The Tale of Sweeney Todd
Encyclopedia
The Tale of Sweeney Todd is a 1998 American television movie
directed by John Schlesinger
. The teleplay
by Peter Buckman was adapted from a story by Peter Shaw
. It was broadcast in the United States by Showtime on April 19, 1998 and released on videotape
in France
the following month. It later was released as a feature film
in select foreign markets.
, the story focuses on Sweeney Todd
(Ben Kingsley
), a murder
ous barber
/dentist
whose business provides him with two profitable sidelines, the sale of his victims' jewelry and the disposal of their bodies to his mistress Mrs. Lovett
(Joanna Lumley
), who uses them to prepare meat pies for her unsuspecting clientele.
American Ben Carlyle (Campbell Scott
) arrives in the city to track down wealthy diamond merchant Alfred Mannheim and $50,000 worth of jewels he had sold to Carlyle's employer but failed to deliver. Mannheim's staff advises Carlyle their boss disappeared without a trace weeks earlier, and he posts notices offering a reward for information leading to his discovery.
Charlie (Sean Flanagan), a mute orphan who works as an assistant to Todd, recognizes Mannheim as a man the barber shaved just prior to his disappearance. Realizing his dastardly deeds are in danger of being revealed, Todd imprisons the boy in his basement.
Meanwhile, Carlyle is seeking the assistance of the corrupt local police and an amiable serving wench named Alice, who happens to be Todd's ward, with his quest. When his suspicions about the ingredients of Mrs. Lovett's pies are all but confirmed by a chemist, he hides himself in a burlap sack and has himself deposited in her pie shop cellar with a delivery of meat. There he makes a gruesome discovery that spurs him to confront Todd, who overpowers and binds him. As he prepares his instruments to torture
Carlyle to death, he explains what led him to a life of murder and cannibalism
. Charlie, who has managed to free himself from his shackles, stabs Todd in the back, killing him. He then frees Carlyle, who sets the building on fire before escaping with the boy.
, originated in an 1846 Penny Dreadful
entitled The String of Pearls
. The following year, George Dibdin-Pitt adapted the story for a stage melodrama
. A 1936 British film directed by George King
was the first screen version. Christopher Bond
's 1973 stage adaptation was musicalized
by Stephen Sondheim
in 1979. Schlesinger's film is a dramatic departure from the previous narratives. It dispenses with all the characters except Todd and Lovett, adds the plotline involving the missing diamonds, and offers a completely different reason for Todd's murder spree.
The Victorian era
locales were filmed in Dublin, Ireland.
Prior to broadcast, the film had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival
in October 1997 .
, John Leonard said, "Much as I’d have imagined that yet another version of The Tale of Sweeney Todd would be at best inadvisable, Kingsley... is a class-war
wonder to behold... Even more of a surprise than Kingsley’s performance is that director John Schlesinger
, so very serious in movies like Midnight Cowboy
and Marathon Man
, would have so much fun with this blackest of humors."
Daryl Miller of the Los Angeles Times
stated, "It is made of seemingly high-quality elements . . . yet it falls flat because of an ill-conceived script and directorial miscalculation."
was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie but lost to Christopher Reeve
for Rear Window
.
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
directed by John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
. The teleplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Peter Buckman was adapted from a story by Peter Shaw
Peter Shaw (producer)
Peter Shaw, born Peter Pullen, was an actor/producer and the longtime husband of actress Angela Lansbury. Born in Reading, England, he began his career in front of the screen following World War II, and later found success as a studio executive. Shaw served in the British army during the second...
. It was broadcast in the United States by Showtime on April 19, 1998 and released on videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
the following month. It later was released as a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
in select foreign markets.
Plot
Set in 18th century LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the story focuses on Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...
(Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
), a murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ous barber
Barber
A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
/dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
whose business provides him with two profitable sidelines, the sale of his victims' jewelry and the disposal of their bodies to his mistress Mrs. Lovett
Mrs. Lovett
Mrs. Lovett is a fictional character appearing in many adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. She is most commonly referred to as Nellie, although Margery, Maggie, Sarah, Shirley, Wilhemina and Claudetta are other names she has been given. First appearing in the penny dreadful serial The String of...
(Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
), who uses them to prepare meat pies for her unsuspecting clientele.
American Ben Carlyle (Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
) arrives in the city to track down wealthy diamond merchant Alfred Mannheim and $50,000 worth of jewels he had sold to Carlyle's employer but failed to deliver. Mannheim's staff advises Carlyle their boss disappeared without a trace weeks earlier, and he posts notices offering a reward for information leading to his discovery.
