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| This was a pretty intense story to find among all the Robin Hoods and Rob Roys. It's based on a real-life incident that raised a media frenzy at the time. All the stuff about escaping Dartmoor and having a history of murdering wealthy wives seems to have been invented for this comic. Corder did have a bad reputation but his deeds were along the lines of bouncing checks and stealing pigs. Officer James Lea (sic) and company apparently didn't have much trouble finding Corder and apprehended him without a big fight scene. |
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| This story was also a hugely popular stage play, which was made into a very enjoyable film by Tod Slaughter who specialized in reviving Victorian melodrama. |
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| Thanks for the info, nenslo. It turns out the Slaughter "Murder in the Red Barn" (1935) is available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNFpvX-isuk
I also discovered there were several silent versions of the story, the first being in 1902. In 1908 a ten-minute short known as both "The Red Barn Crime" and "Maria Marten" was directed by William Haggar and starred him and Violet Haggar. On IMDB there's a comment from Violet's grandson identifying William as his great uncle. Other silent versions were filmed in 1913 and 1927. The earliest productions seem not to have survived, but I found a post by someone who'd watched the 1927 film years ago on VHS. |
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| 1935s "Murder in The Red Barn", starring Tod Slaughter, is one of my all-time favourite films. All of his, "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, et al, are ultra-melodramatic. Slaughter's acting is about as Hammy as they come. He makes George Arliss' acting seem realistic! All his films are like 1890s melodramatic stage plays. Despite the grim storylines, the viewer is much more likely to be rolling in the isles, bellylaughing, than having sympathetic feelings of fear for the heroine. |
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| Glad to see so much interest and knowledge on the topic. The ifc portrait of Stewart Granger has yet to be explained however. :) He did appear in many excellent costume dramas and was a fine figure of a man but no apparent connection to Maria Marten. |
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| I have noticed that, as a matter of course, actors in the black and white stills on page 2 often don't have anything to do with the story or any film or tv version, If they are wearing a costume relevant to the period or an action shot relevant to the story, it'll do.
Nice photos tho.
Cheers! |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | 7 May 1957 | Price: 10d [0-0-10 GBP] | Pages: 1 | Frequency: the first Tuesday in each month |
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| Cover | The Mystery of the Red Barn |
| Content | Genre: Adventure; Historical |
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| Comic Story | The Mystery of the Red Barn (64 pages) |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Adventure; Historical |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
