Burke and Hare
Tags: cult, comedy, cruelty, murder

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in Edinburgh. Narration by Angus the Hangman explains how the corpses of the hanged are transported to Dr Robert Knox for dissection. Knox's rival, Dr Alexander Monro, wants the steady supply of cadavers but is forced to rely on severed limbs for dissection. Monro's assistant Charles Darwin arrives with a forged letter directing that all corpses thenceforth must be sent to Monro. Angus tells Knox's assistant, Patterson, the news. Patterson delivers the message to Knox.
William Burke and William Hare, immigrants from Ulster, attempt to sell cheese mould as a patent medicine. When their fraud is discovered, they flee to an inn owned by Hare's wife, Lucky. She tells them that one of the lodgers has died. Burke and Hare decide to sell the corpse to Knox. They are forced to break the corpse's spine to fit it into a barrel in order to smuggle it through the city. They stop at a pub along the way, where a young former prostitute, Ginny Hawkins, loudly performs an excerpt from Macbeth. The patrons ignore her. Burke asks her why she did this, and she says that it is her ambition to become an actress. They share a drink; Hare reminds Burke that they must continue to Knox's house.
Burke and Hare present the now-mangled corpse to Knox. After some negotiation, Knox agrees to pay them a good sum of money for each corpse they bring him for dissection. Burke plans to use his money to finance Ginny's theatrical ambitions, and Hare decides to open a funeral parlour. Returning to the inn, they find Lucky drunk and barely conscious. Lucky says she is drinking because Joseph, another lodger at the inn, is near death. Not willing to wait for the outcome, Burke and Hare suffocate Joseph and take the body to Knox.
Afterward, Burke tells Ginny about the money. She allows him to take her home. Hare meets Fergus, the henchman of villain Danny McTavish, at a bar. Fergus says that McTavish uses him to cheat at games of chance, but keeps all the winnings for himself. Hare details the arrangement with Knox. Fergus relays the information to McTavish.
Burke is kidnapped from Ginny's side and bundled into a horse carriage by McTavish and Fergus, who have already captured Hare. McTavish threatens to kill them unless they give him half the money from Knox. Forced to agree, they are then thrown from the carriage. As they trod back to the inn, they plan a string of murders to make up their losses to McTavish. Lucky becomes suspicious of the mounting death toll, as does Police Captain Tom McLintock. McLintock seeks the advice of Lord Harrington and William Wordsworth, who give permission to hunt down the criminals and have them hanged.
McTavish kidnaps Hare again and attempts to extort the remainder of the money. Shortly afterward, McTavish appears as Knox's next dissection cadaver. McLintock takes notice. He arrests Burke and Ginny, and Hare and Lucky, while both couples are having sex. He tells them that if any one of them confesses to the murders, the others will go free. Burke agrees to confess if he and Ginny can finish what they were doing when McLintock apprehended them.
Just before Burke's hanging, Angus advises him to speak if he has any final words. Burke sees Ginny in the crowd, and says, "I did it for love."
Onscreen text over the credits describes the fates of all the characters in the story, concluding with an image of the actual skeleton of William Burke at the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

Review: It is far from talented director John Landis's best film not like Blues Brothers or An American Werewolf in London, but it is not his worst either as is the case with Blues Brothers 2000 and Beverly Hills Cop III.Does Burke and Hare completely work?
Isla Fisher(the love story between her and Pegg though is pretty weak and underdeveloped) and Jessica Hynes are alluring and do show at least some flair for comedy, Hynes actually is very funny, and while they should have had more screen time Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry are suitably antagonistic and compelling.
I do agree about the accents being variable, I had little problem with Pegg and Serkis and Wilkinson's was convincing, Curry just about passes, while Fisher's comes and goes and some of the cameos don't quite make it.In conclusion, entertaining enough if somewhat hit-and-miss.
Set in 1820's Edinburgh, two Irish immigrants, William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis), try one business venture after the next, and one after the next they fail.
Just at the point where they're about to face financial ruin, the duo come up with an ingenious idea when they spot a in the niche in the market for the supply and demand of fresh dead bodies which manages to turn their fortunes around.The story is inspired by true events which took place in Edinburgh between November 1827 and 31 October 1828 when the real life Bukre and Hare murdered 16 people and sold their bodies to a private anatomy lecturer, Doctor Robert Knox (played by Tom Wilkinson in the film), for dissection at Edinburgh Medical College.