Charlie (Sean Flanagan), a mute orphan who works as an assistant to Todd, recognizes Mannheim as a man the barber shaved just prior to his disappearance. Realizing his dastardly deeds are in danger of being revealed, Todd imprisons the boy in his basement.
Meanwhile, Carlyle is seeking the assistance of the corrupt local police and an amiable serving wench named Alice, who happens to be Todd's ward, with his quest. When his suspicions about the ingredients of Mrs. Lovett's pies are all but confirmed by a chemist, he hides himself in a burlap sack and has himself deposited in her pie shop cellar with a delivery of meat. There he makes a gruesome discovery that spurs him to confront Todd, who overpowers and binds him. As he prepares his instruments to torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
Carlyle to death, he explains what led him to a life of murder and cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. Charlie, who has managed to free himself from his shackles, stabs Todd in the back, killing him. He then frees Carlyle, who sets the building on fire before escaping with the boy.
Cast
- Ben KingsleyBen KingsleySir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
as Sweeney ToddSweeney ToddSweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation... - Joanna LumleyJoanna LumleyJoanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
as Mrs. LovettMrs. LovettMrs. Lovett is a fictional character appearing in many adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. She is most commonly referred to as Nellie, although Margery, Maggie, Sarah, Shirley, Wilhemina and Claudetta are other names she has been given. First appearing in the penny dreadful serial The String of... - Campbell ScottCampbell ScottCampbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
as Ben Carlyle - Selina Boyack as Alice
- David WilmotDavid Wilmot (actor)David Wilmot is an award-winning Irish stage, screen, and television actor.Wilmot's theatre credits include Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, As You Like It with the Druid Theatre Company in Galway, and Juno and the Paycock in London's West End...
as Tom - Sean Flanagan as Charlie
- Katharine SchlesingerKatharine SchlesingerKatharine Schlesinger, is a British actress niece of the film director John Schlesinger and great-niece of Dame Peggy Ashcroft. She starred as Catherine in the 1986 film adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.-Theatre:...
as Lucy
Production
The character of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet StreetFleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
, originated in an 1846 Penny Dreadful
Penny Dreadful
A penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...
entitled The String of Pearls
The String of Pearls
The String of Pearls: A Romance is the title of a fictional story first published as a penny dreadful serial 1846-47. The main antagonist of the story is the infamous Sweeney Todd, "the Demon Barber of Fleet Street", who here makes his literary debut....
. The following year, George Dibdin-Pitt adapted the story for a stage melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
. A 1936 British film directed by George King
George King (film director)
George King was an English actors' agent, film director, producer and screenplay writer. He helmed several of Tod Slaughter's melodramas, including 1936's The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.-Career:...
was the first screen version. Christopher Bond
Christopher Bond
Christopher Godfrey Bond is a British playwright whose 1973retelling of the Victorian tale Sweeney Todd formed the basis of Stephen Sondheim's musical of the same name, with book by Hugh Wheeler...
's 1973 stage adaptation was musicalized
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
by Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
in 1979. Schlesinger's film is a dramatic departure from the previous narratives. It dispenses with all the characters except Todd and Lovett, adds the plotline involving the missing diamonds, and offers a completely different reason for Todd's murder spree.
The Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
locales were filmed in Dublin, Ireland.
Prior to broadcast, the film had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival
Hamptons International Film Festival
Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to provide a forum for independent filmmakers from around the world to express their vision. The Festival is traditionally held for five days in mid-October in theatre venues from Montauk to Southampton and attracts roughly 15,000 visitors annually...
in October 1997 .
Critical reception
In his review in New YorkNew York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, John Leonard said, "Much as I’d have imagined that yet another version of The Tale of Sweeney Todd would be at best inadvisable, Kingsley... is a class-war
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
wonder to behold... Even more of a surprise than Kingsley’s performance is that director John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
, so very serious in movies like Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...
and Marathon Man
Marathon Man (film)
Marathon Man is a 1976 thriller film based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. The film was directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, and Laurence Olivier. The original music score was composed by Michael Small....
, would have so much fun with this blackest of humors."
Daryl Miller of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
stated, "It is made of seemingly high-quality elements . . . yet it falls flat because of an ill-conceived script and directorial miscalculation."
Awards and nominations
Ben KingsleyBen Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie but lost to Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
for Rear Window
Rear Window (1998 film)
Rear Window is an American television movie directed by Jeff Bleckner. The teleplay by Larry Gross and Eric Overmyer is an updated adaptation of the classic 1954 feature film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which was based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich...
.