Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror ** (1938, George Curzon, Tod Slaughter, Greta Gynt) – Classic Movie Review 10,875

Director George King’s 1938 black and white British crime thriller Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror stars George Curzon as super-sleuth Sexton Blake who, along with Tony Sympson as Tinker, investigates a case of stolen stamps and a worldwide sinister organisation of masked criminals called the Hooded Terror.

The rather bland but acceptable Curzon stars again in the third of of his three performances in a series of adventures for the famous crime-buster, brought to life from the printed page to the screen by a succession of different actors.

Blake has been portrayed on screen in numerous silent movies and then by Langhorn Burton in a 1928 serial, George Curzon, David Farrar, Geoffrey Toone, Laurence Payne, and Jeremy Clyde.

Tod Slaughter plays millionaire Michael Larron, aka The Snake.

Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror is an entirely standard, old-style British thriller affair, and on the slow moving, talky side. But it is still enjoyable and suspenseful enough, building to a good climax, and it is much enlivened by a suitably over-the-top performance by the lip-smacking barnstormer Tod Slaughter as millionaire Michael Larron, aka The Snake, the chief hood and nemesis of the hero.

Also in the cast are Greta Gynt as Mademoiselle Julie, Charles Oliver as Max Fleming, David Farrar as Granite Grant, Marie Wright, Norman Pierce, H B Hallam, and Billy Watts.

A R Rawlinson’s screenplay is based on the story The Mystery of No 13 Caversham Square by Pierre Quiroule.

It follows Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor (1935) and Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle (1935).

David Farrar went on to play Sexton Blake in Meet Sexton Blake! (1945) and The Echo Murders (1945).

But the Hammer film Murder at Site 3 (1958), featuring Geoffrey Toone, did not launch a series.

ITV broadcast Sexton Blake featuring Laurence Payne as Blake from 25 September 1967 to 13 January 1971. Of 50 episodes, only the first episode is thought to survive. Payne was blinded in his left eye by a rapier during rehearsals for the show in 1968.

Simon Raven’s Sexton Blake and the Demon God was a six-part TV serial on BBC One at Sunday tea-time from 10 September to 15 October 1978 with Jeremy Clyde as Blake.

Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror is directed by George King, runs 70 minutes, is made by George King Productions, is released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1938) (UK), is written by A W Rawlinson, is shot by Hone Glendinning, is produced by George King, is scored by Jack Beaver and designed by Philip Bawcombe.

Sexton Blake was created by Harry Blyth (as using the pseudonym Hal Meredeth). The first Sexton Blake story was The Missing Millionaire, published in the story paper The Halfpenny Marvel number 6, on 20 December 1893. Since then until1978, Sexton Blake adventures feature in a wide variety of publications in many languages, comprising more than 4,000 stories by about 200 different authors.

William Franklyn played Sexton Blake for BBC Radio 4 in 1967.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,875

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