Strangler's Morgue (1946) User Reviews

Ham acting in a costume potboiler

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 1 December 2015]

THE CURSE OF THE WRAYDONS is another murky potboiler that comes to us courtesy of Tod Slaughter, the era's top ham actor. This Napoleonic-era story tells of traitors working for the French against the English, mixing it in with a Gothic-style story of family curses and inherent madness.

Of course, it's all just a vehicle for Slaughter to show off his undeniable talents, which consist of playing up his role theatrically. He's a villain prone to uncontrollable laughter, murky mannerisms, and outlandish facial expressions. His acting belongs on a Victorian stage, but here he was, starring in sensation films for over a decade, and aren't they a lot of fun!

THE CURSE OF THE WRAYDONS is a mixed bag of a film and certainly not perfect by anybody's measure. It's overlong, it feels very staged, and it's also incredibly slow with lots of added on dialogue scenes that go nowhere. However, scenes of Slaughter and his comrades plotting and committing murder are worth watching for, and the Grand Guignol-style climax has to be seen to be believed. There are some references to the legendary figure Spring-Heeled Jack here, but sadly no actual springing - the budget wasn't big enough for that.

The Blind Beggar

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 24 February 2020]

Madness runs in some families, in the Wraydons it practically gallops in this poky but generally good-looking pre-Victorian melodrama that marked everyone's favourite wicked uncle's return to the big screen after being obliged to confine his villainy to the stage for the duration of the War by official discouragement of horror films (although his thirties vehicles had continued to do the rounds in cinemas).

A whiskerless Tod Slaughter is only Spring Heeled Jack in name, since he skulks about rather than leaps and the action is actually set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, over thirty years before the first alleged sightings of the 'historical' Jack in 1837.

"Try it again and I'll screw your blasted necks."

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 23 September 2021]

All you need to know about this film is that Tod Slaughter is in it, the king of British melodrama going back to the countryside barn theaters decades before this and continuing into the 1950's. The type of actor who screeched with glee, "You want to be a bride, my dear? Then you shall be. A bride of death!" as his narly hands reached for the poor maiden's neck. He was a Sweeney Todd with no motive other than insanity, a sinister phony Sir Percival Glyde (maniacally laughing as he hammered a spike into the real one's ear) and a cruel prison warden who would torture children to death. His films are mostly in poor public domain prints, and as bad as they are, I find them fascinating.

Featuring a cast of veteran character actors in period costume with their noses so high in the air that they would drown in a rainstorm, this actually focuses on the character of Jack Wraydon (Bruce Seton) with Slaughter the main villain (the leader of a gang of crooks) who seems to be twirling a mustache even when he doesn't have one. He has an infectious, villainous laugh which I'm sure he did a lot off stage to entertain the kiddies.

The film is indeed very static and outside of Slaughter, the acting is very boring and nearly monotone. The sets are lavish though and the film doesn't look as cheap as it probably was, one of Slaughter's most lavish looking. There's also some great twists with the plot involving the curse and secrets involving the family as well as a torture chamber set which gives an indication of what will transpire at the end, straight out of Edgar Allen Poe, especially the films of "The Raven" (1935) and "The Pit and the Pendulum".

Even Slaughter Cannot Redeem This Film

[malcolmgsw · 1/10 · 6 May 2014]

It would appear that the reviewer from Australia was unaware of Slaughter's reputation for performing in these overheated melodramas,and that he is generally sending up the whole genre.Unfortunately he cannot disguise the sheer awfulness of the whole procedure.The films he made for George King before the war are far superior to his later efforts for Ambassador filmed at the very small studios in Bushey.The main problem is that the film is just so boring it is impossible to hold the attention.Also it has to be said that Slaughter is well past his prime here.It was without the worst of his films and watchable only by those who are devotees of either the genre or of Slaughter himself.

Danger: Death by boredom!

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 1/10 · 23 March 2004]

Beginning in the first year of Queen Victoria's reign, there were rumours in England of a bizarre criminal nicknamed Springheel Jack, who was allegedly able to leap to superhuman distances and heights. The legend lasted into Edward VII's time, with the result that a few minor but genuine criminals began calling themselves Springheel Jack. (A minor character in Michael Crichton's novel 'The Great Train Robbery' uses this name.) Several Victorian stage melodramas featured Springheel Jack as a character. This film is based on one such play ... although it takes place in 1805, which is too early for Jack's exploits.

