1998 The Legend of Sweeney Todd PDF

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MA. Notes on the 1998 film version....

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The Legend of Sweeney Todd. Dir. John Schlesinger. (1998).

Starts in a jeweller, following a Mr. Mannheim, shows scenes of London sellers and entertainers on the streets. He walks through waste unhappily, and narrowly avoids buckets being emptied from windows above. As he walks you hear people offering ‘Mrs. Lovett’s Pies.’ He enters T’s, who is speaking to a customer about patriotism and dancing. His help is called Charlie. T sees the man’s pocket watch – zooms in on his face and close up of watch. 4:55 – T: I beg your pardon, sir, he hasn’t been with me long, he has a lot to learn, haven’t you, Charlie? And learn it you will if I have anything to do with it. T teases when someone brings in a lady’s wigs and when a man trips over them, he says: ‘Really, Mr. Todd, one’s life is not safe here.’ T sends Charlie out to deliver a wig and locks the door behind him. T tries to talk to M but he says to spare the chatter and get on with his shave. Fades to black when shaving. A man is shown being swindled by a prostitute, but the landlady, Alice, stops her before anything happens, giving Carlyle back the pouch of coins she has taken from him. He goes to find M, but is told he is not there. C tells them his employers have a £50,000 contract with M for diamonds. They tell him that M has not been seen for 5 weeks. L is shown distributing pies to her sellers and telling them where to go with them. She sends some to T. L goes into the cellar where there are cooks and inspects and tastes them. She criticizes, telling them to add more flour, less salt, and to make the pastry thinner. She then unlocks a door, locks it behind her, and can be heard hacking at something. C dines alone, reading the paper. One of M’s staff members introduces himself – Tom – saying he wishes to help him, for a price. 15:30 – T is shown enjoying on of L’s pies. Charlie looks on enviously and scoffs the rest down when he is offered it. He then lathers T. T grips his throat. T: Miraculous organ, the tongue, Charlie, it can tell beef from mutton, quince from apple, suet from semolina, and yet it’s only attached by a few little tendons. A blabbing tongue is easy to tear out by the roots, Charlie, aren’t you glad yours will never blab? T then strops the razor and shaves while laughing. C goes to a man named Major Rutledge about M. T is shown pulling a vicar’s tooth. T: There you are, vicar, the ache will soon go, just like people’s good intentions. V:… There’s an awful lot of… Thanks… for the skills you have been granted. T: Not granted, Vicar, so much as acquired, in the African jungle, sir, where to survive, a man must do things that civilized beings daren’t dream of. V: I’m sure, Mr. Todd, that you… have always behaved in a Christian manner, I mean, you’re an example to us all, of Christian charity, taking in dumb orphans and turning them into decent citizens. T: [Rubs Charlie’s head]. V: Thank you so much, good boy, thank you. Now, just a moment, just a moment [hands Charlie money and give to T]. T: Put it in there, sir, there are those in more need than I. V: Oh, you really are so good. L spanks Rutledge, who then sees T on his way out. T starts kissing L and gives her a ring. C tells A that he does not want to get anything wrong with her.

