Hello, and welcome to Devils Food, a one-page tribute to the character Mrs. Lovett from the 2007 film Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Although the site is largely concerned with the film version of the character, I have included a bit of history about other versions of the story as well. As such, the site has spoilers not only for the movie but these other versions.

Sweeney Todd is a dark story, filled with violence, gore, and at least one rape scene. As such, the contents of both the story and this website are not for all viewers. Please take that into consideration before continuing reading (though this site will not focus largely on the gorier aspects).

I created this site because Mrs. Lovett is such a wonderfully wicked character. She does terrible things, but she does them with such audacity that it is hard not to cheer for her a bit. She's lively, seductive, manipulative, evil, witty, and deadly, but not unsympathetic. She's definitely bad for your health, but deliciously bad.

Mrs. Lovett is the proprietor of a rather unsuccessful pie shop located in a particularly depressed area of London called Fleet Street. The widow’s poverty and the lack of meat in the area forces her to use poor quality products and the result is what she calls “the worst pies in London.” It does not help, however, that her shop has less than the sanitary conditions such as bugs crawling everywhere and an inch of dust covering everything. She changes her fortunes through her practicality, general lack of moral scruples, and connection with a murderous barber bent on revenge when she finds a devilish new filling for her pies—human flesh.

Mrs. Lovett has lived a life of dull dissappointment and poverty. When an old tenant, a barber named Benjamin Barker, returns to Fleet Street after a long term in the penal colonies of Australia (from which prisoners are not suppose to return) looking for his family, Mrs. Lovett takes him in and relates to him the story of his lost family. Believing that his wife is dead and his daughter is lost to the hands of the very Judge who sent him away and raped his wife, Barker, now calling himself Sweeney Todd swears he will have his vengeance. Lovett admittedly has long carried a torch for Barker, now Todd, and agrees to help him in his plans. At first this merely means killing the Judge (and probably his assistant Beadle Bamford) but soon Todd decides that the whole of London should feel his wrath and declares his intention to kill others. Instead of trying to stop him in his madness, Lovett turns the plan for revenge into a business venture and begins using his victims in her pies. Eventually their plan unravels and both are utterly destroyed.

If anything can be said about Mrs. Lovett it is that she is ultimately a very practical woman. Her life has had very little in terms of luxury, so she has learned to scrape together what she can and make the best of it. Although she had some moments of sentimentality, preserving the barber’s razors and arguing to save the life of a young man Todd intends to kill for example, these are the exceptions rather than the rule. In the world in which she exists, a barren place where idealists are often crushed underfoot by those in power, her pragmatic nature seems, if not morally justified, at least understandable. Of course the problem is the extremes to which her practicality allows her to go; after all, few of even the most practical people view the human body as meat fit for the consumption of other humans.

There is an element of greed to her character as well. The fact that she is making money off of the flesh of murder victims fails to prick her conscience in the slightest. She desires wealth and the trappings that come with it, but decided that the moral channels of achieving them are more or less unavailable to her, so she pursues other means. Her desire for wealth and consequence are not necessarily wrong, since most people desire upward mobility, especially when they are stuck in the bottom rungs of the underclass, but her means of achieving these ends are deplorable.

In a sense, a combination of her greed and her practicality ultimately lead to her undoing. She takes a wallet from a dead man, which is both practical (since he no longer needs it) and greedy, and it is this bit of evidence that shows another character that murders have been taking place at the barber shop. Furthermore her greed for Mr. Todd’s affections and her practical decision to tell an important half-truth in order to keep him with her eventually causes him to turn on her.

Although she is a protagonist in the story, it cannot be denied that she is a villain. She may not kill anyone directly, but she not only helps Todd in his murderous enterprise, but she even encourages and profits from it. Like many villains, she places no value on human life and is therefore willing to destroy countless people to achieve her own ends. She manipulates and lies to people, even those whom she values the most and very rarely shows any remorse for doing so. She’s a deliciously audacious villain who is able to act out her frustrations and desires to a far greater degree than a heroic character could ever dream.

