The Curse of the Wraydons (U.S. title: Strangler's Morgue) is a 1946 British thriller film directed by Victor M. Gover and starring Tod Slaughter, Bruce Seton and Henry Caine.[1][2] It was written by Owen George based on the 1928 play Spring-Heeled Jack by Maurice Sandoz, which was in turn based upon the 1849 play by W. G. Willis. It was made at Bushey Studios.
During the Napoleonic Wars an Englishman, Philip Wraydon, is sent into exile and agrees to become a spy for France. It features legendary Victorian character Spring-heeled Jack.
The film was released in the USA by Hoffberg Productions Inc. in 1953, edited to 75 minutes and retitled Strangler's Morgue, on a double bill with The Greed of William Hart (1948), retitled as Horror Maniacs.
In 1950 the BBC produced a TV version starring and produced by Slaughter, titled Spring-Heeled Jack.[3]
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Slow, to the extent of being irritating, the film fails miserably as a melodrama except in the traditional over-acting. There are moments, however, especially in the closing sequences, which make laughter irrepressible."[4]
Kine Weekly wrote: "It is treated with apparent seriousness, but fails through its inability fully to exploit Tod Slaughter's exuberant histrionics. It needs drastic sharpening up. Stunt offering mainly for the sticks."[5]
Picturegoer wrote: "Tod Slaughter has not managed to breathe much life into the old bones of the Lyceum melodrama "SpringHeeled Jack – Terror of London.'"... The picture is played straight and opens too slowly. The latter half is in better Tod Slaughter tradition."[6]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959David Quinlan rated the film as "poor", writing: "Lurid horror-thriller is much too long and slow."[7]
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