Although this is the 8th time their story has been brought to the big screen, this marks the first time that we see them as two likable lead characters.From a screenplay penned by Nick Moorcroft and Piers Ashworth and directed by the legendary John Landis, Burke And Hare harks back to the days of the old Ealing Studios dark comedies like Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Ladykillers (1955) which director John Landis is very fond of.
While Ginny ponders what would drive a man like Macbeth to murder, Burke looks at her and explains the character's motivation; "He did it for love".By and large, I really enjoyed Bukre and Hare.
Another element of the movie which was enjoyable was seeing so many familiar faces turning up in smaller roles; Ronnie Corbett decked out in his red and blue uniform as Captain McLintock, Christopher Lee as Old Joseph, one of Buke and Hare's early unfortunates and perhaps the most hilarious scene of all is when they push Paul Whitehouse down a flight of stairs!
Both the leads and the support obviously enjoyed making this - and the result is a refreshingly straight-forward comedy with plenty of genuine laughs.The film is simply a well-paced and well thought out comedy - everything for direction to script to the excellent costuming just works - and it is one of the better comedies of the year as it actually makes you laugh often and hard.
The humour is dark enough to work, and all involved deliver it very well indeed.We enjoyed this one a lot, it's got the right mix of silliness with a little horror that Simon Pegg does well, and all in this, this is just good straight-up entertainment with a huge galaxy of British comedians on display.
Harking back to the good old American Werewolf days, Burke and Hare joyfully plays with your expectations, creating characters you like and sympathise with and then making you squirm as they nonchalantly murder their way through Edinburgh.
Burke and Hare is a story of two men in Scotland in the late XIX century barely making a dime when an opportunity comes along to earn hard cash by killing people and selling their bodies to the benefit of science.This movie may seem morally rotten at its core making a comedy out of murder, but it succeeds at it while quite a lot of comedies with far less harmful plots don't, not to mention that some of the most popular TV shows of today make it fit right in.
Firstly, for a film set in Scotland i found it odd that the cast was almost entirely English, betraying the roots of the story (and of the English cast only Tom Wilkinson ,a splendid actor, managed to give a good approximation of a Scots accent).This film felt a bit of a homage to the Hammer films, a point made when a certain Hammer Icon makes a cameo appearance (i won't name the individual as i don't want to add a spoiler).
In fact there seems to be quite a lot of casting British film and TV icons in this film (Ronnie Corbett being another) so i'm guessing that maybe Simon Pegg or Andy Serkis only agreed to do it if certain British childhood icons of theirs were also given parts.To be honest the Burke and Hare story has been better done before but this film puts a comedic twist on it that doesn't always work.
The amazing Simon Pegg in this historical comedy based on the real life murderers Burke and Hare.
The real tragedy is that he spent a decade between 1978 and 1988 making what are now some of the most fondly remembered of all modern comedies: from the anarchy of Animal House, to the reckless excesses of Blues Brothers, through the sharp observations of Trading Places, via the bonkers ensemble of Three Amigos!, to the broad satire of Coming to America.Burke and Hare, about cadaver salesmen operating in 19th century Edinburgh (a concept with body-bags of comic potential), boasts an impressive cast of British (albeit largely non-Scottish) talent, including a few familiar Landis faces - Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine and David Schofield all featured in An American Werewolf in London.But also sadly familiar is the dearth of quality writing and comedy timing on show.
Landis approaches the film with a ribald, Carry On sensibility; and yet the script delivers very few actual jokes - certainly none that can be picked out by the roots - and the production design is more Barry Lyndon grimy than Hammer Horror camp.Scene after scene ends on a meaningless bog-eyed glare from Burke (Simon Pegg) or Hare (Andy Serkis), inspiring embarrassed silence from the audience.
There are flashes of Landis at his macabre best in a couple of the murder setups, and a sex scene between Hare and Lucky (Pegg's old partner-in-crime Jessica Hynes) provides far and away the film's funniest scene.
It's almost 30 years since Landis scared us and entertained us in equal measure in An American Werewolf in London and he returns once more to the UK with this period piece based upon the real-life murderers (perhaps the world's first serial killers) Burke and Hare.