Tom brings C a picklock and they break into M’s. C tells Tom he does not like towns or the British, the Irish locksmith agrees. Tom asks why. C says they shot his father, the locksmith says ‘mine too’. The police see them and they escape, C saving the other 2, beating the police off. C goes around with posters looking for M. T is shown aiding someone medically, A comes in and hugs him. T asks her jokingly if she will break his heart by being in love with another. She says there is an American gentleman, he says that is a contradiction in terms. C walks in, A introduces T as her guardian. C asks A if she knows M, she suggests T might help. T cuts his customer by mistake at this. T says he does not know names, but faces, and he does not recognize a face like that. C puts the poster up in T’s shop, who asks why he is looking for him. C says M has something he wants, and intends to get. Charlie stops to look at the poster, T tells him not to dawdle. Charlie looks scared when C leaves. 30:21 – In bed that night: L: I’m not ashamed. T: When it comes to sending men to their deaths I’m nothing. The least politician condemns whole(?) people with his stroke of a pen, than _______(?) generals, he kills more men than the worst of murderers, then he has his statue erected by parloury subscription, the meanest of bloody merchants destroys whole families in the name of profit, then he’s made a lord [laughs]. They have no conscience, why should I? L: I just say enough is enough, Mr. Todd. T: Oh, you’ve had enough of me, have you, Mrs. Lovett? L: Not of you, Mr. Todd. Of our work. 32________(?) customers and 32________(?) carcasses. God knows they deserve each other. But between ’em, they’ve given us everything we’ve ever wanted. I just say stop now before we get dragged back down into that pit it’s taken us so long to crawl out of. T: And if we stopped, Mrs. Lovett, what then? L: Ooh, why then, Mr. Todd, we should lead lives of comfortable ease. T: [Laughs] Come here, [they kiss]. Not afraid of me, are you, Mrs. Lovett? L: What’s there to be afraid of, Mr. Todd? When I have you as my protector. 32:00 – People coughing in church, some saying they should look at the drains. T does a business dealing at the back of the church – he exchanges a diamond ring for a pouch of money. L’s staff are on a break outside. She watches them as Charlie comes with a bruise on his face. Woman 1: Oh, did Mr. Todd do that to you? W2 (Lucy): Oh, Mrs. Lovett’s done the same to me more than once, and for nothing neither. But that’s how it is, Charlie. Charlie points. Lucy: What is it, Charlie? Charlie leads her, as T watches, to a poster of M. Lucy: Who is it, Charlie? [Charlie gestures throughout the conversations] Someone Mr. Todd shaved? And, you want to claim the reward? You want me to go to Mr. Carlyle in the Saracen’s Head? But why don’t you come with me? All right, Charlie, I’ll go and see him, but don’t count on a reward, and just remember, one more foot wrong and Mr. Todd will send you straight back to the asylum. It’s all right, don’t you worry. I’ll look after you. We’ll sort it out. High angle shot as Charlie enters T’s shop. He kneels down at the fire, T comes up from behind and starts beating him with an iron rod, canted framing. He throws him down the stairs to the cellar and locks the door. Charlie discovers an abundance of people’s belongings down there. T watches him in the shadows as Charlie discovers a vermin-infested human body, he faints. 37:00 – T: Turned into a right little gossip, haven’t you? Not as dumb as you’d like us to think. Rutledge has found one of M’s rings. It was found on a fence. R wants a locksmith so he might be able to get to M’s belongings and collect the reward. Lucy goes to C. Someone eating a pie at A’s pulls part of a finger out of his mouth. Lucy tells C about Charlie being dumb, and that she understands him. She says that Charlie remembers lathering M. Tom

appears and says they think M’s dead. C wants to see Charlie, Lucy says it is too late, so they agree on the following day. Tom sees Lucy home. C goes to T for a haircut and shave. T lathers him. 42:40 – C: Is this a task you usually leave to your apprentice? T: You mean Charlie, now there’s a sad tale to be told, Mr. Carlyle, a sad tale indeed. C: Tell me. T: Well, an orphan boy, sir, who knew little of human kindness, till he came into my care. Never been known to speak an intelligible word to a living soul, sir, and do you know why? According to the superintendent of the asylum where I found him, he witnessed sights that robbed him of the power of speech, a plight, I might add that instantly drew him to me. [Strops razor]. C: Are you a sentimental man, Mr. Todd? T: I am, sir, I am indeed. I have witnessed sights that I would prefer to remain dumb about, though, as you have no doubt observed, Mr. Carlyle, I’m not a man to whom silence comes naturally [laughs]. C: I imagine we all see and do things we’d rather forget. T: Have you ever known, can you ever imagine what it is to starve, Mr. Carlyle? C: I’ve gone hungry. T: And what did you do to fill your belly? C: Nothing I’m proud of. How about you? T: In Africa, sir, when my friend and I were caught between starvation and the spears of savages, when desperation made us forget we were human. C: Did you kill? T: Ah, Mr. Carlyle, if only it were that easy [strops razor]. C: So, where is Charlie? T: …I… had to let Charlie go, sir, he was getting into bad habits. C: Where would he go? T: Be still, Mr. Carlyle, I would not like an accident to befall you. C: Why should an accident befall me, Mr. Todd? T: London’s a dangerous place, Mr. Carlyle. Surely you’ve learnt that in your short stay among us. T shaves as thunder is heard in the background. Charlie is shown chained to the wall. 44:45 – T: So what am I going to do with you, Charlie? Mrs. Lovett wants you dead and your body disposed of, the way we disposed of her husband, all those years ago, but I don’t see the need for that, do you? I’m fond of you, Charlie, and that’s the truth, I can talk to you without having to listen to all your problems, as I listen to half the world’s. You’re just like a dog, aren’t you, Charlie? Only more useful, that is until you started misbehaving, Charlie, now, why did you do that I wonder? Was it because I was too kind to you? Do you know what we do to dogs who misbehave, you do, don’t you, Charlie? We beat them, and then we chain them up and we starve them [pulls out razor], until they know better. Don’t we, Charlie? [Screams that as he cuts a piece of Charlie’s hair with the razor]. Tom goes to Lucy, she says she hasn’t seen Charlie for 2 days. He goes to T who is training a new apprentice. Tom says he has come to speak about M. T sends his new boy out and locks the door, offering Tom a shave as he talks better whilst working. Tom refuses and says he knows what T’s done, and accuses him of killing M. T says he needs to take a seat and Tom makes him sit by the fire where he can watch him. Tom asks him for the key to M’s safe, telling T he doesn’t care for M’s death. Tom tells T that if he doesn’t get the key, he will report T as a murderer, but with the key, he won’t do anything. T goes to get a lantern to look in the cellar for the key, whilst gone, he pulls the lever and Tom falls through to the cellar as a trap door with a chair on either side flips. Charlie sees T come down and slit Tom’s throat. Charlie watches T drag a naked body on Halloween. There is a Halloween celebration in the street where many are dressed up. Lucy and T are both apple bobbing, him lifting his head and grinning scares her away. The mob goes to the church, open the crypts and enter, complaining about the smell. When they find rat-infested human carcasses, one throws up, another drinks. L’s shop is mobbed and she sees Lucy being questioned by police about the graveyard.