Still, she is not entirely unsympathetic. There is something sad about her devotion to Mr. Todd, given that he makes it rather clear that he has little romantic interest in her. Her affection for him is something akin to desperation, as though being with him, no matter what the circumstances, is the only thing that will make her truly happy. She also shows some affection for the young man who enters her service as an assistant in the shop after Todd secretly murders his former master. When she realizes that she must choose between him and Todd, she still plans to let Todd murder him, but she actually shows a bit of sadness when she makes the decision.

In a way, Mrs. Lovett is the product of a world that says that virtue will be punished, the privileged control the wheels of justice and do so only towards their own benefit, and skill is useful only when turned towards crime. To what degree that makes any of her crimes understandable will vary depending on one’s point of view. In any case, she is a fun character who will continue to entertain audiences with her wild manipulations and unscrupulous practicality.

Sweeney Todd and his infamous accomplice Mrs. Lovett originally appeared in a penny dreadful (“a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing a penny” (1)) called The String of Pearls. The story concerns the efforts of those trying to uncover the mysterious disappearances surrounding a barber shop on Fleet Street run by Sweeney Todd. A young woman, who has been looking for her missing fiancé, dresses as a boy to become as Todd’s apprentice in order to investigate the terrible barber shop. It eventually comes to light that Todd murders his clients through the use of a cleverly designed barber chair and plunders their bodies for whatever possessions they happened to have on them at the time. Afterwards, Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a pie shop that was connected underground to the barber shop, would dispose of the bodies by using the flesh to make pies which are in fact unwillingly made by the girl’s fiancé who has been kept as a slave under the pie shop. The two are eventually caught when the left over remains victims are discovered under a nearby church. Lovett poisons herself and Todd is hanged while the girl and her freed fiancé get married.

There is some speculation that the original story may have been based on a real-life killer, but it is not clear if this is entirely true. Penny dreadfuls were sometimes based on true stories and one of the earliest versions of the story claimed that it was based on an actual crime. A man by the name of Peter Haining has written at least two books on the subject and claims that a real Sweeney Todd existed, used a revolving chair, and had his victims baked into pies. Most claims that Todd truly existed are based on his works, but other researchers have been unable to substantiate his work, making his claims rather dubious. (2) It is also possible that Todd was loosely based on some sort of true crime and then expanded on in order to add to the sensational aspects of the story. Records were certainly not what they are today, so it is hard to say how true the story really is. The story certainly has taken on the life of an urban legend. (3)

What cannot be disputed, however, is the popularity of the story. The penny dreadful was soon developed into a longer story as well as a melodrama that proved to be extremely successful with the Victorian audience. The fact that the title of the work in the subsequent versions shifts from “The String of Pearls” to different variations of “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” demonstrates quite clearly where the real interest in the story lied. The Sweeney Todd depicted in the works during this age was a deliciously nasty villain who killed indiscriminately in a horribly ghastly fashion for the sake of his personal greed. As Larry Brown states, he was a “demon” who the audience could thoroughly hate while simultaneously being titillated by his appalling exploits (4).

The story changed considerably when it was adapted into a play by Christopher Bond in 1973. According to Brown, Bond took the old melodrama, with its rather one dimensional villain protagonist, and elevated it by creating a more refined plot, giving the characters more complex motivations, and using more sophisticated language and style (4). Todd becomes a fallen man who seeks revenge against individuals and a society which fails to reward virtue, and because of this, Todd can be viewed with both sympathy and disgust. In this version, Todd was sent away to a penal colony on false charges by a judge who wanted to sleep with the barber’s young wife. Todd eventually returns and, learning that his wife took poison after being raped by the judge and the same judge took their daughter as his ward, swears revenge on the judge and later society at large. With the help of Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a pie shop, he reestablishes his barber shop and kills some of his customers who ultimately end up in Lovett’s pies. Bond’s version contains an element of social commentary, specifically on the dehumanization of the under classes that makes individuals little more than “meat” (4).

It is this version of the Sweeney Todd story that Stephen Soundheim adapted into a musical in 1979. The musical version follows the play in general, though much of the dialogue is either sung or accompanied by music. In the initial run, the role of Sweeney Todd was played by Len Cariou and Mrs. Lovett was played by Angela Lansbury. The musical, like the previous incarnations of the story, proved to be extremely successful and ran for several shows, which were subsequently followed by several revivals. (5)

Eventually, the Soundheim musical was adapted into a film by Tim Burton in 2007 from a screenplay by John Logan, with the title role going to Johnny Depp and the role of Mrs. Lovett being played by Helena Bonham Carter. The film was critical success and was nominated for a number of awards, some of which it won including an Oscar for Art Direction. The film was not a huge financial success but it did make back more than its budget with its overseas revenue. It is on this version that the rest of this site will discuss.

