Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

flapdoodle64 This is a classic example of the way a small budget film can be much more enjoyable than big budget affairs, provided the right people work on it. This film has everything going for it in terms of creative personnel, at least in regard to the direction, writing and acting.The claustrophobic and minimalist sets, the seedy-looking costumes and the venal and petty motivations of various characters successfully evoke the bitter world of the impoverished citizens of the British Empire. Drama is provided at the nexus where an underclass harlot and ghouls meet the upper-class and the educated.There is no element of the supernatural in this film, yet the natural evil of men seeking profit is enough to provide sufficient horror. Fans of old school horror will find this film highly enjoyable and will appreciate how well-crafted it is.

lastliberal John Gilling's (The Mummy's Shroud) film is listed as a horror film, but it is really an exciting thriller about an anatomy teacher (Peter Cushing) and grave-robbers (Donald Pleasence - Halloween, Dracula, & George Rose).Billie Whitelaw (Hott Fuzz, The Omen), with two BAFTA wins and four more nominations, plays a prostitute that falls for one of the medical students (John Cairney).The grave-robbers find that it is easier just to kill someone and sell them, than to dig them up. It wasn't long before Mary (Whitelaw) had a spat with Chris (Cairney) and fell into the clutches of the murderers.Imagine Chris' surprise when she shows up on the slab in class the next day.Soon, the grave-robbers were committing murders to cover up their murders.Excellent performances by Pleasence, who got what he deserved in a weird sense, Cushing, and Dermot Walsh, as Cushing's assistant. A fascinating story that is supposedly based upon a true event.

Robert J. Maxwell A surprisingly effective retelling of the adventures and ultimate fates of the two grave robbers and murderers -- William Burke (George Rose) and William Hare (Donald Pleasance) -- and Dr. Knox, the lecturer on anatomy (Peter Cushing) who was complicit in their crimes.At the time, the mid-1800s in Edinburgh, Scotland, it was difficult for medical schools to come by cadavers for dissection. They were forced to wait for hangings and sometimes chafed at the long intervals between executions. The raggedy and snaggletoothed Burke and Hare, among many other "ressurectionists", collected dead bodies off the streets and sold them to Knox in an excess of zeal to advance the progress of medical science. The bodies would otherwise have wound up in pauper's graves. And there WERE dead bodies found on the streets. There is no poverty like the poverty of a northern city in the grip of unfettered industrialism.However, if a thing is worth doing well, it's worth doing in extremes. Burke and Hare made the short and simple step from collecting dead bodies, through grave robbing, to murder. Knox is portrayed as a cold-blooded scientist who believes neither in the soul nor in the guilt of his two enablers.I don't know how closely the script follows the historical events, but it's convincingly done, even if the budget is a bit low. The sets look a little perfunctory. The cobbled, crooked night-time streets of the city are nicely on display but there was no provision for fussy extras like street lamps or street litter or intimate nooks and crannies and cheap shops. The lighting seems to come from nowhere and what we're looking at appears to be a rather stark movie set instead of an atmospheric Edinburgh street.Burke and Hare eventually go too far -- knocking off victims that are well known and fondly thought of by some of the community -- but they don't really change. The arc of character belongs to Cushing's Dr. Knox. He's openly insulting to other figures in the medical profession. He seems not devoted to helping humanity, but holds them in contempt. Until, after the trial of Burke and Hare, he stoops down in a city square when a tattered little girl asks him for alms. He has no money but invites her to accompany him to his home where he will give her some cash. "Oh, no!," she replies, "You might sell me to Dr. Knox." That does it for Knox. He discovers his compassionate side.It would have been more effective if we'd seen his devotion to medicine but in fact his lectures have been as cold and distant as the rest of his character. Before this epiphany he's been a pretty unlikable snot, treating his students pitilessly.The performances are all rather good. Pleasance is a charming, unpretentious, treacherous psychopath, a little like Long John Silver. Rose is the dummy who gets hanged because he didn't know how to play "the prisoner's dilemma" to his best advantage. Billy Whitelaw is sexy, almost feral, as the hard-drinking tart being courted by one of the medical students. She overacts much of the time but, when reined in by her instincts or the director, she delivers some thoughtful lines. But then no one's performance is so bad that it's outstanding.I said that the sets and the set dressing didn't really evoke the Edinburgh of the 1840s and maybe that's a good thing. The cities of the period really stank -- literally. Endiburgh could be smelled miles away and was known as "Auld Reekie." In the absence of any social programs, poverty, drunkenness, poor health, and quick death were rampant on the foul streets. Women in particular were disenfranchised. Without a man, many of them wound up as prostitutes. The same conditions prevailed in London, making whores easy prey for Jack the Ripper.Well, that's reality, but this is cinema and, as such, is pretty good. More artful, in my opinion, is Val Lewton's inexpensive effort from RKO, "The Body Snatchers," its demonic overtones notwithstanding.

