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> Body Snatcher [VHS] |
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![Body Snatcher [VHS]](http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/video/icons/video-no-image.gif "Body Snatcher [VHS]")
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Staring:
Boris Karloff,
Bela Lugosi,
Henry Daniell,
Edith Atwater,
Russell Wade
Director:
Robert Wise
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $14.99
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301327978
Format: Black & White, NTSC
ISBN: 6301327977
Label: Turner Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Turner Home Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Turner Home Entertainment
Release Date: 1992-03-11
Running Time: 77
Studio: Turner Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1944 |
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 Based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, 2007-05-13
"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.
A Classy Old 'Horror' Film - Lewton's Best, 2009-01-30
After veiwing all nine Val Lewton DVD Horror Collection films, I thought this one - The Body Snatcher - was, by far, the best. It was actually a crime film a lot more than horror and it had a stellar cast.
Henry Daniell, Boris Karloff, Edith Atwater,Russell Wade, Sharyn Moffet and Bela Lugosi all acted well. I had forgotten that Karloff was a decent actor, not just some Frankenstein monster who couldn't deliver a line. He had a creepy voice, too, which lent itself nicely to horror films. I just found him fascinating here.
In addition, this movie had a well-known director, Robert Wise, and the story was adaption of a Robert Louis Steevenson. So, you see, this film had good bloodlines, pun intended. This was not some schlocky Ed Wood B-film. This movie is a high class affair.
A doctor (Daniell), trying to further his knowledge and needing human specimens (dead) to continue his research, has his graveyard supply cut off to him and then has to have his helper (Karloff) kill people to provide him the bodies. Meanwhile, a young and more moral student of the doctor, gets wind of what's happening and doesn't share his mentor's view that the "ends justify the means."
At any rate, this is good one. Like the other Lewton films, it's well- photographed and looks good on DVD.
What Price Medical Knowledge?, 2007-11-13
This film is based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson. It opens on "Edinburg 1831". A blind woman is singing on the street for pennies. In a cemetery a dog will not leave his master's grave; a safeguard against grave robbers? A woman brings a young girl to see Dr. McFarlan; she has become paralyzed due to a sickness. A student can elicit the answers from this girl. She has a tumor that affects a nerve. But Dr. McFarlan cannot operate on this girl, he is too busy. There is problem in getting cadavers for the medical school. The new assistant gets a new shipment of supplies. Cash and carry, no questions asked, £10 received.
A joke about Burke and Hare shows poor taste. The doctor explains why they need the learning experience: to best educate doctors. There was no anesthesia then, no knowledge of antisepsis. Surgery was followed by cauterization, blood transfusion was unknown. Most of all there was no knowledge of the spinal column. Cabman Gray goes out on the street; he returns with another specimen. Fettis recognizes the body. [Beware of what you wish for?] Dr. McFarlan operates on the little girl, nature will do the healing. But the little girl can't walk. Joseph visits Cabman Gray to ask for money; he gets what he asked for - and more. Now Dr. McFarlan has a new problem. The housemaid reveals her secret, and tells Fettis to leave the house. There is a private interview between Gray and McFarlan [or their stunt doubles]. The cab brings another specimen to McFarlan's house. Georgina can stand to see the white horse! Dr. McFarlan no longer used a contractor for material. But he can't stop thinking about Gray. There is an ironic ending with rough justice to this story.
"Man learns through error" said Hippocrates. This low-budget film warns against science that goes against morality and law using selfishness as the justification. [Was it a warning about those Nazi experiments?] Do we still need warnings like this? The controversy about the use of human embryos goes on. [This film is a simplified version of the crimes of Burke and Hare.]
Gothic tale of horror, 2007-01-18
Director Robert Wise using two giants of the horror genre Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi created a worthy tale of terror based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, "The Body Snatcher". This macabre flick takes place in 1831 Edinburgh when the study of anatomy and medicine existed in a primitive stage.
Eminent doctor and professor of a school of anatomy Dr. Macfarlane played by a prim, authoritative Henry Daniell must resort to grave robbing to provide cadavers for dissection. Long time acquaintance cabman John Gray played by a sneering Karloff has long been the supplier of these unearthed corpses. Due to their complicity in this gruesome business Karloff has a hold over the prestigious doctor.
Laws have been passed which attempt to cut down on the frequent desecration of gravesites. Dr. Macfarlane's prize student and assistant Mr. Fettes played by a naive Russel Wade has been given the job of dealing with Karloff. When Macfarlane decides to undertake a delicate operation on the spine of a crippled young girl, he needs fresh cadavers on which to practice. Fettes becomes aware that Karloff, unable to dig up graves. has resorted to killing to provide fresh bodies. He's told by Macfarlane to look the other way.
Lugosi playing the doctor's assistant Joseph, a bit part for him, schemes to blackmail Karloff when learning of his murderous ways. Needless to say, this 1945 film concludes in dire fashion for the bad guys.
Well-done drama with Henry Daniell and Boris Karloff, plus cadavers, cutting and a wild ride in a stormy night , 2007-05-28
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.
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