C enters a lecture where R is. The doctor says that the remains were 5 men, and the flesh seems to have been boiled off. He says they must be looking for a thief. He says the fingers were severed from the hands, making it easier to steal the victims’ rings. This person must be an expert in the art of dissection, and dissimulation, a callous and calculating person who confuses identification for them by jumbling the bones. This person must be clever and depraved. L tells T he is becoming careless, and tells him he must take care of L. C walks around, watching L’s pies being sold and people eating them. He begins thinking that the meat might be human flesh. He visits L in her busy shop, and asks for a word in private. After some tongue in cheek comments, she shows him to the kitchen. He asks how the meat is delivered, she shows him a secret door and slide that comes down into the shop, an invention of her own devising, to avoid thieves. 58:00 – C: May I ask you a business question? What is it exactly that goes into your specials? The meat, I mean, I’ve seen veal and ham, beef, oysters, poultry, but what is that… secret ingredient that makes your specials so popular? L: Ooh, wouldn’t you like to know? Everybody including the Archbishop of Canterbury wants to know that. But, Mr. Carlyle, even if you and I do go into partnership in America, an idea that interests me more and more, my recipes must remain my own, they’re all I have, sir, they will go with me to my grave. [Stops to hit and shout at a cleaner] Do it properly, you little tyke, or I’ll boil your head for soup. It’s hopeless, sir, but, of course there is a war on. C takes L’s pies to the doctor to be analysed. T spies on Lucy, who, watching a street performer, loses her friend. She looks for her, going into the waxworks. A couple stop and look at what they think are wax figures on display, but are actually T and Lucy with a slit in her bloody throat. C and A discuss Lucy’s murder over tea. He tells her that he was in prison in Massachusetts for killing a man. His father was killed in war when he was 15. A man later rented a room in their house, who took advantage of his sister. A tells C her father was killed in Africa when he was with T. He was badly wounded and could not escape. T promised to return and look after A as his own. C and A kiss. C returns to the doctor. 1:05:20 – C: You mean you don’t know or you won’t say? Dr: Well, it’s not pig, beef, or poultry, though it bares a certain resemblance to all 3. C: Are you sure it’s an animal? Dr: I can’t say we’re sure. C: If it’s not an animal, what is it? Dr: Well, that Mr. Carlyle, is precisely the problem. C: So it could be human? Dr: My family and I often partake of Mrs. Lovett’s pies, Mr. Carlyle. How do you think my wife and children would feel if they were told they were cannibals? Hmm? What would London think? What would the world say of Britain, if its citizens were said to be eating one another? C: Yes, well, I’m an American, Dr., and you are a ______(?) man of science, I would think that the truth— Dr: Truth? Truth is a weapon, like any other, Mr. Carlyle, a surgeon uses a knife to cure, a butcher, to kill. C: I’ll tell you about the truth, Dr., I come to a town that claims to be the centre of civilization, and find that merchants disappear, rather than honour their contracts. The authorities – if you can call them that – are only interested in the rewards they can gather, I then discover that the man I came to find has in fact been robbed, cut up, and maybe even eaten, and you want me to be quiet about it? Dr: I didn’t say that. C: Just give me a straight answer, is this or is this not human flesh? Dr: It is possible. C: Thank you, Dr. Dr: I have heard, and perhaps it is true that the taste for human flesh is addictive. Once enjoyed, no other meat gives the same gustatory satisfaction. C: You mean, the killer is feeding some kind of craving?

