The Body Snatcher

After watching the Val Lewton double feature I decided to do a little research and found that for the tiny budget (even for the time) it is even more amazing that Val and his crew at RKO could create these little gems of movies. Apparently Lewton was insistent on authenticity and the songs we hear are contemporary Scottish folk songs and the wardrobe as well (the actors do sadly have American or British accents however.) Small touches like the fact that in one scene, in order to see something in a dark basement, the doctor calls out for someone to bring a candle. In a less thoughtful movie the deserted basement would have a couple of lanterns already lighted, or the set would be brightly lighted with no visible lanterns at all. A small thing but one that really speaks to Lewton's style.

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson's story of the same name the plot is rooted in time and the dialogue literate
Henry Daniell plays the complex role of a doctor-- proud of his medical skills but driven insane by that pride. Boris Karloff plays his ex-associate and now grave robber Mr. Gray, who turns to murder when bodies become hard to come by.

More macabre but just a tasteful as "I Walked With a Zombie" "The Body Snatcher" does not devolve into the gorefest that it would today. When Gray decided to kill an young street singer, there is no torture, no slashing, no entrails spilled. The little girl walks alone down a deserted cobblestone street at night, singing a melancholy tune as she goes. The camera is held on her as she walks under a bridge and disappears in the darkness on the other side. Without any cuts, Karloff's horse and coach enter the frame, plodding slowly along in the girl's wake. The coach disappears into the same darkness under the bridge. We hear the girl's carol cut off at the end of a note with a slight squeak. End of shot. Fantastic. I have no problem with gore, lots of it in fact but it is always refreshing to watch something that is honestly frightening without it and it does make you wonder if today's film makers could pull it off.
The genuine honesty and horror of the young med student Donald and the complex, torn, and jaded nature of the Doctor make for great contrasts between the idealism of youth and the compromises we make later in life.

In the end, the doctor wins a hand to hand fight with the grave-robber turned murder but goes mad and gallops furiously through the rainy night along muddy roads to disinter a new body for himself. As he drives into the night, MacFarlane hears thinks he hears Gray calling to him and orders Fettes to stop the carriage and examine the body. When Fettes steps out of the carriage and shines a light on the face of the corpse, MacFarlane thinks he sees Gray. At that moment, the horses spook and run away, plunging the carriage and its occupants over a cliff. Running to the wreck, Fettes observes MacFarlane's dead body with the corpse of a woman lying beside him.

As in "I Walked with a Zombie" there is a sense of something steadily growing. Here that sense is one of corruption.

Inspired by the real life event of Burke and Hare who are referenced in the movie this is another shorty at 79 minutes total running time.

Look for the scene with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff (created solely for the ability to bill the two actors in one movie).