The story begins with a man who calls himself Sweeney Todd returning to London on a ship after a prolonged absence. He explains to Anthony, an idealistic young man who rescued Todd when he saw him adrift in the ocean, that London is an unpleasant place that haunts him with terrible memories. He relates to his friend the story of a young barber (Benjamin Barker) who had a beautiful wife (Lucy) and a baby daughter (Johanna). A terrible judge (Judge Turpin) lusted after the wife and eventually had the barber sent away to the penal colonies in Australia on false charges so that he could have a chance to seduce the wife without his interference. Of course this is in fact his own story, but he does not explain this to his friend. After the ship docks, the two part ways and Todd tells Anthony that he will probably be able to find him in a place called Fleet Street.

When Todd arrives on Fleet Street, he enters a small shop with a sign over the door that reads “Mrs. Lovett’s Meat Pies”. Immediately upon entering the shop, the proprietor plops a dusty and rather disgusting looking pie in front of him while bemoaning the fact that she makes the worst pies in London, due, in large part, to the scarcity of meat in the area and her extreme poverty. After he takes a bite, she offers to take him back into her room and offers him a stronger drink, explaining that it will get the horrible taste of her pie. He observes that if times are so hard for her, she really ought to rent out the room above her shop (the room where his barber shop was once located), but she replies that no one wants the room because they think it is haunted.

She explains that there was once a “beautiful” and talented barber who lived there with his young family but he was sent away for the crime of “foolishness.” Judge Turpin daily tried to seduce the young wife, but she remained steadfast against his advances until one day his assistant and confidant, Beadle Bamford (a beadle being a court/church official like a bailiff), came to her and declared that the Judge had repented and was willing to help her out of her misfortunes. All she had to do was come to his house that very night. When she showed up, however, she found that there was a masked ball going on and she became lost and confused. The Judge now had her in his clutches and proceeded to rape her while the people of the party watched and laughed.

The horror of this revelation was too much for Todd and he cries out at the horrible injustice. Lovett realizes that Todd is Barker, but he replies, “No! Not Barker. That man is dead. It's Todd now. Sweeney Todd. And he will have his revenge.” After the rape, Lovett continues, Lucy poisoned herself and Johanna was taken in by Judge Turpin as his ward and he keeps her more or less locked up in his home. She then takes him upstairs to show him his old room and to present him with his razor blades which were left behind. Despite being worth considerable money, she kept and preserved them out of a fondness for the barber. Todd is extremely pleased to be reunited with his blades and declares that they will soon drip “rubies”, the blood of those who ruined him and his family. Lovett calls herself his friend and offers to help him in his purpose, but he appears to largely ignore her feelings for him.

Meanwhile, Anthony is out in the city and happens to see Johanna sitting in the window of the Judge’s house. Anthony asks a beggar woman about the identity of the young lady and she explains that she is the Judge’s ward whom he guards quite jealously. The two young people fall in love but the Judge observes him looking at his lovely ward and has the Beadle beat him soundly after warning him to stay away. Despite his considerable wounds, Anthony remains determined to free her from her lonely cage.

Todd realizes that the best way to get to the Judge is first to get the attention of his toady Beadle Bamford. To achieve this end, Todd challenges the local celebrity barber, Signor Adolfo Pirelli, to a shaving contest in the local square and asks the Beadle to act as the judge. Todd easily wins the challenge and impresses Bamford, who declares that he will visit Todd’s establishment on Fleet Street within the week.

A few days go by and Todd becomes increasing frustrated by his lack of progress in his plot despite the promising start. Lovett tries to calm him by reminding him that his revenge will be much sweeter if he carries it out carefully and slowly, savoring every moment of it. Suddenly Anthony shows up needing a favor from Todd. Earlier Anthony had been to see Johanna again and she had thrown him a key to the gate. The two lovers plan to run away together, but he needs a place to bring her after they leave the Turpin’s house. Lovett agrees to the plan and Anthony leaves to fetch his beloved.