Handsome Jack Wraydon is a captain in an army regiment quartered in Essex, prepared to defend England against an invasion by the troops of Napoleon. (No mention is made of the French army's disastrous attempt to invade Fishguard, Wales, in 1798.) Captain Wraydon is nicknamed Springheel Jack, for his prodigious ability to high-jump ... which we keep hearing about in the dialogue, but which we never see onscreen. Jack Wraydon is afraid to marry, due to 'the curse of the Wraydons'. Supposedly, his family has a history of hereditary insanity, but the only documented example of this is his deceased uncle Philip, who was a mad inventor.

Meanwhile, some blaggard known only as 'The Chief' (Tod Slaughter, as hissable as always) is preying upon the king's soldiers, strangling them with laughable ease. The Chief has two henchmen who speak with the most blatantly phony Cockney accents I've ever heard ... even worse than Dick van Dyke in 'Mary Poppins'. SPOILERS COMING. It turns out that the Chief is actually Philip Wraydon, alive after all. Philip has apparently invented some sort of infernal machine which amplifies the 'power' of the human body, enabling him to make prodigious leaps which enable him to frame his nephew Jack for Philip's crimes. Regrettably, we never actually see Tod Slaughter doing his Springheel Jack routine: a pity, as it would have been hilarious to see this fat little man kangarooing his way across the screen.

All of Tod Slaughter's films are very creaky, with only 'Sweeney Todd' and 'The Face at the Window' enjoyable for modern audiences. 'The Curse of the Wraydon' is very likely his worst. This material is beyond stagebound. At the alleged 'climax' of the film, two characters stand in a room and have a long slow conversation in which they agree that they ought to hurry to the old mill. When they finish this conversation, one of them says 'Hurry!', which is the cue for both of them to saunter towards the mill. As they approach the mill, they hear a scream. This prompts them to stop in their tracks and have another long conversation, in which they agree that they ought to investigate the scream. Having settled this, they stroll purposefully forward.

In this entire film, there's one and only one clever cinematic device. After Philip Wraydon frames Jack for his own crimes, a reward is posted for Jack Wraydon's capture. The reward is 100 guineas. (In real life, the reward would have been in pounds ... even though spade guineas were still in circulation in 1805.) We see the reward poster in close-up, while -- through a series of dissolves -- the reward gradually increases. This effect is spoilt somewhat by the fact that the reward handbill is printed in what is obviously 20th-century typography.

At the end of the film, Philip chucks his nephew Jack into one of those dungeon pits with walls that gradually move together, crushing anyone between them. All this time, we've been hearing about Jack's ability to leap to superhuman heights ... so now we expect finally to see that ability onscreen, even if it requires trick photography. Curses! Foiled again! Jack escapes from the pit by another method entirely ... and of course Tod Slaughter falls into the pit, just in time to get crushed by his own infernal machine.

'The Curse of the Wraydons' is so bang awful, I'm tempted to rate it zero points. But due to my interest in the actual Springheel Jack mystery -- which I mentioned in my novel 'The Woman Between the Worlds' -- I'll rate this movie one point out of 10. Consider yourself warned.

"Rat on us if you want to but face the consequences!"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 5/10 · 3 July 2022]

A rather slow moving film set in rural Essex during the era of Napoleon which is only enlivened when Tod Slaughter, that juiciest of hams, is on the screen either laughing like a maniac, ogling a pretty maiden, disguising himself as a blind beggar or breaking someone's neck. Or throwing knives. Supposedly based on the play 'Spring-Heeled Jack or The Terror Of London' there isn't any spring-heeling (or even leaping about) in it unfortunately. There is a spy theme that isn't really developed. Apart from Tod as 'The Chief' the rest of the cast are a bit dull. The cinematography by S. D. Onions is tolerable on location though the interior sets do look rather meagre. Only worth seeing for Mr. Slaughter slaughtering.

The Curse of the Wraydons

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 8 January 2023]

The Lord Chamberlain's Department in Britain actively discouraged Tod Slaughter's usual type of film during WWII, so it was not until this little costume melodrama that he was able to return from exile on the stage. It's the usual hammy stuff; only this time the setting is Napoleonic and we are smuggling information not brandy. The "Wraydon" family are meant to be a little bit bonkers - well rest assured, you are left in no doubt as our tale of camp espionage gathers pace. We've got spies, duels and treason a-plenty to keep us entertained for a slightly over-long hour and forty. Lovely to watch with a cup of tea on a dreich afternoon...

