The Body Snatcher (1945)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

Robert Louis Stevenson (short story "The Body Snatcher")
Philip MacDonald (written by) ...

Release Date:

1946 (Turkey)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

INVADED!...the sanctuary of the Dead!...by the Hero of Horror!...and the Master of Menace!

Plot:

A ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Medical | Murder | Medical Student | Cemetery

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	Cabman John Gray
Bela Lugosi	...	Joseph
Henry Daniell	...	Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane
Edith Atwater	...	Meg Camden
Russell Wade	...	Donald Fettes
Rita Corday	...	Mrs. Marsh
Sharyn Moffett	...	Georgina Marsh
Donna Lee	...	Street singer

Also Known As:

Robert Louis Stevenson's 'The Body Snatcher' (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #10563) | Australia:PG | Germany:12 (video rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

This film the last on-screen teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Gray kills Joseph, the latter's right arm is stretched out from his shoulder at a 90 degree angle and Gray reaches over to shoo away his cat who begins to nuzzle Joseph's right hand. In the next shot, the right arm of the dead Joseph has suddenly moved to a position where it lies parallel to his body.

Quotes:

Cabman John Gray: I am a small man, a humble man. Being poor I have had to do much that I did not want to do. But so long as the great Dr McFarlane comes to my whistle, that long am I a man. If I have not that then I have nothing. Then I am only a cabman and a grave robber. You'll never get rid of me, Toddy.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (2007)

Karloff at his very best

Val Lewton's THE BODY SNATCHER is one of the most "literate" films in the horror genre. Based on a short Robert Louis Stevenson shudder tale, it is the story of a young medical student, Fettes, in 1820s Scotland. Fettes is a promising doctoral candidate who has taken on an apprenticeship of sorts with a Dr. MacFarlane, a prestigious physician who runs a medical college. Todd MacFarlane is a very talented medical scholar of the academic sort, whose own past is tainted by an earlier acquaintance with the grave robbers Burke and Hare, who provided human specimens to his mentor, a Dr. John Knox.

Haunted by his past, MacFarlane is tormented and blackmailed by a "jack of all trades", a cab-man and grave robber John Gray. Gray, a working class man from the most impoverished sections of the urban poor, takes great delight in this power, and lords it over MacFarlane's household, which includes the doctor's wife- also privy to MacFarlane's secret- who poses as MacFarlane's housekeeper, in an awkward attempt to hide the roots of MacFarlane's own social climb. MacFarlane is also in need of Gray's continued "services", which Gray attends to with a sardonic relish. The younger medical student Fettes is pulled into the secrets of the household, which in the end, devour MacFarlane and his efforts to survive in the class structure of Scotland.

With THE BODYSNATCHER, Boris Karloff displayed his true depths as a performer, and outside of his original performance as the Frankenstein's monster and perhaps Columbia's THE BLACK ROOM (1935), there are few other films in his immense resume that really display what he was capable of as an actor. In THE BODYSNATCHER, he is at the top of his form. He is supported by actors Henry Daniell, Russell Wade and Edith Atwater, and the movie also marks his final appearance with Bela Lugosi. All of Val Lewton's technique is brought to bear in this work to offer the audience effective atmosphere, and tight pacing under the direction of Robert Wise. All in all, it is a remarkable work, an impeccable contribution to the genre that calls itself horror.