The Crimes of Stephen Hawke ** (1936, Tod Slaughter, Marjorie Taylor, D J Williams ) – Classic Movie Review 5881

Producer-director George King’s 1936 British murder thriller melodrama stars Tod Slaughter, who barnstorms back into action as Stephen Hawke, a kind-seeming Regency moneylender revealed as The Spine Breaker, the murderer who has rampaged through London.

He ends up killing a buddy, Joshua Trimble (D J Williams), whose son Matthew Trimble (Eric Portman) is engaged to his adopted daughter, Julia Hawke (Marjorie Taylor). When Miles Archer (Gerald Barry) tries to blackmail Julia into marrying him, Hawke strikes again and slaughter follows.

With Frederick Hayward and H F Maltby’s script based on a story by Jack Celestin, this well-plotted yarn is busy, pacy and definitely quite entertaining if you take to Slaughter’s engagingly outrageous lip-smacking acting and these over-the-top melodrama thrillers.

However, the direction needs more flair and style, all the acting is a million miles from subtle and the production is desperately cheap looking, though, arguably, all that low-rent stuff kind of adds to the fun.

Also in the cast are Ben Soutten [Graham Soutten], Charles Penrose, Norman Pierce, George M Slater and Flotsam and Jetsam (as themselves).

It is shot in black and white by Ronald Neame.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5881

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