Squire William Corder is a shallow, evil, loathsome man whose heart is as black as the night. Yet his lack of virtue is concealed beneath a facade that is charming enough to fool the simple people of his village and powerful enough to seduce the pretty young maiden Maria Marten. While at a country dance in the Red Barn, Maria casts aside the love of the gypsy Carlos, a young man whose ragged shirt conceals a heart of gold and finds herself hopelessly drawn to the villainous Squire Corder... and to her doom. Learning that the young girl has become pregnant, Corder brutally murders her in an attempt to conceal his foul deeds.
Murder in the Red Barn was the then fifty-year old British stage actor Tod Slaughter's first feature film. His delightfully mad portrayal of Squire Corder was the first in a long line of celluloid lunatics the actor would play with unparalleled enthusiasm. Slaughter enjoys a tremendous cult following that endures to this day. His performances are heavy-handed, maniacal, utterly captivating and uniquely at home in the period settings of his films. Slaughter followed this film with his most famous, Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In Murder in the Red Barn, look for a supporting role featuring Dennis Hoey (Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man), who later went on to play Inspector Lestrade in the 1940's Universal Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone.