The Body Snatcher
RKO set up producer Val Lewton, (1904-1951), to make low-budget horror films for the studio hoping to capture the type of box office returns that Universal was earning with their horror movies. Lewton chose to make more subtle psychological thrillers like “Cat People,” (1942). When actor Boris Karloff, (1887-1969), decided not to renew his contract with Universal he was invited to join the RKO horror unit. Val Lewton was initially concerned about working with Karloff, but after meeting the actor he was very impressed. They started working on the movie “Isle of the Dead,” but the production was delayed when Karloff required back surgery. After his recovery plans were made to resume their first project, but further delays were necessary until the other cast members were available. During this waiting period Lewton decided to make a second film with Karloff before completing their first motion picture. Thus their second movie was released before the first was completed.
Val Lewton decided to adapt the short story “The Body Snatcher” which had been published by author Robert Louis Stevenson, (1850-1894), in the Christmas Extra insert in the “Pall Mall Gazette” in 1884. Lewton assigned British writer Philip MacDonald, (1900-1980), to write the screenplay. Val Lewton wrote the final version of the screenplay himself as was his custom, although he seldom took any screen credit. Because Lewton’s contributions were extensive MacDonald requested that he share the screen credit, which he reluctantly did using the pseudonym “Carlos Keith.” Lewton’s additions included a small role for another Universal veteran: Bela Lugosi, (1882-1956). This would be the eighth and final time that Karloff and Lugosi shared the screen.
This week’s movie was “The Body Snatcher” from RKO in 1945, directed by the great Robert Wise, (1914-2005). Russell Wade plays young medical student “Donald Fettes,” who is studying under “Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane” in Edinburgh in the year 1831. It was difficult at this time to acquire cadavers for study, and teaching doctors sometimes turned to body snatchers to acquire them. For Dr. MacFarlane his source is local cabman “John Gray,” (Karloff). Gray once committed perjury to protect MacFarlane from prosecution during the 1928 Burke & Hare trials. Now the sadistic body snatcher derives joy by blackmailing and persecuting MacFarlane. The doctor’s handyman “Joseph,” (Lugosi), tries to blackmail Gray, but the cabman murders him. Pushed to the edge of sanity MacFarlane murders the scoundrel. He then decides to do his own body snatching. MacFarlane enlists the reluctant Fettes to help dig up a recently deceased woman. On the buggy ride home MacFarlane suffers a mental breakdown and becomes convinced that the body is that of John Gray returned for vengeance!
This is a wonderful and effective thriller. Boris Karloff provides one of his very best performances as the gleefully sadistic body snatcher. Matching his performance is classically trained actor Henry Danielle as Dr. MacFarlane. This film combines excellent character acting with an intelligent script and flawless direction by Robert Wise. This is one of Val Lewton’s finest motion pictures and I am proud to recommend it.
The film borrows from two historical incidents for its plot. First is the case of Dr. Robert Knox, who in 1928 paid William Burke and William Hare for cadavers, apparently unaware that the two men were committing murder to supply them. The second real-life inspiration was the story of a dog called “Greyfriars Bobby.”This little dog was so loyal to his master, (coincidentally named “John Gray”), that when he died in 1858 the dog would not leave his master’s grave until his own death fourteen years later.
One of the medical students is played by actor Robert Clarke, (1920-2005). He would later be the star of several horror and science fiction films including “The Man from Planet X,” (1951), and “Beyond the Time Barrier,” (1960).