It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN, sometimes subtitled MARIA MARTEN, is based on the true story of a murder that took place in Suffolk in 1828. It was subsequently adapted for the stage by the Victorians, and in the 20th century Tod Slaughter became popular for his performance as Squire Corder, the villain of the play. With the success of Dracula, FRANKENSTEIN, et all in the early 1930s, some cheapie British producers obviously felt the time was right for some home-grown horror and melodrama, and the play was finally adapted for the big screen. This low budget production is neatly preceded by an announcer introducing all of the actors in the movie, which proves to be a charming reminder of the olden times.The film itself is a sometimes turgid potboiler that manages to pack quite a lot of detail and incident into a scant one hour running time. To cut the story short, a young village woman shuns her gypsy lover in favour of an older seducer. When her seducer learns she has become pregnant, he murders her, with the rest of the film chronicling the subsequent investigation (by the Bow Street Runners, no less). THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN is cheaply made and impoverished, and the sets and camera-work can't hold a candle to American or German competitors. However, it is entertaining in its own right, with an engaging storyline – forgotten today – and a barnstorming performance from Tod Slaughter, one that was to put him on the movie map and which was to lead to his typecasting as a villain in another dozen or so movies over the next twenty years. Slaughter is an acquired taste, to be sure; he's often hammy, but gives the performance here his all, so he's impossible to dislike; imagine an early Vincent Price or Michael Gough and you'll be halfway there, although Slaughter is all on his own. He's like a throwback, a leftover from yesteryear, an age when silent film and stage actors had to overdo their expressions and overemphasise their lines so audiences could understand what was going on.The rest of the cast are also surprisingly good, and I can't think of one weak performance. Sophie Stewart is a damsel in distress whom you can root for, while Eric Portman's gypsy hero is always sympathetic. Inspector Lestrade actor Dennis Hoey has fun in a mostly comic supporting role as a gambler who drains Slaughter's money. The first half of the film is quite slowly paced, setting up the plot until the actual murder, but the last twenty minutes is tremendous fun, with people shooting pistols all over the place, Slaughter undergoing a mental breakdown and becoming haunted and mad in equal measure, and a neat conclusion that sees him climbing the gallows. Slaughter's next role was to be his most famous; that of SWEENEY TODD, DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET.

Compact, entertaining thriller concerning a pompous aristocrat who, following a brief moment of ecstasy with an impressionable young farmer's girl, discovers he's responsible for an unwanted foetus. Tod Slaughter plays the immoral Mr Corder, under financial pressure due to gambling, being threatened by his dalliance now up the duff and in the mood to tell all to her father, who'll surely kill Corder for sullying the family name. What to do but a murder in the red barn.Well told, straightforward without complications or surprises, just a decent little tale (based on a true event) that showcases stage actor Slaughter's adept villainy, and that of younger Eric Portman in one of his first pictures as the chivalrous Gypsy enamoured by Sophie Stewart's damsel in distress. The cast is immaculate and the inimitable producer George King delivers his usual pint-for-a-pound pulling no punches despite limited resources.While it's 1935, there's no disguising the atrocious nature of the title crime, and this element along with Slaughter's portrayal of the corpulent, depraved and cowardly ogre is more than just a little unsettling at times. The scene in which he's goaded to "dig, dig" is quite chilling, and the conclusion thereafter is entirely fitting. Worth a look.

Many of Tod's melodramas like Maria Marten and The Face at the Window had been filmed numerous times since the dawn of British cinema. But in partnership with quota quickie producer George King, Tod stepped in front of film cameras for the first time to capture his signature role of Squire William Corder on celluloid. A typical 2-week residency at a provincial fleapit by Tod's company would consist of Maria Marten the first week and Sweeney the second.Milton Rossmer handled directorial chores on this one instead of King and the difference shows. The camera is relatively mobile and seeks a number of interesting angles - especially as it prowls around the red Barn as Tod prepares to shoot the luckless Maria. Production values and period design are relatively high for what is in essence one of the much-derided quota-quickies. Tod is the central figure and a sympathetic, multi-faceted role for all his evil. At the opening barn dance, he is the life-and-soul of the party and ensures that all his guests are enjoying themselves as he cuts a merry caper on the dance floor. The flighty Maria is much taken with him - and who can blame her when the only alternative is the sullen Carlos the Gypsy. Far from being the callow young suitor who normally opposed Tod's leering baddies, Carlos is impulsive and a bit too handy with a knife for comfort. His pursuit of the uninterested Maria verges on stalking and Eric Portman plays him with an authority that matches Tod. The confrontation in the drawing room between the 2 men after Corder has received his dowry is an interesting conflict of two differing acting styles and I had to admire the way Corder was able to signal for help despite been at the mercy of Carlos. Tod Slaughter also demonstrates what a skilled comedy actor he was with some amusing interludes as he loses heavily at dice to a suavely-sleazy Dennis Hoey His facial contortions are a joy, as is his swindling of idiot Tim Winterbottom and his scarcely-concealed repulsion from his intended - the big-nosed Psalmist. By the end of the 30's, Tod's acting style was, even then, regarded as pass? and a bit of a joke. He was often reduced to performing shortened dramatic acts on stage on the ABC cinema circuit. Nonetheless, he kept active throughout his life (American soldiers stationed in Belfast during the war seeing him on stage didn't know what to make of him).

Tod Slaughter was able to do one important action as an actor - he put on film a series of the popular "warhorse" melodramas that were the meat and potatos of Victorian theatre way into the 20th Century. He knew these plays and their lead roles by heart, and how the public wanted him to play those villains. And several of the films were based on actual cases. That is the case with the murder of Maria Marten at the Red Barn in Polstead, England. In 1827 William Corder, the surviving son of a fairly prosperous farmer, had an affair with Maria Marten (the daughter of a mole catcher). She became pregnant, and demanded he do the right thing. After hemming and hawing a bit William agreed to leaving with Maria for their future together. But he insisted she meet him secretly at the Red Barn, and she wear male attire. She did, but she informed her step-mother who watched her head for the Red Barn. Maria was never seen again for the next year. But letters from William, from London, came telling how Maria and he were very happy together. One day (we are told) Mrs. Marten had a nightmare in which she saw Maria's body in the barn. She insisted her husband look. Mr. Marten did, and in digging up the floor of the barn found Maria's remains. The authorities started looking for Corder, and found he was living in London with a wife, and running a school. He was arrested, brought back to Bury St. Edmunds (the nearest town to Polestead), tried for Maria's murder, and found guilty.He was executed in 1828.Did Corder kill Maria? Most criminal historians feel he did, and are impressed at his initial attempt at a perfect crime - but why did it fall apart so easily? However one writer, Donald McCormick, wrote THE RED BARN MYSTERY, and pointed out that there were lots of questionable points in the story. Mrs. Marten's behavior, for instance. Local rumors said she had had an affair with Corder before he turned to Maria. Did the jealous woman suspect Corder's motives about the secrecy and disguise - but if she did, why did she not warn Maria? And if she did why didn't she tell her husband earlier? Did those letters really convince her that Maria was safe, or was her "dream" fake? McCormick suggested a different solution to the murder but it was rather bizaar.Anyway the film with Slaughter keeps the traditional solution. And he goes to town with it.