Unfortunately a complication arises when Signor Pirelli shows up at the barber shop and asks to speak to Todd alone. He has his young assistant, Toby, who he abuses terribly, with him so Lovett takes him down to her shop to give him a pie. It turns out that Pirelli is in fact a fraud and once worked as an assistant to Barker before the unfortunate business with the Judge. Of course he recognized the special razor blades Todd used in their wager and plans to blackmail him for half of his earnings. In response, Todd takes the heavy metal kettle from the stove and beats his former assistant with it until he is quite a bloody mess.

Toby and Lovett hear the sound of the beating and Toby realizes that his master is late for an appointment, so he runs upstairs to get him. When he gets up there, Todd is pouring himself some tea and explains that Pirelli had to leave quickly. Toby is rather dubious about all of this, but when Todd tells Lovett to offer him some heavy liquor, he quickly follows her downstairs once more. After he is gone, Pirelli, still slightly alive, reaches out from the trunk where Todd had hid him and Todd slices his throat, finally killing him completely.

Todd’s plan gains momentum when the Judge decides to propose to Johanna (having watched her surreptitiously through a hole in her bedroom wall when she threw Anthony the key) and she refuses. The Beadle suggests that ladies are weak willed and can be turned off by a man’s appearance if he is not meticulously groom. Of course the Beadle has just made the acquaintance of a most excellent barber who recently opened up an establishment on Fleet Street. Perhaps a visit to the barber shop would make the young lady more amenable to his proposal.

In the pie shop, Toby drinks and explains his story. He was an orphan forced to work in the horrible factories when Pirelli “rescued” him. Although he treats him horribly, Toby would rather work for him than face live in the factories again. Once he drinks himself to sleep, Lovett goes upstairs to see what is going on with Todd. He points out the body and she is horrified that he would kill someone who had never done him any wrong, but when he explains that the man was going to blackmail him for half his earnings, she decides that he was right and takes the man’s distinctive purse out of his pocket and places it in her corset. Todd plans to kill Toby as well, but Lovett tries to convince him to let her keep him around.

Suddenly Todd sees out the window that that Judge is approaching his shop so he rushes Lovett outside and prepares for his long awaited revenge. The Judge sits in the barber’s chair and explains that he plans to marry his ward but he wants to look presentable for the proposal. Together the two discuss the marvel of pretty women but just as Todd prepares to cut the man’s throat, Anthony bursts into the room with bad news about his plan to rendezvous with Johanna. Naturally the Judge is furious and storms out of the shop, promising never to return to an establishment that would consort with such a scoundrel as the man who was planning to run off with his ward.

Todd, furious that he lost his one good chance to take his revenge, yells at Anthony and sends him away. When Lovett appears to see what all the commotion is about, he yells at her too, upset that she advised him to take his time with his revenge when he could have simply cut the man’s throat and been done with it. At this point he has an epiphany—everyone deserves to die, including him and Mrs. Lovett. The wicked are evil and should be killed as just punishment and the good are in a constant state of oppression and death is the only possible release. While he will eventually get the Judge, he will avenge himself by killing people who come into his shop.

Lovett, once he has finished his rant, turns her mind to more practical matters, as is her tendency. There is a body of which they must dispose. Todd shows little concern for the matter but Lovett develops an idea. Since meat has become so scarce, why not use the body and the bodies of Todd’s future victims in the pies? Todd can occasionally kill people in his barber shop while she grinds up the bodies for the meat, thereby improving her business while satisfying his need for revenge. For this purpose, Todd rigs the barber chair so that it, upon pushing a lever, sends the occupant hurdling down into the cellar where the grinder and the oven wait to be filled with their dreadful contents.

Time passes as the two carry out their dreadful plan. Todd muses about his lost daughter but realizes that it would be better if he never saw her again since contact with her would only alter the beautiful memory he has of her. Anthony wonders the London streets dreaming of his lost love who, unbeknownst to him at this point, has been sent to the insane asylum for daring to refuse the Judge’s demands. Lovett and Toby run the pie shop which becomes extremely successful, though the beggar woman Anthony spoke to earlier keeps hanging around and complaining that the place and its female proprietor are both evil. Whenever she sees the ragged looking woman hanging around the shop, Lovett orders Toby to kick her out.