Simon Pegg (Burke) and Andy Serkis (Hare) are the eponymous duo stalking 19th century Edinburgh for cadavers to sell to the city's medical school.
Landis' best work is over 20 years ago and any chance of a return to that form looks as dead as the cadavers Burke and Hare provided.
Director John Landis is mostly famous for having made some excellent comedies (Trading Places, Spies Like Us and Coming to America), but he's also revered in the horror cinema for having made the extraordinary An American Werewolf in London.
12 years after being absent in cinema, Landis decided to come back with the film Burke and Hare, which combines horror and comedy.
And even though I found the combination of genres too unstable, the film kept me moderately entertained despite its mediocrity.The funny elements from Burke and Hare generally work because of the solid performances from Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis, but I wish the film defined its character better.
It's like watching two very different movies at the price of one, but combined in such a forced and inconsistent way that the final result is not very satisfactory.However, as I said on the first paragraph, Burke and Hare managed to keep me moderately entertained, and I think it deserves a slight recommendation because of that.
Where Landis takes a horrific legendary tale of corpse snatching, mass murdering and scientific medicine to make a genuinely humorous and fruitful black comedy led by the animated performances of Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher and Tom Wilkinson as Dr Robert Knox.
This is a black comedy about two men who makes a fortune by selling bodies to the medical profession for anatomy classes.The story of "Burke and Hare" is dark and disturbing if you think about it, but it does not feel this way when you watch it.
Just look at the credits: Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, the underused Jessica Hynes (formerly Jessica Stevenson), the underrated Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Bailey, Stephen Merchant (in a cameo) and Isla Fisher, all in the same movie directed by the once great John Landis, who hasn't made a feature film in ages.
Which is the main reason I found this limp, lame attempt at black comedy horror such a clunking disappointment.Burke and Hare just isn't funny.
But all those movies had wit, style and characterisation – elements sadly lacking in Burke and Hare.Now there have been lots of films about real-life serial killers, some good, some bad, some terrible.
Just because Burke and Hare's crimes were committed a long time ago doesn't make them legitimate subjects for comedy, in my opinion.True, the movie boasts a fabulous cast.
It's hard to imagine the makers nodding enthusiastically at the so-called jokes and agreeing that this was the best they could come up with.Simon Pegg has been in some fantastic films (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) but it looks like he can't cut it without Edgar Wright.This travesty scores a 1 for me because on top of being embarrassingly unfunny, the subject matter is the real-life story of serial killers who murdered elderly people - er, hilarious..
Hot on their trail is Captain Tam McLintoch (Ronnie Corbett).'Burke and Hare' is a rare comedy in that it sustains the laughs - even to its bittersweet ending - without resorting to cheap gimmicks or gross-out humour (though there are a few scenes with the dead bodies being dissected, so the squeamish should be on guard).
Burke and Hare (2010) ** (out of 4) John Landis returned to the big screen with this black comedy about poor boys William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis) who find a way to earn money by selling dead bodies to a doctor (Tom Wilkinson).
The blame can be levelled at the director John Landis who should have realised that the story should have been played straight but the poor script is also to blame.Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis are pretty charmless as the death-dealing duo and their performances are hampered by the weak script and their poor efforts to find any comedic opportunity.
"I have got enough money put aside to start our new business...funeral parlors." This is the very funny true story about Burke (Pegg) and Hare (Serkis).
Because with the cast including the talented Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis, with support from the likes of Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, British TV favourite Ronny Corbett, even Christopher Lee in a small cameo, and with John Landis directing meaning this should have been a hell of a lot better than it actually is.
It doesn't also help that the true tale of Burke and Hare isn't actually that comedic as there's no real punchline anywhere, just a couple of guys making a bit of money grave robbing and killing people, and that's about it.
Something didn't work for me--it didn't feel like "cinema".It could be that so many of the faces (and there are many, many terrific cameos in there) are TV faces as opposed to movie stars; could be that it just had the feel of an older film (the picture fuzzed and crackled where I saw it, at the VUE in Edinburgh!), or maybe it's because this film was such a successful British Comedy--I couldn't help but be reminded of the Ealings and the first 4 or 5 Carry Ons--that it was hard to believe it was "new".Coming at it the other way, all of these things could be seen as strengths: it's got a fantastic cast, doesn't put visual glitz before storying-telling and feels like it belongs to a long and cherished tradition of British cinema.I need to watch it again, perhaps--but I won't complain too much if I have to wait for the DVD to do so..
Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance as Joseph.William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis) attempting to sell cheese mould which they state is growing moss.
They take his body to Dr. Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson), who gives them both a large amount of money.From then onwards, Hare thinks this is a very lucrative business.Verdict: the film is very poorly scripted and the comedy is insufficient and falls flat on its face.
Just as the recent (and atypical) vampire flick LET ME IN (2010) saw the welcome resurgence of Britain's House Of Horror, Hammer Films, this is co-produced by the famed Ealing Studios (best-known for a string of comedy classics dating from the late 1940s through to the mid-1950s, including two with similarly macabre overtones as the film under review i.e. KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS [1949] and THE LADYKILLERS [1955], and which had actually closed its doors way back in 1959!).BURKE AND HARE is very well-cast (Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis display remarkable chemistry throughout; similarly, Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry's medics provide compelling antagonism).
A black comedy about two 19th century grave robbers (Simong Pegg and Andy Serkis) who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school.There have been a few films about Burke and Hare, or inspired by the two ghouls.
I've always thought John Landis to have a good understanding of this genre (American Werewolf in London a case in point), but when I see this film I have a distinct feeling of "looking back".
Well there is no doubt that the two leading men, Simon Pegg (playing William Burke) and Andy Serkis (playing William Hare) were the driving force of the movie, and those two worked really well together.
Since grave robbing became more and more difficult, Burke and Hare developed a quicker and more efficient method to obtain corpses It was a pure joy to see a good old-fashioned genuine John Landis film again!
Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis are terrific in the leads, but the supportive roles and cameos are even more interesting, with names like Christopher Lee, Jenny Agutter and Tim Curry..
John Landis' retelling of the true story of the notorious bodysnatchers of the early 18th century, supplying fresh bodies for the purposes of medical research (sometimes so fresh that the hearts hadn't stopped beating until Burke and Hare made sure they did) is a curious movie.The expression which kept going through my head while I was watching it was "knockabout comedy." Now I'm not saying that comedy and horror can't happily co-exist - Landis' own American Werewolf In London is a case in point - but there is a difference between comedy and knockabout comedy.
The problem is that, while I like bacon, and I like custard, I'm not sure I want to eat them together, and the comedy and horror in Burke And Hare sits in the same area for me.The cast all perform well, although nearly everyone - and there are a lot of well-known faces here - is required to do either a Scots or Irish accent and some of them are, let's be honest, a bit dodgy.Jessica Hynes has a lot of fun, as does her character: the audience perhaps less so.Isla Fisher looks as if she has been visited by the Boob Fairy post-birth.
Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis play the infamous Burke and Hare--two horrible criminals who provided bodies to Edinburgh medical schools in the 1820s.
The one thing they were short of was bodies....The only thing that was missing from this film (apart from a funny script and good editing) where the incidental comedy noises used in many carry on films.This film is the pits, it's beyond the pits, and is further proof of why Landis hasn't made a film in years.I pray Pegg made this for further funding for Paul, because there is no excuse for a man of his talent to be in such a mess.The whole cast are wasted, and this must have been heavily edited in the cutting room, because it lacks flow of any sort.I've seen funnier episodes of crimewatch, and it's a shame that a whole host of British talent were wasted in this.And it was Ronnie Corbetts big return to the silver screen too..
'Burke and Hare'follows the story of two Irishmen who realise that providing dead bodies for the use of medical science will bring them a comfortable sum of money.As the subject matter may suggest, this film is full of dark comedy and plenty of toilet humour (most of which is very predictable).
Meanwhile, a pair of Irish swindlers in William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis) find themselves broke.
Simon Pegg as William Burke and Andy Serkis as William Hare both did a decent job.
Given Pegg's past form, I was expecting a really good laugh, but sadly this film just didn't hit the spot in the same way that some of his earlier movies did.
I found this movie on Netflix after searching for something "good" to watch.I have to say that this was one of the more offbeat, and enjoyable films that I've seen all year.Based on a true story, except for the parts that aren't, "Burke and Hare" stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as two down and outs who are willing to do anything to make a buck.