Dr: No, cannibalism is a lot more common than we’d be prepared to admit. King Richard the Lion Heart told his crusaders that the most nourishing meat for an Englishman was the head of the Saracen. Starving soldiers and sailors have always— C: Wait, soldiers? In Africa recently? Dr: [Nodding] In Africa, and elsewhere. Maybe even here. C: Thank you, Dr. C and A in bed, he asks her if she wants him to come with, she says she will tell him. 1:08:50 – T: I’ve done everything, I’ve risked everything. L: I would remind you that I have risked as much and worked as hard as you to get this far, and I say it is time to book our passage. T: You say. L: Yes, I say, Mr. Todd. Is my word not of equal value to yours? T: That depends on who you’re speaking to. L: I’m speaking to you, Mr. Todd. I do not think that I shall hesitate to speak to others if I have to. T: You threaten me? L: There’s no need for threats if you do as we agreed. T: I’ve already told you, the time is not yet right, I’ve already— L: We have enough, what are we waiting for? Unless, of course, you plan to share the proceeds with someone else? T: Someone else? [Laughs] no… You— Knock at the door. T: We have business to finish, Mrs. Lovett. L: As far as I’m concerned, business is over tomorrow. A comes in asking to speak to T. A says she has news, L says they have news too. A tells them she knows about that, T looks scared and asks what. A says that she knows they are lovers, and asks for his blessing for she and C. L says she clearly doesn’t know everything and tells T to book the passage they agreed on. T goes and tells A to stay the night with L and that he will return for her, telling L to keep her safe. The next morning, A bangs on the door to be let out. C has snuck in in a bag with the meat. He walks into a room where he sees a body hanging. He sees Charlie’s legs and calls out to him, picking the lock. L hears him and calls out, asking if it is T. She runs after him and cuts his hand. 1:16:20 – L: Thank God it’s you, Mr. Carlyle, I thought you were Sweeney Todd. I’ve plenty of money put by, enough to go round. C: I don’t want your money. L: He won’t let her go, you know. I’ve 3 passages booked for America, leaving tonight, you, me, and Alice. She begged me to help. C: Where is she? Is she here? L: Ooh, I’ve entreated him to stop this. He’s gone too far, told him, but he wouldn’t listen. He’s so… so powerful, Mr. Carlyle. Sir, you must help us. They hear a noise and she lunges at him with a knife. She pushes him over with a carcass in a bag, and they fight. He holds her mouth/throat until she faints. Canted framing on T. C enters his shop. 1:18:35 – T: Nasty looking cuts there, Mr. Carlyle, not been fighting out of your league, I trust. C: You know why I’m here. T: Well now, are you going to ask me for the hand of my ward in marriage and then in the next breath report me to the runners, that wouldn’t make for the happiest of honeymoons, now would it, Mr. Carlyle? Why don’t you let me explain things to you in terms you’ll understand? C: I think I know— T: You think you know? Do you know what it’s like to be abandoned? In a jungle? By officers too lazy and cowardly to search for you amongst savages? C: Listen, Todd, the English killed my father. T: And you don’t want revenge, shame on you. C: Not by killing innocent people.

T: Was not I innocent once? Were not you, and Alice innocents too? C: Leave her out of it. T: I love her, Mr. Carlyle, in a way that you’ll never understand. Everything I’ve done, everything, has been for her, could you do as much, would you do as much, I don’t think so. C: Alice wouldn’t want this. T: What do you know about what Alice would or wouldn’t want? C: I’ll tell you what I want [drags T up by his collar], I want the key to Mannheim’s safe, I want to see that boy, Charlie, safe and sound. T: He will never be that, Mr. Carlyle. C: And I want to see you, in the hands of the runners. T: And Alice? C: She’ll never learn the truth from me. I’ll take her away from here before you’re arrested— T: You will take her from me? You will never do that, Mr. Carlyle [grabs hot pliers] not while I have breath in my body [burns his neck]. T then pushes C into the chair and pulls the lever. He runs downstairs to find that C is hanging onto the chair above him. He falls onto him, Charlie watches as they fight. T hides in the shadows and punches C. A is waiting, looking out the window to see L being arrested. L: I don’t know what you’re arresting me for, it’s that American you want, he attacked me __________(?). I’ll never spank you again, Major Rutledge. R: You’ll never spank anyone where you’re going, Mrs. Lovett. Take her away, take her away. 1:21:10 – T has bound and gagged C. T: Well now, Mr. Carlyle, come back to us have you at last? I was afraid I’d lost you there, sir, I was indeed, which would have been a great sadness to me, sir, sadness, and a loss, not least to surgical science, for I propose to use you, Mr. Carlyle, for a little experiment. I was taught to experiment in the army, you see, you learn so much serving His Majesty, learn how much pain the human frame or, more importantly, the human mind can take. Learn how to avoid telling the one young woman who loves and trusts you that you have eaten of her father’s flesh. C grapples with ties ty...