Body Snatcher [DVD]

I first watched this film almost 50 years ago and it scared the pants off me. I have never forgotten the experience, still evoked by repeat viewings, although I am now on the sofa rather than behind and have graduated into long trousers (bicycle clips optional). Based on a Burke and Hare theme from Robert Louis Stevenson's story, producer Val Lewton has created a superb film of gruesome terror with an impeccable cast. Dr 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) is an eminent surgeon- anatomist and researcher in a medical school in 1830s Edinburgh. He is assisted by his student protege Donald Fettes (Russell Wade). He needs cadavers for his knowledge to progress, the fresher the better rather than stiff. There is a shortage of this material.He pays an unscrupulous cabman,John Gray (Boris Karloff) to supply the dead bodies. With the upsurge in body snatching,graveyards are guarded and Gray compensates for this by selecting and murdering victims for MacFarlane. MacFarlane finds out but Gray knows of the doctor's past misdemeanours giving him the upper hand when MacFarlane tries to bribe him to leave Edinburgh (he refuses). Fettes eventually realises where the material for his dissection classes is coming from and is implored to leave the school before fate befalls him. Macfarlane's servant-janitor, the shifty Joseph (Bela Lugosi) quietly eavesdrops on the daily events and duly tells Gray "I know you kill people to sell bodies", making the mistake of attempting to blackmail Gray. The frustrations of MacFarlane with the perverse Gray lead to a memorable, inevitable clash and film climax.

Authentically shot under Robert Wise's direction, the film depicts a symbiotic relationship between two characters who are motivated by their individual needs.
Boris Karloff,although not a 'monster' as such, is palpably menacing, drifting between the daylight cabman and the foggy shadowy Scottish night producing an atmospheric mesmerising effect. Behind his soft voice is a villainous, menacing stare real enough to frighten all and sundry. Henry Daniell's doctor is played convincingly as a man with conflicting interests of his work with the necessity of dealing with a "crawling graveyard rat" who is like "a cancer" (Karloff) who he knows is vindictive. Their plights may be dissimilar but are brought together by circumstance. Lugosi's part is small but he adds to the feeling of creepiness especially on screen with Karloff (the last time they appeared together).

This,to me, is psychological horror as good as it gets. Moral issues and humanity may be set in the script and performances but ultimately this is a gripping scary movie of 5 star quality. Unforgettable.

For a low-budget, B movie horror quickie, The Body Snatcher holds up remarkably well as a tightly-told, well-acted story. The horror is in the situation, not the actors' make-up or the staggering around of corpses. Corpses there are, but they're freshly dug up, and their purpose is not to grasp and choke, but to be dissected by a complex and morally ambiguous surgeon.

Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) is a brilliant surgeon and teacher in 1831 Edinburgh. He is on the verge of medical breakthroughs involving the spine and the spinal cord. For his work, he needs fresh corpses to dissect for his research. John Gray (Boris Karloff), a cabman, provides those corpses for a price. Gray digs up the freshly interred and delivers them to MacFarlane's laboratory in the basement of the doctor's home. If the pickings are thin, Gray will also create a corpse by applying tightly his hand and finger's over a person's nose and mouth. MacFarlane, who is doing genuinely valuable work, doesn't want to know the details. And it seems Gray also has something to hold over MacFarlane. Only two or three years previously, the body snatching work of Burke and Hare had been discovered. Gray kept MacFarlane's use of the bodies a secret. While MacFarlane may be the verge of a break-through, he is repulsed by his need for Gray and by Gray's increasing familiarity. Gray enjoys his power over MacFarlane and pushes his familiarity to the limit. MacFarlane eventually forces a showdown. The climax is a clattering, rolling carriage ride through driving rain, with MacFarlane whipping the horses on, half-mad, and collapsed beside him is the pale, shuddering corpse of...well, see the movie.

For a low-budget film, the movie looks authentic as well as atmospheric. The wet, cobblestoned streets of Edinburgh gleam in the moonlight, the coal fires in the drawing-room grates cast shadows. Night scenes can cover many shortcuts, and there are a lot of night scenes in The Body Snatcher, but what we can see looks like quality.

The movie is really a duel, as director Robert Wise has said, between the two lead characters. Henry Daniell (in one of the best roles he ever had) and Boris Karloff pull off the trick of combining distaste, arrogance and mutual need. Daniell was a major character actor specializing almost exclusively in condescending or villainous types. He unfortunately, perhaps, had the kind of face that, when relaxed, just looked disdainful. With his deepset eyes and thin, mean-spirited line of a mouth, he was instantly recognizable. But he also was an excellent professional actor. When he had occasion to smile genuinely, rare in the parts he played, he could look quite warm. Karloff matches Daniell in the acting. John Gray is no monster. He is a man of great resentments who enjoys having the great Dr. MacFarlane under his thumb. He kills, but once in awhile seems to regret having to do so. He can also move quickly from false subservience to lethal violence.

"It is through error that a man tries and rises. It is through tragedy he learns. All the roads of learning begin in darkness and go out into the light." Hippocrates of Gos

This film has the psychological complexity of a Val Lewton production but is a lot more graphic than most of his productions where he just implies violence. He even takes it out on innocent dogs. I feel that some one was pushing Lewton from behind to be more vicious with this film.

A young student (Russell Wade) wants to become a doctor like the great Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell.) Little does he know what it will entail?

The DVD has a voiceover commentary from the late Director Robert Wise who directed "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music." Surprisingly he said that the original basic script was written by Philip MacDonald.