With the business bringing in lots of money, Lovett dreams of marriage to Mr. Todd, complete with a seaside villa and all the conventional trappings of a safe, middle class lifestyle. Todd, however, largely ignores her and continues to brood over his desire to kill the Judge. She tries to convince him to give up his quest for revenge, but before he really has a chance to consider her words, Anthony runs into the shop with news that seals everyone’s fate. Johanna, he has finally learned, is being kept at an insane asylum and he needs Todd’s help to break her out. Todd finally sees another chance to get to the Judge so he agrees to help the young man. He tells him to go to the asylum as his apprentice since it is common practice to get hair from the inmates for the purpose of making wigs. While inside, he will be able to break out the young woman and bring her back to the barber shop as they had originally planned.

After Anthony leaves, Todd writes a note to the Judge, telling him about the plan to bring her to the shop. Todd wants Toby to deliver the message to the Judge, but Lovett is reluctant to involve the boy in the scheme. Still Todd insists and she relents.

Toby delivers the message and returns to the shop later that evening. Toby may be a relatively innocent young man, but he is not naïve and he already has his doubts about Todd. Now he is convinced that he is evil and has brought Lovett under his spell. He sees her as his mother and savior, so he wishes to protect her from harm, not knowing that she is in fact a willing accomplice. After he expresses his feelings for her, Lovett takes Pirelli’s purse out of the top of her corset with the intention of giving Toby some pocket money for sweeties, but the young man recognizes it as his former master’s. Lovett replies that Todd gave it to her and Toby sees this as evidence of Todd’s wrongdoing and wants to go to the law. Instead, Lovett offers him a chance to help her make the pies as he has always wished to do for the sake of helping her. She leads him to the basement, shows him how to use the grinder, and locks him inside after telling him he can have as many pies as he likes. With a heavy heart, she goes to get Mr. Todd.

Meanwhile, the plan to break Johanna out of the asylum succeeds and the two escape. Before Todd can deal with the Toby issue, he and Lovett run into the Beadle who has received complaints about the smell issuing from the bakery’s smoke stack which he must investigate. Todd convinces him to go upstairs for a treatment first and quickly kills him, sending him down the chute to the oven room. Toby, who was eating a pie, discovers a bit of finger and quickly realizes that there is human flesh in the pies. Things get even more horrifying for him when the Beadle’s body appears and he realizes that he is locked in. Soon Todd and Lovett come looking for him and quickly find that he has escaped into the sewers below where they begin looking for him.

At the same time, Johanna, dressed as a boy, and Anthony arrive at the barber shop and Anthony leaves her there to wait for him, promising to return quickly and end her horrible nightmare. The beggar woman, who had seen the Beadle enter the barber shop, goes upstairs to look for him. Startled and afraid, Johanna quickly hides herself in the trunk that once held Pirelli’s body. Todd returns to the shop and sees the beggar woman who seems to recognize him. Before she can say anything more, Todd sees the Judge coming and quickly cuts the poor lady’s throat before sending her down the chute. Johanna is horrified.

Todd convinces the Judge that Johanna will soon be there and that she has repented of her wild ways and asks for forgiveness. Todd offers to give him a shave so that he will be presentable when she arrives and the Judge agrees. Their talk returns to the issue of female beauty and Todd confesses that they share a similar taste in women. The Judge suddenly realizes that Todd is actually Benjamin Barker and, with that, Todd cuts his throat and sends him down the chute, having finally taken his ultimate revenge. Unfortunately he realizes that someone is hiding in the trunk and he pulls Johanna out and nearly cuts her throat as well, but a sudden cry from the basement distracts him and he decides to let the “young boy” go, telling him to forget his face.

Todd goes to the basement where the Judge temporarily survived both the slit neck and the terrible fall, much to Lovett’s horror as he reaches out for her. He finally dies in what appears to be horrible agony, but now Lovett has a different problem. She has seen the body of the beggar woman and this disturbs her greatly. She opens the oven with the intention of shoving the body inside, but Todd appears to find out why she was screaming. In the light of the oven, he gets a better look at the face of the beggar woman and realizes that she is his wife, Lucy. Lovett reluctantly explains that Lucy did poison herself, but she did not die. Rather she became very sick and was sent to the insane asylum rather than the hospital. Lovett kept this information from Todd because she loved him and knew that he could never be hers as long as Lucy was still around. After a moment of reflection, Todd seems fine with this sudden turn of events and even praises his accomplice for her practicality. Of course this is simply a ruse and he uses the moment to shove her into the fire where she burns to death.

