Announced as SPRING HEELED JACK OR, THE TERROR OF LONDON, filmed as SECRET OF THE WRAYDONS, then released as THE CURSE OF THE WRAYDONS, this 1946 oddity is a museum piece, even for a Tod Slaughter movie.
By far the longest (almost 100 mns) of all his films, it's also probably the less satisfying of them. It was the only feature ever directed by Victor M. Gover, who also made, some years later, the series of featurettes co-starring Slaughter, Patrick Barr and Tucker McGuire. The series was planned for television but apparently never broadcast and several episodes were reunited to form two "features", theatrically released in 1952 and 1954. Two others were released as short films. One of them, "Murder at the Grange", was finally aired on BBC in recent years. The other, "A Ghost for Sale", with the same principals but not really part of the main series, was in parts composed of flash-backs, taken from "The Curse of the Wraydons".
It's the less satisfying of Tod's films, it's a fact - much too long and talkative, and Tod is not on the screen for long periods. In spite of this handicap, it contains some wonderful moments, so any fan of Tod Slaughter just can't dislike this movie.
This is the complete version, taken from Channel 4 in Great-Britain, and was recorded 15 years ago. From my original record I made a DVD-R, the two or three commercials were carefully eliminated, and it's probably the best version available - until somebody release the movie on DVD from an original print.
In America it was released by Hoffberg in the early Fifties, under the title STRANGLER'S MORGUE, and reduced to 72 mns, in a triple-bill with two other British movies, one of them being "The Greed of William Hart", renamed 'Horror Maniacs" and also cut to ribbons (and a much better movie, incidentally).
Four years later, in 1950, Tod played the same role in a theatrical version, which was the first play ever directly transmitted on TV in Great-Britain - but unfortunately it was apparently a "live performance" and nothing seems to subsist of this historical premiere...
THE CURSE OF THE WRAYDONS
GB, 1946
An Ambassador-Bushey Production / An Ambassador Film Release
Producer: Gilbert Church
Director: VICTOR M. GOVER
Screenplay & Dialogue: Owen George, based on the play "Spring-Heeled Jack, or The Terror of London"
Director of Photography: S.D. Onions
Art Director: Victor Hembrow
Editor: Victor M. Gover
Music: De Woolfe
The Cast:
Tod Slaughter (Philip Wraydon), Bruce Seton (Jack Wraydon), Henry Caine (George Wraydon), Pearl Cameron (Rose Wraydon), Andrew Lawrence (George Henningham), Alan Lawrance (Squire Sedgefield), Loraine Clewes (Helen Sedgefield), Ben Williams (John Rickers), Gabriel Toyne (Lieutenant Payne), John E. Coyle (Dennis Stoke), Daphne Arthur (Alice Maitland), Barry O'Neill, Herbert Appleby, Lionel Gadsden, Joseph Cunningham, Patricia Grant, Martin Goodwin [uncredited].
Note: the original British pressbook mentions Barry O'Neill as George Wraydon, but the movie itself credits Henry Caine in the role. Barry O'Neill is also listed, but his character is not mentioned. IMDb "solved" the problem in crediting both actors for the same role !!!
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