The Body Snatcher

Plot synopsis:
A group of friends share a few drinks, when an eminent doctor, Wolfe Macfarlane, enters. One of the friends, Fettes, recognizes the name and angrily confronts the new arrival. Although his friends all find this behaviour suspicious, none of them can understand what might lie behind it.
It transpires that Macfarlane and Fettes had attended medical school together, under the famous professor of anatomy, Robert Knox. Their duties included taking receipt of bodies for dissection, and paying the pair of shifty and suspicious men who supplied them.
On one occasion, Fettes identifies a body as that of a woman he knew, and is convinced she has been murdered. But Macfarlane talks him out of reporting the incident, lest they are both implicated in the crime.
Later, Fettes meets Macfarlane at a tavern, along with a man named Gray, who treats Macfarlane in a rude manner. The following night, Macfarlane brings Gray's body along as a dissection sample. Although Fettes is now certain that his friend has committed murder, Macfarlane again convinces him to keep his silence, persuading him that if he is not courageous enough to perform such manly deeds as these, he will end up as just another victim. The two men make sure the body is comprehensively dissected, destroying any forensic evidence.
Fettes and Macfarlane continue their work, without being implicated in any crime. However, when a shortage of bodies leaves their mentor in need, they are sent to a country churchyard to exhume a recently buried woman. As they are driving back with the body seated between them, they begin to feel nervous and stop to take a better look. They are shocked to discover that the body between them is that of Gray, which they thought they had destroyed. This surprises them.

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
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.
One could easily argue, as I surely will attempt to do so, that this film, The Body Snatcher, based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson and produced by the wonderfully creative and inventive producer Val Lewton, is the home of Boris Karloff's best performance.
As of this writing, I have seen four of the nine Val Lewton DVD Horror Collection films and this one was, by far, the best.Henry Daniell, Boris Karloff, Edith Atwater,Russell Wade, Sharyn Moffet and Bela Lugosi all acted well.
This movie is a high class affair.I found it more of a crime story than anything else as 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.
A sinister coach driver John Gray (Boris Karloff) supplies corpses for Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) and his assistant Donald Fettes (Russel Wade), but things start going pair shape when Dr. Wolfe finds out more about where these corpses are coming from, as supplies are running short and he tries to get rid of Gray, who doesn't share his buddy's (or Toddy's) thoughts.
Val Lewton's "The Body Snatcher", which is set in the year 1831, Edinburgh - is an excellently well-handled thriller that holds SUCH great performances from the likes of Boris Karloff, Henry Daniell, Russel Wade, Edith Atwater and Bela Lugosi.
Edith Atwater delivers a sound performance and there's basically a neat cameo role by Bela Lugosi.I wasn't bored, but for some people it might be a tad too slow and real talkative, as what this film thrives on, is its vivid literature, well-rounded characters and potently gripping confrontations, especially between Wolfe and Gray.
In 1831, in Edinburgh, the prominent doctor and professor Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) buys corpses for his studies and classes of anatomy from the notorious cabman John Gray (Boris Karloff), who is also a body snatcher.
THE BODY SNATCHER manages to set the period of the 1830s pretty well, although an early distance shot is from some routine film stock and (if you look carefully) shows a car in the distance near a flock of sheep outside of Edinburgh Castle.The acting is actually quite good, in particular Karloff's Gray and Daniell's astonishing MacFarland.
THE BODY SNATCHER who supplies fresh corpses for an Edinburgh doctor in 1831 soon adds blackmail & murder to his iniquitous deeds.This was one of a short series of horror films in which Boris Karloff starred for producer Val Lewton, the others being ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945) & BEDLAM (1946).
Lewton had the knack of producing films full of atmosphere & menace on a very low budget and THE BODY SNATCHER is no exception, getting most of its chills from the wonderful acting and the literate, intelligent script - although the climax is genuinely terrifying.Karloff is chillingly perfection in the role of the sly coachman who augments his salary with a little grave robbing.
Playing a brilliant anatomist who feels he must continue to use Karloff's gruesome deliveries for the light they shine on solving medical problems, Daniell delivers an elegant portrayal of a deeply conflicted man who is pulled ever nearer the center of the vortex.In a relatively small role - his last with Karloff - Bela Lugosi is memorable as a greedy servant who tries blackmail at the worst possible time.
A later Val Lewton film, from his costume picture period, The Body Snatcher, from a Robert Louis Stevenson story, directed by Robert Wise, is a fine if somewhat moralistic and sentimental horror tale.
Val Lewton has become famous for capturing this sort of atmosphere, and The Body Snatcher is one of the films that does it best.The use of 'less is more' is right on cue in this film, and there is one sequence in particular involving Boris Karloff, a dark alley and a street singer that will be of particular note to film fans.
Karloff also calls Dr. Donald Fettes by his last name which gets on the doctor's nerves as well.Pay particular attention to the final X-Files style psychological ending that makes modern slash and gore films look like drivel.This film noir horror flick is every bit as good as the best movie versions of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson..
Likewise with Bela Lugosi's Joseph, but his big scene with Karloff is just great.In this low-budget film, Val Lewton & Robert Wise still manage to pull out all the stops, using superb lighting (esp of Karloff's cadaverous face), echoing sound (Cabman Grey's horse "clip-clopping" on the cobblestones) and the wonderful scene where the cat sitting on the mantlepiece witnesses "Toddy" MacFarlane (the wonderfully imperious Henry Daniell) grappling with Karloff's Cabman Grey.
Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, The Body Snatcher contains tight direction from Mr Versatile, Robert Wise-all the classy Gothicism one comes to expect from producer Val Lewton-and a stunningly effective performance from Boris Karloff.
Rounding out the cast with effect is Russell Wade as protégé in waiting, Donald Fettes, Bela Lugosi {a classic horror fans dream comes real in one great sequence with Karloff} as Joseph, and Edith Atwater as loyal love interest Meg Camden.However, they all play second fiddle to the makers work here.
A film directed by Robert Wise, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi and based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Body Snatcher had all the ingredients to be great.
Terrific Boris Karloff as sinister graverobber, he creates authentic frightening and panic, impressive Bela Lugosi who share a last creepy scenes together and Henry Daniell does an equally compelling turn .Usual musician RKO, Roy Webb, makes an adequate musical score with habitual musical director Bakaleinikoff.
Boris Karloff is Cabman Gray, the title character, who steals bodies from graves for doctor Henry Daniell.
"The Body Snatcher" from 1945, is the greatest horror film from producer Val Lewton.Boris Karloff certainly had a character to get his acting chops into, in the title role.
"The Body Snatcher" tells the story of a 19th century doctor (Henry Daneill) in Edinburgh who enlists the help of a grave robber (Boris Karloff) to provide him with the spare organs he needs to perform difficult operations.
Karloff asks Daniell if in healing her body, he forgot to heal all of her, which is almost spiritual.) Bela Lugosi has a supporting role as one of Daneill's assistants, and while his character could use a little more shading, his scene with Karloff is a fitting send-off for the on screen duo, who would never work together again after this.That said, the most compelling aspect of any Val Lewton film is the atmosphere, and this movie has that in spades.
THE BODY SNATCHER (RKO Radio, 1945), directed by Robert Wise, is a high point in a series of moody thrillers produced by Val Lewton, whose cycle and original style of atmospheric horror began with CAT PEOPLE (1942).
Based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, best known for his adventure stories such as "Treasure Island" or the horror of it all with "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," this particular film in period setting can understandably be mistaken as something based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, considering its title and theme.Set in Edinberg, Scotland, in 1831, the story involves Mrs. Marsh (Rita Corday) and her crippled daughter, Georgiana (Sharyn Moffett), arriving by carriage driven by John Gray, better known as "Cabman" (Boris Karloff) hence his profession.
Although THE BODY SNATCHER may come as a slight disappointment for those expecting equal status performances by Karloff and Lugosi, with Lugosi assuming the role as the doctor instead of Henry Daniell, it does provide Daniell a rare opportunity in assuming the entire film, dominating whenever or wherever possible.
This short story would be the inspiration for a movie in 1945, a classic of horror starring the legendary Boris Karloff.Set in Edinburgh in 1831, "The Body Snatcher" is the story of Donald Fettes (Russell Wade), a young student of medicine who is not doing well financially and will be forced to leave school.
Finally, it's worth to point out the outstanding quality of the dialogs, which is another of the elements that add a lot of class to the film."The Body Snatcher" was Robert Wise's second solo effort as a director after making "Mademoiselle Fifi" for Val Lewton a year before.
As some critics have pointed out, "The Body Snatcher" is an effective throwback to the classic horrors of the 30s done by Universal, as Wise brings back the Gothic atmosphere of those movies and adds the subtle ambiguity of the RKO style imposed by Lewton, creating something that could be described as a "gothic film noir".
As he would do years later in "The Haunting", Wise uses what he learned from Lewton and takes it beyond, creating stylish and horrific scenes based almost entirely on suggestion and mood than in unabashed shock.While probably he'll always be known as the Creature in James Whale's 1931 classic "Frankenstein", British actor Boris Karloff wasn't exactly a one-note performer, and this movie is a clear testament of that.
Beautiful Val Lewton production ("Cat People","I Walk With Zombie").Last film of tandem Bela Lugosi - Boris Karloff(they play two unruly servants).
You cant miss this one if you like classic horror movies!The telling about dark side of Medicine.On the one cup of the balance we had the little child who needs help (Future,who needs to care).On the other side of cup there are stolen corpses (some of them from the grave,others from their life!) - material for improvement of the surgical mastery.Child will walked but ghost of the dead man don't give the peace for Doctor!Good soundtrack for black and white dark atmosphere!.
I even find his voice work memorable at the end of the film when he is chanting a crescendo of "never neveR neVER NEVER NEVER GET AWAY WITH IT!" For me Boris Karloff could do nothing wrong with his performance in 'The Body Snatchers.' He elevated Henry Daniell, Bela Lugosi and everyone else involved.Robert Wise's direction is really just fantastic.
Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) has been paying to cabman John Gray (Boris Karloff) for fresh bodies but the cemeteries become too guarded so Gray starts murdering people.There is the plot for this incredible horror classic The Body Snatcher from 1945.The director is Robert Wise and the actors are unique.Daniell is great and from the younger actors I have to mention Russell Wade, whose performance as Donald Fettes was very good.There are two masters of the horror genre in this movie and those two are Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.Karloff plays a very chilling character in the movie.Lugosi plays Joseph and there is one absolutely brilliant scene  where these tho legends are together.There really aren't too many actors like Karloff and Lugosi anymore.And they really don't make movies like this anymore.Horror movies were more magical at that time.Where has all the magic gone?.
When Mr. Wade and Mr. Daniell become interested in the case of an irresistibly cute paraplegic girl, Mr. Karloff is put to work overtime...With great help director Robert Wise, photographer Robert De Grasse and the RKO team, producer Val Lewton's "The Body Snatcher" has one of his smoothest and most satisfying psychological, horror-tinged thrillers.
Handyman Bela Lugosi is thrown in for good measure - he and Karloff have a classic termination scene.********* The Body Snatcher (5/25/45) Val Lewton : Robert Wise ~ Henry Daniell, Boris Karloff, Russell Wade, Bela Lugosi.
Karloff is known to go a bit far and often careens into a hammy self parody, but here his voice and leering evil eyes are a guilty pleasure.Body Snatcher was produced by Val Lewton who was brought to work for RKO studio in the Forties to make horror movies that would compete with Universal.
The legendary Boris Karloff stars as grave robber John Gray, supplier of fresh cadavers to the eminent doctor MacFarlane, played by Henry Daniell.Karloff gives a wonderful performance here.
In Edinburgh in 1831, one year before the Anatomy Act was passed that expanded the legal supply of cadavers for medical research and education in reaction to public fear and revulsion of the illegal trade in corpses, a surgeon hires a cabman named John Gray (Boris Karloff) to dig up graves to provide him with fresh corpses for dissection -- but the body provider turns to murder to get new corpses for the doctor.The frequent mentions of William Burke, William Hare, and Dr. Robert Knox, all refer to the West Port murders in 1828, a well-known series of kills where, like in this film, the doctor turned to questionable sources to get cadavers.
Val Lewton and Robert Wise's The Body Snatcher provides one great final glimpse at horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi on screen.
After just watching one of their earliest team-ups in 1935's The Raven, I went to YouTube and saw once again Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi's last time together on screen in Val Lewton's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher.
Fog enshrouded streets, graveyards and etc.Henry Daniel is a sinister yet sympathetic character as Dr. McFarlane in that he helps a little girl regain the use of her legs and ability to walk again but then again deals with murdered victims in order to provide "specimens" for his students to study from.Despite some of my negative findings, this picture is more than well worth your time viewing in that it presents a subject with great tension, mystery and fear and with a cast that you could never put together today if remaking this story.
The Body Snatchers bucks that trend, being the only Lewton horror to be adapted from pre-20th century literature, and a cast boasting classic horror stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.The director here is Robert Wise, in one of his earliest pictures.
Henry Daniell ,Edith Atwater and Russel Wade are also excellent.The subplot of the little girl Georgina who can't walk is done with no saccharinity and a lot of  impact.Captures the atmosphere of 19th century Edinburgh, with perfect, shadowy dark atmosphere always is with Lewton films.Many great scenes and so much great dialogue.End has simmering suspense and leads to a pulverizing climax.Neat little touches aplenty, such as a street singer,hooves clopping,Medical school skeletons and a dog who stands by his masters grave.The cat is a great performer as well and I'd like to see more of her or him.The flaws: Bela is wasted in a tiny role, but he was the loose block in the movie anyway..
Noble young doctor-in-training Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) gets a dark lesson in the profession when he finds out instructor Dr. MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) is paying cabbie Mr. Gray (Boris Karloff) to procure fresh specimens for him from the local graveyard.
Karloff proves a Master of Jolly Juxtaposition in this Atmospheric Film and is helped by the Sharp Direction and a Good Supporting Cast of Henry Daniel and Bela Lugosi in a small but Effective Part.The Movie may be the Best Production from the Val Lewton Series of Mini-Masterpieces and the one with the Best Acting Ensemble.
With his "shadows in the dark" method, he was able to convey fear of the unknown more through suggestion rather than graphic violence.The film, adapted from a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, is about a 19th century doctor, Doctor Wolfe MacFarlane (Henry Daniel) who operates a medical school and his dealings with the unsavory Cabman John Gray (Karloff).
The Body Snatcher (1945) **** (out of 4) Classic film has Boris Karloff playing John Gray, a fiendish man who steals bodies so that a local doctor (Henry Daniell) can experiment in hopes of finding medical cures.
Reuniting horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi for the final time, The Body Snatcher is a work of surprising complexity and sly wit.Edinburgh, 1831, and surgeon Dr. MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) finds his work hampered by a lack of cadavers to experiment on and to use to teach his students.
His young student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) urges him to do it, but learns that the bodies required for experimentation are in short supply and the fresh cadavers brought into the school do not always come from the morgue, but instead are bought for a small price from the shady John Gray (Karloff).With the disturbing story of Burke and Hare lurking very much in the characters minds, The Body Snatcher focuses less on the grisly work of grave-robbing and murder, and more on the destructive relationship between MacFarlane and Gray, two old acquaintances who loathe each other but have become co-dependent.
What should he do, and what powerful influence does Gray have over the eminent Dr MacFarlane ...This beautifully creepy little morality tale, loosely based on an 1884 short story by the great Robert Louis Stevenson, is one of the best of RKO's forties horror classics, and one of Karloff's most assured and memorable performances.
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.