Todd goes to the body of his beloved wife—the wife he murdered in his mad race for revenge—and holds her in his arms. Toby comes up from the sewers and picks up Todd’s own razor. Todd lifts his neck a bit and Toby slices through it, thereby ending the terrible career of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Sweeney Todd is ultimately a musical, and a musical with a high ratio of music to spoken word at that, so it would be remiss to ignore such an important aspect of the film. Instead of listing the lyrics for the songs here, I am going to instead discuss each song Mrs. Lovett sings in terms of what it does in the plot, what it says about her character, and what I think about each song.

The Worst Pies in London
This song occurs when Sweeney Todd goes to his former residence in order to find out any information about his lost family. Upon entering the shop, the proprietor, Mrs. Lovett, more or less harasses him into tasting one of her pies which she quickly admits are probably the worst in London due to the scarcity of meat and quality products in the area. The song acts as an introduction to Mrs. Lovett and her circumstances as a poor, widowed shop keeper, but it also reinforces the image of Fleet Street as a desperate place where the dregs of society have been left to more or less rot. It’s a quick, lively tune with really clever, funny lyrics and it really sells Mrs. Lovett as a quirky, pragmatic character with a lively spirit and a skewed morality.

Poor Thing
Mrs. Lovett takes Todd back into the rooms behind her shop in order to give him a drink of strong liquor to wash out the taste of her horrible pie. After he asks about the apartment upstairs, she relates the story of the previous renter. It is at this point that Todd (and the audience) learns about the fate of his young wife, Lucy. Clearly the main point of the song is exposition, but it is also a little instructive about the character of Mrs. Lovett as well. She obviously feels sympathetic towards the young woman and her plight, but she also sees her as being rather naïve and even foolish in her refusal of the judge’s advances. Lovett is far too pragmatic and therefore rejects Lucy’s idealistic world view that ultimately proves to be too fragile for the situation she finds herself in. The song itself recalls a terrible event, meaning it is not a “pleasant” song, but it has a brilliant build to it that comes to a tense and horrible climax both in terms of the story it tells and the way the music is played. It is incredibly well crafted, though very disturbing.

My Friends
This song is largely dominated by Todd and is a song about his razors which Mrs. Lovett has just returned to him. In it he declares that his razors are his dear friends who will help him achieve justice where the all else has failed. While he sings, Mrs. Lovett confesses her affection for him and insists that she too is his friend and will help him in his purpose. The song is filled with a cold intensity, imbued with hatred that has not yet reached its boiling point. It’s a song that expresses desire, both for Todd and Lovett, though the objects of their desires are quite different. Lovett’s part is soft and sultry, but steeped in loneliness. It’s a lovely song that expresses dangerous and violent emotions.

Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir
When Todd and Lovett go to see Signor Pirelli in order to challenge him to a competition, they find his young assistant, Toby, trying to sell a miracle elixir that will make your hair grow. The song praises the virtues of a full head of hair and declares that the elixir is guaranteed to work. Todd and Lovett heckle the poor boy, saying that the elixir is no more than piss colored with ink and will likely do more harm than good. It’s a funny, chipper song with clever banter. In terms of the plot, the song works to get the attention of Signor Pirelli who comes out to defend his product. It also demonstrates Todd and Lovett’s shared dark sense of humor. The song itself is later recalled, with an interesting effect, in God, That’s Good.

Wait
As time passes and the Judge appears to be no closer, Todd becomes agitated and impatient. Lovett sings this song to calm him as well as advise him to take his revenge slowly and enjoy it. The song is rather haunting in tone, especially given the subject matter which is, of course, plotting a murder. It’s almost a lullaby and sort of works on that level. She interjects the song with commentary about how to decorate the room, which seems to be an effort to turn his mind, at least for the moment, from his violent thoughts.

