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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film)

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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

This is about the film. For the stage musical on which it was based, see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (musical).

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 film adaptation of the musical of the same name.

Cast[]

Plot[]

In 1846, a barber named Benjamin Barker arrives in London, accompanied by sailor Anthony Hope. Fifteen years earlier, he had been falsely convicted and sentenced to penal transportation from London by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who had lusted after Barker's wife Lucy. Barker adopts the alias "Sweeney Todd" and returns to his old Fleet Street shop, situated above Mrs. Nellie Lovett's meat pie shop. From her, he learns that Turpin raped Lucy, who then poisoned herself with arsenic. The couple's daughter Johanna is now Turpin's ward and, like her mother before her, the object of Turpin's lust. Todd vows revenge, and re-opens his barber shop after Mrs. Lovett returns his straight razors to him. While roaming London, Anthony becomes enamored of Johanna, but is caught by Turpin and driven away by his sidekick Beadle Bamford.

During a visit to the marketplace, Todd denounces faux-Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli's hair tonic as a fraud and humiliates him in a public shaving contest. A few days later, Pirelli arrives at Todd's shop, with his boy assistant Tobias Ragg. Mrs. Lovett keeps Toby occupied while Pirelli identifies himself as Todd's former assistant, Davy Collins, and threatens to reveal Todd's secret unless Todd gives him half his earnings. Todd kills Collins to protect his secret, and hides his body in a trunk.

After receiving some advice from Bamford, Turpin, intending marriage to Johanna, visits Todd's shop for grooming. Todd shaves Turpin, preparing to slit his throat; they are interrupted by Anthony, who reveals his plan to elope with Johanna before noticing Turpin. Turpin leaves enraged, vowing never to return. Infuriated at having missed his chance, Todd vents his rage by killing his customers while waiting for another chance to kill Turpin, and Mrs. Lovett bakes his victims into pies. Todd rigs his barber's chair with a pedal-operated mechanism that deposits his victims through a trap door into Mrs. Lovett's basement bake-house. Meanwhile, Anthony searches for Johanna, whom Turpin has sent to an insane asylum upon discovering her plans to elope with Anthony.

The barbering and pie-making businesses prosper, and Mrs. Lovett takes Toby as her assistant. Elated by success, Mrs. Lovett tells an uninterested Todd of her plans to marry him and move to the seaside. Anthony discovers Johanna's whereabouts and, at Todd's suggestion, poses as a wig-maker's apprentice to rescue her. Meanwhile, Todd has Toby deliver a letter to Turpin telling him where Johanna will be brought when Anthony frees her. Toby has become wary of Todd and tells Mrs. Lovett of his suspicion.

Bamford arrives at the pie shop, informing Mrs. Lovett that neighbors have been complaining of the stink of her chimney. He is distracted by Todd's offer of a free grooming and is murdered by Todd. Mrs. Lovett informs Todd of Toby's suspicions, and the pair search for Toby, whom Mrs. Lovett has locked in the bake-house. He has hidden himself in the sewers after seeing Bamford's body drop into the room from the trap door above, as well as finding a human toe in a pie. Anthony brings Johanna, disguised as a sailor, to the shop and has her wait there while he leaves to find a coach.

A beggar woman enters the shop in search of Bamford. She recognizes Todd when he enters, but upon hearing Turpin's voice, Todd kills her and sends her through the trap door. As Turpin enters, Todd explains to him that Johanna had repented and offers a free shave; when Turpin finally recognizes Todd as Benjamin Barker, Todd kills him. Upon seeing Johanna, Todd prepares to slit her throat as well, not recognizing her as his daughter. Hearing Mrs. Lovett scream in horror as a dying Turpin grabs her dress, Todd instead tells Johanna, "Forget my face," and leaves her alive.

Todd discovers that the beggar woman is his wife Lucy, whom he had believed to be dead, and that Mrs. Lovett misled him. Todd pretends to forgive her before hurling her into the bake-house oven, then cradles his wife's dead body in his arms, singing bitterly to himself. Unseen by Todd, Toby climbs from the sewers and slits Todd's throat with a dropped razor. He then leaves the basement as Todd bleeds to death.

Musical numbers[]

The song "Alms, Alms" was recorded and remains on the soundtrack, but was cut from the final film. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd was intended to appear in the film but was cut for timing reasons.

  • "No Place Like London" - Todd and Anthony
  • "The Worst Pies in London" - Mrs. Lovett
  • "Poor Thing" - Mrs. Lovett
  • "My Friends" - Todd and Mrs. Lovett
  • "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" - Johanna
  • "Johanna" - Anthony
  • "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" - Toby, Todd and Mrs. Lovett
  • "The Contest" - Pirelli
  • "Wait" - Mrs. Lovett
  • "Ladies in Their Sensitivities" - Beadle Bamford
  • "Pretty Women" - Todd and Judge Turpin
  • "Epiphany" - Todd and Mrs. Lovett
  • "A Little Priest" - Todd and Mrs. Lovett
  • "Johanna (Trio)" - Anthony, Todd and Beggar Woman
  • "God, That's Good!" - Toby and Mrs. Lovett
  • "By the Sea" - Mrs. Lovett and Todd
  • "Not While I'm Around" - Toby and Mrs. Lovett
  • "Final Sequence":
    • "Searching" - Todd, Mrs. Lovett and Beggar Woman
    • "The Judge's Return" – Todd and Judge Turpin
    • "Final Scene" – Todd and Mrs. Lovett
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