Murder in the Red Barn

Dear old Tod Slaughter serves up another chop-licking melodrama with Murder in the Red Barn. Based on a barnstorming, fact-based American play, the film features the redoubtable Mr. Slaughter as Squire William Corder, potential defiler of the virtue of virginal Maria Marten (Sophia Stewart). When she refuses to let him have his way with her, Corder does away with the poor girl and hides her body in the red barn of the title. But the villain is -- curses! -- foiled when the girl's stalwart sweetheart uncovers the crime. Just in case anyone were to take this too seriously, the film opens with a master of ceremonies introducing all the characters, who take huge, ceremonial bows before plunging into the story.