The Ticket of Leave Man

A deranged criminal mastermind known as "The Tiger" is infatuated with singer May Edwards. He plots to get rid of her boyfriend Robert Brierly, a mild-mannered bank teller. After being caught with counterfeit bank notes planted by the fiend, Brierly is sent to jail. He is released early on good behavior, but finds that no one wants to employ a man recently in prison. Despite this, May still loves him, much to the Tiger's chagrin. To rid himself of his rival once and for all, the madman frames Brierly for a series of murders, ensuring that he'll be sentenced to death this time. Brierly must prove his innocence before the authorities can catch him -- but no one has ever outwitted the Tiger and lived to tell the tale...

Tod Slaughter's remarkable talent for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre Victorian settings is on full display in The Ticket of Leave Man. His delightful grin and lunatic glee at "polishing off" his victims is a trademark of the British actor, who never quite gained the fame of his Hollywood horror counterparts Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Directed with a smart tongue-in-cheek flair by George King, who helmed the best of Slaughter's films, The Ticket of Leave Man is based on an 1863 stage play by English playwright Tom Taylor. At the time considered a "social problem" play because it dealt with the plight of ex-convicts, it became popular with audiences because of the heroic Hawkshaw the Detective, a precursor to Sherlock Holmes played here by Robert Adair. Slaughter's character, "The Tiger", was added to capitalize on the actor's reputation for playing maniacal killers, while Hawkshaw's role was de-emphasized in the film adaptation.

• horror