The Body Snatcher (1945)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Good movie but grossly overrated

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie shows why Karloff makes the ultimate evil person. He just oozes nasty. I was hoping for a painful death for him because he killed the dog.A man who will kill a dog for no reason other than barking, their is no redeeming quality in him. Even with that, this is quite possible the best preformance of Karloff. This movie has it all, strong story, great dialog, superior actors, creepy atmophere. This is the measuring stick of great movies.

This classic film had been listed in the television schedules a number of times, but I kept either missing it, but I finally got the opportunity to watch it, based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), directed by Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound of Music). Basically set in the year 1831, in Edinburgh, Scotland, renowned surgeon and now teacher Dr. Wolfe "Toddy" MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) runs a medical school. MacFarlane's prize student is Donald Fettes (Russell Wade), he is interested in helping young girl Georgina (Sharyn Moffett), she has lost the use of her legs, Fettes is certain that MacFarlane's surgical skills could help her, but MacFarlane is reluctant to do so. MacFarlane is hiding a dark secret, that is slowly becoming obvious to Fettes; he is paying a local cab driver, John Gray (Boris Karloff), to supply him with dead bodies for anatomical research and classroom demonstration purposes. Gray constantly harasses MacFarlane, but graverobbing from cemeteries is difficult with them being increasingly guarded, Gray turns to murder to provide MacFarlane with fresh bodies. Fettes realises how Gray is obtaining the corpses, he discovers his involvement during the infamous Burke & Hare crimes, he is covering the fact that it was in fact MacFarlane that was the real perpetrator. MacFarland's other assistant Joseph (Bela Lugosi) overhears many of their secret discussions, he attempts to blackmail Gray to keep quiet about the body snatching operation, but he chokes Joseph to death. Later, MacFarlane tries to bribe Gray, to stop his tormenting, he refuses to take it, and vows that the doctor will never be rid of him, MacFarlane is enraged, and beats Gray to death. Following an operation on Georgina earlier, Fettes rushes to tell MacFarlane that it was successful, she is able to stand up, but his housekeeper and secret wife Meg Camden (Edith Atwater) tells him the doctor has gone. Fettes finds MacFarlane at a tavern, and they travel in Gray's horse and carriage through a storm, MacFarlane is haunted by the taunting voice of Gray, Fettes checks the corpse in the back of the carriage. MacFarlane sees Gray's the vision of corpse, the horse is spooked, and the carriage breaks loose and falls over a cliff with MacFarlane and the corpse, Fettes looks down at the wreckage and sees MacFarlane's corpse, next to that of a woman. Also starring Rita Corday as Mrs. Marsh and Donna Lee as Street Singer. Karloff is magnificent being the evil cab driver supplying the cadavers, Daniell is good as the desperate anatomist, and Lugosi does well in his moment of support. It does have an overall feeling of creepiness and macabre throughout, it is admittedly a bit slow in places, but when you know that things like this actually happened in the 19th century, it is an atmospheric shocker, an interesting classic horror. Good!

Boris Karloff exudes depravity as an unscrupulous grave robber in "Curse of the Cat People" director Robert Wise's third film "The Body Snatcher," an atmospheric adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's short story scripted by Phillip MacDonald and producer Val Lewton under the pseudonym Carlos Keith. Cast as Cabman John Gray, Karloff is thoroughly black-hearted. Gray gets into trouble early when he wields a shovel to kill a faithful canine standing guard over his deceased master's grave site. Vintage horror icon Bela Lugosi lurks about the periphery as a caretaker to Henry Daniell's dubious physician Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane. The premise focuses on the dire shortage of cadavers for physicians-in- training to dissect. Deplorably enough, doctors must turn to dastards like Gray to obtain fresh bodies, exhumed without authorization as soon as they can without the authorities capturing them. The names of notorious Burke and Hare are referenced to narrow the time of the story down to the year 1828 when these two infamous fiends murdered 16 innocents and sold their remains to Dr. Robert Knox for dissection in his anatomy classes. If mention of these men weren't sufficient to cement the similarity to Stevenson's criminals, the use of the same setting Edinburgh, Scotland and Dr. Knox as Dr. MacFarlane's mentor drives the point home plainly enough. The action focuses on a little girl, Georgina (Sharyn Moffett), who is confined to a wheelchair because she was injured in a carriage accident and can no longer walk. Georgina hates MacFarlane's atrocious bedside manner, but she warms immediately to a financially strapped medical student, Donald Fettes (Russell Wade), who treats her with kindness. Initially, MacFarlane laments that he cannot operate because his teaching position prevents him from practicing medicine since he is engaged primarily in the teaching of it. Nevertheless, Dr. MacFarlane performs a procedure on Georgina, but she still refuses to walk. Meantime, Joseph (Bela Lugosi of "Dracula") decides to blackmail Gray because he knows that the latter murdered a blind street singer. Naturally, Gray doesn't let Joseph's threats unhinge him. Instead, he strangles Joseph to death. Meantime, the psychological paralysis that keeps Georgina from walking ends when she hears a horse and stands up on her own power. The guilt-ridden MacFarlane tries to bribe Gray so that he can be rid of the man, but Gray refuses to be bought off. Consequently, MacFarlane murders Gray himself, but he pays the ultimate price himself during a storm when the horses bolt and take the wagon with MacFarlane in it over a cliff. "The Body Snatcher" represented the eighth and final film that co-starred the two legends of horror Karloff and Lugosi.

*Spoiler/plot- The Body Snatcher, 1945. In 19th century Edinburgh Scotland, a reputable medical doctor and his prize pupil need cadavers for their student's medical studies and a local poor horse-drawn cab driver is willing to provide all of them for money by murder. The cab driver plagues them in their illegal scheme.*Special Stars- Boris Karloff, Henry Daniel, Russell Wade, Edith Atwater, Bela Lugosi. Dir- Robert Wise.*Theme- Guilty conscious can have a huge affect on the guilty.*Trivia/location/goofs- American, RKO studios. The 'exterior' scenes were filmed on sets constructed for RKO's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) in their 'ranch' (Now subdivided into homes) near the Sepulveda Recreation Basin Park. Although based on a fictional short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, the author came up with the idea from actual events occurring in 19th century England and Scotland, particularly those of grave robbers Burke and Hare. This film featured the 8th and last on-screen teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Filming took place October 25-November 17 1944, delaying the completion of Karloff's Isle of the Dead (1945). The film incorporates the story of Greyfriars Bobby (called Robby in the movie) but makes a muddle of the facts. In reality, Bobby was a Skye terrier that refused to leave the graveside of his master, an elderly, indigent shepherd, in the graveyard at Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh. Bobby stayed faithfully at his post for years and became a tremendous sentimental favorite of the city folk, before dying of old age. Today a statue near the church commemorates this dog's memory. A year after the events in the movie, the Anatomy Act of 1832 made it legal for the bodies of those dying friendless in poorhouses and hospitals to be given to local medical facilities for study and dissection. Goofs-At the very beginning, they show a castle during the credits, then "In Edinburgh In 1831-" then show a closer up of the same castle and a horse and carriage, and you can clearly see two or three automobiles parked next to the castle. *Emotion- An extremely well cast, performed and rich film production with a moral theme. Karloff really eats up the scenery in many scenes with Daniel and Lugosi. The fear driven plot has many colorful characters and fun dialog. The film's good ending is something to see with the imagined switch of the corpses being carried in the doctor's coach.*Based On- Robert Louis Stevenson short story.