the intimacy and immediacy of theater on film, difficult to exercise the kind of control that film offers on stage. This is a filming of a live stage presentation. It looks reasonably good and sound quality seems fine. The major selling point is Angela Lansbury's fine performance as the demented Mrs. Lovett. It is a wonderful performance and considering how many wonderful performances on stage are lost forever, it is nice to see this one preserved. A lifetime of playing villainesses seems to free her to approach the part with utter abandon. The musical itself is excellent and beautifully done. The biggest concern I have is that with a price this high, the DVD clearly was made as cheaply as possible with a cheap cardboard container and absolutely no extras of any kind. I do not think that there is anything that would justify the cost and, while I am pleased to have the film, I am disgusted at the inordinately high price charged. It is a crime to make so little effort in simply reproducing a film whose costs were quite limited in the first place, packaging it as cheaply as possible and then charging top dollar for the final product. It is really shameful.

Sweeny Todd.......2007-01-28

Sweeney Todd is a wonderfully dark romp through broadway. It follows the story of Benjamin Barker, a barber who was jilted by the judge and beetle of old time London and soon seeks revenge. A wonderful performance by Angela Lansbury as Nellie Lovett and Len Cariou as Sweeny Todd.

The not-such-a-demon barber of fleet street.......2007-01-11

It is easy to see why Angela Lansbury won a Tony for this peformance. The sets, scenery and costumes are wonderful. The cast is quite effective, but at times it is very hard to distinguish some of the lyrics in the larger production numbers. A must see for anyone that is aware that Tim Burton is going to bring his own unique take on this story to life.

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Non-musical Version)

Average customer rating:

(3.5 Stars) Todd Slaughter Is Sweeney Todd: Delightfully Melodramatic in Victorican Fashion
MMM-MMM Meat Pies!
Blast from the past
Villainy personified
Not the Musical

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Non-musical Version)
Starring: Tod Slaughter , Stella Rho , John Singer , Eve Lister , and Bruce Seton
Director: George King
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002W4U0W
Release Date: 2004-10-26

Product Description

Unsuspecting wealthy customers have their pockets picked and their throats slit in Sweeney Todd's barber chair. His accomplice, Mrs. Lovatt, grinds the victims into the meat pies she sells in her pastry shop. Meanwhile, the mad barber has a romantic eye o

Customer Reviews:

(3.5 Stars) Todd Slaughter Is Sweeney Todd: Delightfully Melodramatic in Victorican Fashion.......2007-02-14

The name of Sweeney Todd is, and will be, associated with Stephen Sondheim's great musical (and a Tim Burton film perhaps), but there once was another Todd, an underrated artist who played the role of this murderous barber like no one else could do. In fact, no actor can act like Todd Slaughter today, and even Sir Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal `Cannibal' Lector sitting at dinner table cannot beat Todd who gleefully hams it up, grinning like a true demon barber.

The basic premise of this British-made film (in 1936) is not much different from that of the Broadway musical. The barber `polishes up' his unsuspecting customers sitting in the ingeniously-made chair that drops the body into the basement. There Mrs. Lovatt awaits the poor victims who end up being meat pies made and sold by herself.

But of course this is not Sondheim. Though Sweeny Todd is romantically attracted to a young and beautiful girl Joanna, the film (directed by George King, who churned out numerous cheaply made thrillers during the 1930s and 40s) is nothing romantic. Except for the brief frame story at the beginning and ending, the film is a melodrama told in a purely Victorian fashion. If someone like Charles Dickens had directed a movie, it would have become something like "Sweeny Todd" with a terrified kid, the hero/heroine in disguise and comical moments before and after the suggested shocks. The story actually includes many plot devices you may find in Victorian novels, and even brief, unexciting scenes of the `natives' attacking the voyagers, most of which we rarely watch on screen today.

But the star of this real curio is Todd Slaughter, whose theatrical acting style is the exact opposite of the method actors'. His hammy performances as demon barber chuckling and cheerfully chattering about his `job' have a peculiarly attractive quality that only Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff could realize. Surely Todd Slaughter is Sweeny Todd, the Evil that is fun to watch, though uncomfortable to be with.