lost-in-limbo In 1820 Edinburgh, two man Hare and Burke are looking for a quick buck by turning to body snatching and suppling their corpses to an anatomist Dr. Knox. Though, soon there obsession turns to murder and the Doctor don't seem to worry how they are getting their cadavers. But things change when they go one step to far and get caught in the act.'The Flesh and the Fiends' is a historically realistic account of the true story about the murders that were committed by Burke and Hare in Edinburgh of the early 19th century. This portrait of these two corpse robbers turned serial killers covers disturbing subject matter and the piercing Dr Knox's emotionless state of mind makes one shiver. The film also has some similarities to the brilliant 'The Body Snatcher (1945)', which also followed in the same vein and starred the ever-reliable Boris Karloff. The difference is this one is about the horror and morality about an issue of a scientific level, while 'The Body Snatcher' was more a character driven film that looked how guilt, greed and pride can personally destroy someone by becoming an unwanted ordeal. Even this was more graphic in its depiction of the continuous violence that it becomes a real unsettling mix, especially on how we see these two men act with joy and lightness after and sometimes during their actions. The first and last death showcases that perfectly. The sexual context too, didn't go by unnoticed with undertones… it was the real deal and director John Gilling brought to the screen with such penetrated attention a provocative period piece that grips you with its unpleasantness. Which by no means makes it a bad thing.For sure this flick would have been shocking for its time, but that makes it more the reason to seek it out. Maybe it was made before its time? Because the context of it doesn't seem to fit the era, but hey there's a first for everything, right? Also contributed to the story is that of the accomplished satire of class status and treatment, between the wealthy upper-class and working class who live in a slum. This was moulded into the plot with one of Knox's students seeing a working class girl, showing how they live in two totally different worlds, but no matter their lifestyles, they shared a unique bond that meets a tragic end. Also through aspects of the plot you can tell its having a scathing attack on the upper class (Dr. Knox) by taking advantage of the certain situations by getting the poor to do their dirty work for them, while keeping their hands basically clean. Though, it might have some biting topics covered, but there's still a sub-plot involving Knox's niece that seems more or less irrelevant to the overall proceedings. But overall the film's momentum never slows up and I was kept in awe by the simply amazing performances of the cast and the exceptional direction in constructing the period.There are shades of dirtiness amongst this blunt atmosphere of lurking horror. The forbidding streets that are covered with such eerie buildings, stark lighting and dark shadowy pathways breaths an uneasy grittiness and that alluding essence of it creep up in certain scenes. The camera-work also evokes some attention too; by holding together the films steady structure and menace by getting deep into the terrifying hysteria that this mess eventuates into. What stands out more so in the spotlights are the superbly portrayed characters that there isn't a minor hiccup in the performances.Peter Cushing's determined Dr. Knox whose all too blinded by his work to see the wrong in his ways, but this honour takes a huge bump when it takes a child to knock him off his perch. Cushing plays out that moment brilliantly by providing us that even though he's an honourable man that can take it on the chin, but that moment he gives us a small glimpse of remorse and to question his own actions, which makes you feel for him a bit. While, Cushing's stern performance is transfixing, Donald Pleasence and George Rose were incredibly persuasive as the colourfully upbeat body snatchers Hare and Burke that held such a cold-hearted and malevolent nature, with the carelessness of their greed causing their own downfall. The way they would go to any lengths to provide the good doctor with a corpse really did have shattering effect on the compulsiveness of their acts. It was hard to see how immune they have become to it that now it was second nature and how the black humour of it flowed between the two. Pleasence, though who did play Rose's character like a puppet, really gets your skin crawling, especially with his sly nature, body movement and reactions to when performing these callous acts. While, Rose's performance is remarkably sufficient as the controlled brute. These two surefooted characters that bounce off each other are what makes the film and all that credits goes to Pleasence and Rose to achieving this. The other cast members too were downright splendid Dermot Walsh as Knox's fellow doctor/friend, Renee Houston as Burke's wife, John Cairney as one of Knox's medical students Chris Jackson and then you another equally good performance by Billie Whitelaw as the strong-minded Mary Patterson.The script too, is fleshed out rather well, by upping the suspense and surprises but also questioning that of morality and the backlash of this touchy subject. And not forgetting the melodramatic spurts too, which added a down to earth approach. Where the honour of Knox's work eventually comes through and the ending does kinda play the whole thing down. Though honestly, the way it plays out amongst the accuse, it shows how class can have an easy influence on certain outcomes. So there's no poetic justice here, which makes it more believable in the finish product.Unrestingly gritty and hard-boiled thriller that holds miraculous performances all round.