Top Hats in the Woods

[By-TorX-1 · 6/10 · 28 January 2024]

The Curse of the Wraydons was made in 1946 but feels like it was made in 1934, such is the creaky pace, static scenes and slow, exaggerated acting on display throughout the yarn. The film is slow, but the day is saved by the majestic turn of Tod Slaughter as the fiendish Chief, an arch villain in the employ of Napoleon, who murders, schemes and plots aplenty. Tod is always lurking in the shadows, laughing maniacally (often at nothing in particular), and is prone to nodding to himself repeatedly when spying through various windows. Yet, while there is scarcely an inch of the scenery that is left unchewed, Tod Slaughter really animates every scene he is in with his unrelentingly evil antics, as he was a unique acting talent in his dogged adherence and revival of the classic elements of the penny dreadful tradition and I truly love his work. So, there is much talk of the exploits of Spring-Heeled Jack, but no heel-springing is ever evident, but there are secret passages, a proto trash compactor, duels, braces of pistols, French spies, and Tod watching and anticipating torture with hand-rubbing glee. So, the film is not as fun as the other Tod Slaughter films, but there are still melodramatic larks galore.

Sometimes "bad" films can be extremely entertaining

[Badger-20 · 9/10 · 12 April 2008]

Many years ago my parents attended an estate sale and obtained an old 16mm projector. We were also given several 16mm films, one of which being the Curse of the Wraydons. It is one of the all time funniest "bad" movies ever made: how none of Slaughter's films made in onto Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) is a mystery unto itself. The production values are not too bad, considering the high-end period costumes, but the cinematography and audio is so amateurish as to make this a great film for a group whose minds easily work in MST3K mode. One shot cuts to an extreme close up of Slaughter: it is clearly obvious it's supposed to be scary, but the shot is out of focus enough, and he's grinning from ear to ear enough that when showing the film to a fellow fan of Entertaining Bad Films nearly fell off his chair laughing. Some of the scenes' audio sounds as though recorded in someone's bathroom (particularly an odd fencing duel scene): no one at the time (or at least with this production) ever considered recording the lines separately and replacing inaudible lines with audible lines. Not all bad films are entertaining (e.g., In the Name of the King, D-Wars, etc.), but it's safe to say as a "film maker," Tod Slaughter gives Ed Wood a run for his money when it comes to his Inadvertently-Entertaining Bad films.

Tod Slaughter who almost manages to revivify this otherwise moth-eared melodrama.

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 12 May 2021]

Manifestly melodramatic maniac, Tod Slaughter remains one of the more, how shall I put it?, 'esoteric' fear figures in the glorious pantheon of classic British horror. All too many disdainfully regard his unhinged 'murder in the barn-storming' performances as, perhaps, being of a singularly 'acquired' taste. Sadly, masters of bravura acting eccentricity are rare, and arguably one of the more unfiltered examples of a serially scenery-chewing actor would be that towering, taste-tottering titan of vintage Gothic grisliness, Tod Slaughter!

Slaughter is on mesmerisingly melodramatic form in this creepy-creaky, cobwebbed Gothic plot-boiler. Turgidly directed by, Victor M. Gover, this remains an undeniably stagy, musty film artefact, it is then no small testament to the hyperbolic mannerisms of the estimable, triple-glazed terror Thespian, Tod Slaughter who almost manages to revivify this otherwise moth-eared melodrama. The multifarious double-dealing, chivalrous duels, perfidious murder plots are wickedly energised by the unconscionable devilry of Slaughter's despicably murderous cad 'the Chief'. Wherein no tottering scenery is safe from that tenacious terror termite, Tod Slaughter as he gluttonously consumes all available celluloid as though desperately breaking an extended fast! Good films are very rarely as entertaining the really bad ones, and this is undeniably poor, but, by Jove! Its objective 'badness' proves subjectively entertaining! Depending on ones mood, 'The Curse of The Wraydons' is a not infrequently hilarious, deliciously camp vintage creepshow!

"You Need... A Shock!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 13 June 2023]

STRANGLER'S MORGUE (aka: THE CURSE OF THE WRAYDONS) is about treachery and espionage during the Napoleonic wars. The Wraydon family is allegedly cursed with madness. Jack Wraydon seeks to uphold the family honor.

Meanwhile, a criminal known as The Chief (Tod Slaughter), an odious traitor and fiend, murders anyone in his way while betraying the crown. He also seeks revenge for an unexpected reason. Although it takes a while for things to get going, Mr. Slaughter comes through as only he can. His gleeful lunacy is at once histrionic and creepy. He even gets his own hidden dungeon, complete with a novel instrument of torture. Without Mr. Slaughter, this would be one dull movie!

A wonderfully devilish film with a fitting finale...