BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS (1970) * ½

In 19^th century London, Sweeny Todd (Happy Days’ John Miranda) cuts hair and throats and makes off with his customer’s valuables.  Meanwhile Ms. Maggie Lovett sells human meat pies to her clueless customers.  They fall in love and kill each others respective spouses.  Everyone else seems to be in love with everyone else’s spouses too, so the movie is basically a soap opera with high school drama class production values and costumes.  A couple of choice gore scenes (hands hacked off, a human breast in a meat pie, meat cleaver to the face) and Todd’s speech about “women’s happiness” save this from being a total loss.  Director Andy (The Ghastly Ones) Milligan returned to the 19^th century with his next film, The Rats are Coming!  The Werewolves are Here!