The Body Snatcher (1945)

- written June 2006

Summary: It is 1831 Edinburgh and Medical student Donald Fettes works for Dr. MacFarlane as a lab assistant so he can afford to stay in school. However, what he learned when he takes the job is that the bodies they use in their classes, have been dug out of the local morgue by the local Cabman, Mr. Gray, and purchased by MacFarlane. Fettes is very uneasy with us and gets increasingly so, when Gray runs out of dead bodies and starts to murder people to keep up the income. That’s when a paralyzed young girl after a long battle with Dr. Macfarlane finally gets the operation she needs. That’s when Fettes will no longer accept the vile travesties being perpetrated and will finally do something about it.           Overall: Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson book of the same title, we get both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi together. Lugosi gets poorly used and so what could have been a legendary film is simply “ok.” Karloff has another nice performance showing his true mettle. The performances by him and “Macfarlane” were by far the best in the film. The story was fine but so much action happened off-screen that the film isn’t as powerful as it could have been. Not that I am advocating corpses and gore all over the place but Director Val Newton does so much off-screen, you’d think he left the script over there too.           Comparison: Frankenstein meets Rob Roy

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