Tod Slaughter's remarkable talent for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre Victorian settings is once again on full display in The Crimes of Stephen Hawke. His delightful grin and mad glee at "polishing off" his victims is a trademark of the British actor, who never quite gained the fame of his Hollywood horror counterparts Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, but has a large cult following nonetheless. Directed with a smart tongue-in-cheek flair by George King, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke has an unusual opening unique in Slaughter's filmography. The film begins with Slaughter (playing himself) being interviewed on a BBC radio show and speaking of how he "murdered hundreds and hundreds of people" in his prior movies Murder in the Red Barn (1935) and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936).
DVD Details
>Rated: NR
>Runtime: 1 hours, 8 minutes
>Video: 0
>Encoding: Region 1(US & Canada)
>Originally Released: 1/1/2025
>Label: Alpha Video
Starring: Tod Slaughter;Eric Portman;Marjorie Taylor