The song works to calm him temporarily, but it serves a more important function to the plot later on in the story. Todd, when he first encounters the Judge, decides to take her advice and does not immediately kill him when he has him in the chair. Rather the two discuss pretty women, which is rather disturbing considering that the audience knows that the Judge has already raped Todd’s wife and will soon do the same to Johanna (since she does not really want to marry him). He is interrupted by Anthony and the Judge declares that he will never return to the establishment, meaning that, because he listened to Mrs. Lovett, he may have lost his chance to kill the Judge. At first, he blames her for the failure and yells at her when she tries to sing this song again.

A Little Priest
After Todd decides that everyone deserves to die and he is going to start killing them, Mrs. Lovett has her own idea. She, rather subtly at first, suggests that they could grind up his victims and use their bodies in her pies. Once he gets her drift, Todd declares that her idea is “eminently practical and yet appropriate,” and the two decide to make the expression “man devouring man” to a literal level. The result is a little song in which they make puns about the people they will serve in their pies. The song is deliciously twist and evil, but probably the most catchy of any of the songs. It reveals a dark sense of humor and acts as a declaration of their shared enterprise.

God, That’s Good
This is one of the songs that was majorly reduced in the transition from stage to film and actually lacks the part from which it gains its title. In a sense, it contains a repeat of Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir as Toby cares out the role he preformed for Signor Pirelli, but this time he is selling pies instead. Although he is certainly happier and treated much better, Toby remains the salesperson of a rather dubious product. Furthermore, the song demonstrates Lovett’s ability to work a crowd, acting pleasant and normal all while serving human flesh. She even makes a little joke about “fresh supplies” when she sees a man walking up to Todd’s establishment. The song is jaunty and fun, but also sinister since the audience knows the secret behind the little jokes and lies.

The song also has a bit of a plot element in it that seems unimportant until much later in the story. A beggar woman starts hanging around the shop and Lovett becomes increasing frustrated with her presence, yelling at Toby to throw her out. At first it might seem like she simply does not want a ragged woman bothering her cliental, but it later turns out that she has a much darker reason for not wanting her around.

By the Sea
This song is all about Mrs. Lovett’s ultimate dreams and hopes. She wants to marry Mr. Todd and move away from the London streets to the sea side where they could enjoy the wealth their little enterprise has created. It’s a fairly simple dream, almost charming in its banality, yet it’s a bright spot in the otherwise dark film. The audience knows that it is not going to happen, specifically because Todd clearly wants no part in it, but also because the trajectory of the story would not allow such a pleasant ending. Still, it’s interesting to see her desires acted out and it’s a bit like a comedy skit just before everything falls apart. It’s a cheerful song with a light quality that makes it unique.

At this point, it is hard to imagine Tim Burton doing a film without Helena Bonham Carter, his current life partner. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, since she is a talented and delightful actress who has done quite a bit of work on her own over the past three decades including some rather iconic roles.

A London born actress, Carter began her career when she was a teenager without any formal training. Her breakthrough role was in a period drama called A Room with a View, in which she played opposite Dame Maggie Smith. Although she has played in several period pieces, American audiences might recognize her earlier work in Fight Club, in which she plays a rather mentally unbalanced woman who gets hooked up with an even more mentally unbalanced man. More recent roles she has played include roles in pretty much every Burton feature since 2003’s Big Fish, Bellatrix Lestrange in the last four Harry Potter films, and Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech. Many of these roles, especially her role in The King’s Speech, have earned her award nominations and a few victories.

Many actors, including Johnny Deep, can get away with chewing on the scenery, but there are not as many women who can do so and still seem respectable. While some may disagree, Carter seems to succeed in playing her roles with that level of enthusiasm more often than she fails. Still, some of her work shows that she is also capable of restraint and class, which demonstrates her dedication to her craft. She is a method actor who really tries to get into the head of the characters she plays.

Personally, I think she is a charming actress and I love seeing her in nearly every role I’ve seen her play. Mrs. Lovett is typical of her off the wall style of acting, but I do think she gives the role a sense of depth and humanity as well.

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A Product of: Alexiel.net

Links
Sweeney Todd Offical Movie Website
Mrs-Lovett.org


Works Cited
1. Wikipedia
2. Haunted London
3. Penny Dreadful
4. Sondheim Notes
5. Wikipedia