MMM-MMM Meat Pies!.......2004-12-24

Sweeney Todd (Tod Slaughter) and his accomplice Mrs. Lovatt have a strange business relationship. Todd brings the rich victims into his barbershop, where he throws the secret switch to his trick barber-chair, sending them into the basement for a throat-cutting and fleecing. Mrs. Lovatt then makes mince-meat out of the poor saps in her shop next door. Sort of an ancient forerunner to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, SWEENEY TODD is a perfectly gruesome little story. I especially like the new apprentice, Tobias, who goes next door for those tasty meat pies whenever his new master gets a new victim for his razor. Tobias is the eighth boy in eight weeks to fill the job. The other seven have all gone missing! It's a crime that this film has not gotten the notice it deserves. It's creepy, ghoulish, and humorous. Tod Slaughter is menacing, and no more silly in this than Bela is in DEVIL BAT for heaven's sake! Sheesh! Well worth owning...

Blast from the past.......2004-11-16

The movie is a hoot, but the picture quality is poor, and the audio is just awful. But the movie is so off the wall, it's worth the $6.99 just as a history lesson, as they certainly don't make them like this anymore!

Villainy personified.......2003-02-25

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (produced and directed by the great George King in 1936) features Tod Slaughter in one of his most famous roles. In my mind, no one ever played a villain more ably than Slaughter, and even though I don't consider this film to be his best work, he is marvelous nonetheless. Sweeney Todd is not your everyday barber, but as he gleefully says several times, he loves his work. He especially loves wealthy customers just disembarking from foreign lands. He puts them in his favorite chair, sends his apprentice next door for a meat pie, and then proceeds to "polish off" his customer. A surreptitious pull of a switch is all it takes to flip the chair over and dump the unsuspecting victim head first into the cellar. The meat pie seller next door is in cahoots with him and the dastardly pair split whatever money they find (though not 50-50 if Todd can help it). It is pretty much assumed that the dead bodies are disposed of, to some degree, in the meat pies sold next door, but this is not made explicit in the film (just as we never get to see Todd use his razor to finish off any victim who may not have been killed by his fall). Although Todd is making a lot of money, he wants more. He concocts a business deal with a ship owner that eventually puts him in the position of blackmailing the man's daughter to marry him (Tod Slaughter's characters always go for the ladies), and he even manages to get his rival for the girl's affections in his chair after the man returns home a rich man. Alas, Todd's brilliant villainy cannot last. The ending of the movie was a little bit disappointing to me because the heroes' plans of exposing Todd are really pretty foolish and seemingly of little use, and Todd's own actions at the end seem to defy logic.

This movie is really all about Tod Slaughter, whose remarkable performance more than makes up for some obvious weaknesses in the plot. Slaughter is, in my opinion, the benchmark by which all movie villains then and now should be judged. If you want to learn how to cackle with evil glee or wring your hands together greedily, just watch Tod Slaughter at work. I really loved the way Sweeney Todd told his customers he was going to "polish them off" just before sending them to their deaths. We see Todd's truly dark nature most clearly in his relationship with his new apprentice Tobias (his eighth apprentice in eight weeks, as the first seven have all disappeared mysteriously). His victims never see what's coming, but the poor child is terrorized by the evil barber. Todd, razor in hand, tells him how bad boys that see or say too much sometimes end up having their tongues cut out and other horrible things done to them. He is the perfect villain.

Tod Slaughter's melodramatic style of acting is different from what you will find in modern movies. Some may be inclined to laugh at his performance as he hams it up. This is actually part of the magic of his performance; he encourages you to laugh along with him all the way to hell. No one enjoys villainy as much as he does himself. If you want to see villainy personified, you simply must see Tod Slaughter's work, and there is no better introduction to his unique genius than Sweeny Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Not the Musical.......2002-12-01

To anyone thinking that this 'Sweeney Todd' will be anything like the musical, please think again - it's not, and couldn't be if it tried.

Nightmares: Bloodlust! / Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Average customer rating:

Nightmares: Bloodlust! / Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Manufacturer: PC Treasures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BH20U0

Product Description

Double Feature and a cartoon: Magic Mummy

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