The Body Snatcher (1945)
Based on the stories of grave robbers (and worse!) who once plagued Edinburgh, delivering fresh cadavers to medical schools. Directed by Robert Wise.
The final pairing of Lugosi and Karloff, this film is loosely based off of the story of Burke and Hare, two men who terrified Edinburgh during the period of 1827-28 by killing people and selling the bodies to local medical schools for cadaver research. This story is loosely based on that (it mentions the events of Burke and Hare as something that has already happened).
A young man, training to become a doctor, discovers that the doctor he is apprenticing with has a troubled past. A cabman (Karloff) keeps calling about the school, and while the doctor does not appear to want anything to do with him, the cabman apparently has information that is quite damaging to the doctor. At one point a young mother comes to the doctor to see if he can help her daughter who is paralyzed from the waist down. The doctor initially refuses, but Karloff threatens him into doing the operation (for no other reason than that the doctor does not want to do it).
Meanwhile, the young student is discovering that Karloff is delivering corpses for research. At first it is simply a matter of grave robbing, but he then takes to killing people to supply the bodies. Even though the doctor doesn't really seem to need them, Karloff keeps bringing them in. This is where Lugosi fits in. He plays a servant in the doctor's house, and threatens to blackmail Karloff. In their only interaction in the movie, lasting five minutes, Karloff kills him and delivers the body to the doctor as a warning not to cross him.
Finally the doctor has had enough and travels to Karloff's home where he kills him. The doctor gets rid of the body and takes Karloff's possesions north to sell them. The young man tracks him down, and they return home. But the doctor has heard of a newly buried corpse, and for some reason MUST have it. They gather the corpse from the cemetary and head home in a storm, but the doctor's guilt gets the best of him and he begins to imagine it is Karloff's body they are traveling with. He loses control of the carriage and ends up being killed, revealing the body he thought to be Karloff's as that of a young woman.
Some of the shots in the film were very well done, including one where Karloff kills a street singer. All we see is a darkened alley with one light, but we can imagine quite vividly what is taking place. Further, we are able to see the rain flitting down in the light's illumination.
The movie isn't that great - the "team-up" of Lugosi and Karloff never actually occurs, and the story isn't that strong, but it has its moments. As an early Robert Wise picture, it's interesting to see him starting to develop as a director. It's not a bad film, but nothing special. Karloff certainly steals the show, and his character is the only really interesting part of it.
The final pairing of Lugosi and Karloff, this film is loosely based off of the story of Burke and Hare, two men who terrified Edinburgh during the period of 1827-28 by killing people and selling the bodies to local medical schools for cadaver research. This story is loosely based on that (it mentions the events of Burke and Hare as something that has already happened).
A young man, training to become a doctor, discovers that the doctor he is apprenticing with has a troubled past. A cabman (Karloff) keeps calling about the school, and while the doctor does not appear to want anything to do with him, the cabman apparently has information that is quite damaging to the doctor. At one point a young mother comes to the doctor to see if he can help her daughter who is paralyzed from the waist down. The doctor initially refuses, but Karloff threatens him into doing the operation (for no other reason than that the doctor does not want to do it).
Meanwhile, the young student is discovering that Karloff is delivering corpses for research. At first it is simply a matter of grave robbing, but he then takes to killing people to supply the bodies. Even though the doctor doesn't really seem to need them, Karloff keeps bringing them in. This is where Lugosi fits in. He plays a servant in the doctor's house, and threatens to blackmail Karloff. In their only interaction in the movie, lasting five minutes, Karloff kills him and delivers the body to the doctor as a warning not to cross him.
Finally the doctor has had enough and travels to Karloff's home where he kills him. The doctor gets rid of the body and takes Karloff's possesions north to sell them. The young man tracks him down, and they return home. But the doctor has heard of a newly buried corpse, and for some reason MUST have it. They gather the corpse from the cemetary and head home in a storm, but the doctor's guilt gets the best of him and he begins to imagine it is Karloff's body they are traveling with. He loses control of the carriage and ends up being killed, revealing the body he thought to be Karloff's as that of a young woman.
Some of the shots in the film were very well done, including one where Karloff kills a street singer. All we see is a darkened alley with one light, but we can imagine quite vividly what is taking place. Further, we are able to see the rain flitting down in the light's illumination.
The movie isn't that great - the "team-up" of Lugosi and Karloff never actually occurs, and the story isn't that strong, but it has its moments. As an early Robert Wise picture, it's interesting to see him starting to develop as a director. It's not a bad film, but nothing special. Karloff certainly steals the show, and his character is the only really interesting part of it.
posted by Mike at 2:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home