In Edinburgh in 1831, Mrs. Marsh brings her paraplegic daughter, Georgina, to see Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane at his home, where he has an office and an anatomy school. MacFarlane discovers a tumor pressing on Georgina's spinal cord, but insists he cannot perform the delicate operation to remove it because he is too busy teaching. After the Marshes leave, Donald Fettes tells MacFarlane that he cannot afford to continue his studies, so the doctor hires Fettes as his assistant.
Fettes moves into MacFarlane's house. He is awakened one night when John Gray, a cab driver and body snatcher, delivers a corpse for MacFarlane's students to dissect. Although he says he would rather quit medicine than be involved with such ghoulish business, MacFarlane convinces Fettes of the importance of the work and that, due to restrictions upon which corpses can legally be used for dissection, medical schools must work with men like Gray.
At a pub, Gray, who calls MacFarlane "Toddy", gets MacFarlane to begrudgingly buy him a drink, telling Fettes he is an old friend. Fettes asks MacFarlane to reconsider operating on Georgina, and Gray seems to convince MacFarlane by making a threatening reference to "some private reasons" between them. When MacFarlane later tells Fettes that he does not really intend to help Georgina, as he does not have a cadaver to study, Fettes goes to Gray and asks him to procure another corpse. As guards have been posted at the cemeteries because he killed a dog during the last body-snatching, instead of digging someone up, Gray murders a young street singer.
Recognizing the singer, who he had seen alive after he left Gray, Fettes tells MacFarlane that Gray must have killed her. He wants to contact the police, but MacFarlane cautions him that, if a crime was committed, he would be an accomplice, and Fettes helps get the body ready for the students. The conversation is overheard by Joseph, the janitor at MacFarlane's school.
MacFarlane performs Georgina's operation, and she recovers well, but still cannot walk. Frustrated, MacFarlane gets drunk at the pub, where Gray torments him by saying his studies with Dr. Knox taught him about dead bodies, not how to heal people. When Gray reminds MacFarlane that he helped keep the doctor from becoming involved in the trial of Burke and Hare, MacFarlane tells Gray that he is no longer afraid and demands Gray leave him alone.
Joseph visits Gray to blackmail him about the murder of the street singer, and Gray acts agreeable, before smothering Joseph to death. Gray delivers the body to MacFarlane as a "gift", and, when MacFarlane finds it, he tells Fettes to prepare Joseph for dissection and goes to deal with Gray. Fettes feels trapped, but Meg Cameron, MacFarlane's housekeeper and secret wife, tells Fettes about MacFarlane's past and convinces him to leave.
MacFarlane tries to bribe Gray to stop tormenting him, but Gray rejects the offer, saying he enjoys having a great man under his thumb. Enraged, MacFarlane beats Gray to death. He tells Meg that he is finally rid of Gray, but she has doubts.
The next day, Fettes sees Georgina stand up. He rushes to tell MacFarlane, but Meg says the doctor is in Penicuik, where he went to sell Gray's horse and cab after using the body for dissection. Fettes takes MacFarlane's carriage and gives MacFarlane the news in a tavern. A group of mourners enter, and MacFarlane, his spirits high, decides to dig up their relative's body so he can teach his students to perform "miracles".
Fettes and MacFarlane seat the unearthed corpse, wrapped in a tarp, between them in MacFarlane's carriage. As they drive through the dark and the heavy rain, MacFarlane begins to hear Gray taunting him. He stops and orders Fettes to get down and shine a lamp on the body, and when he uncovers the head, he sees Gray's face. The horse bolts, leaving Fettes behind, and MacFarlane struggles with Gray's corpse, which seems to be trying to grasp him. After separating from the horse, the carriage tumbles down a steep hill. When Fettes reaches the wreck, he finds MacFarlane's dead body next to the corpse of the woman he and MacFarlane dug up.[3]
The Body Snatcher was the final film to feature both Boris Karloff (left, pictured c. 1940s) and Bela Lugosi (right, c. 1912)
The Body Snatcher was one of three films that Boris Karloff made with producer Val Lewton at RKO Radio Pictures from 1945 to 1946, the other two being Isle of the Dead (1945) and Bedlam (1946). In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed his reasons for leaving Universal Pictures and working with Lewton. He said that, while his appearance in Universal's Frankenstein in 1931 had made him a star, he felt the franchise had run its course, calling the most recent installment, House of Frankenstein (1944), a "monster clambake", as it featured Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, the Wolf Man, and a hunchback. Though the film performed well at the box office, Karloff found it ridiculous and decided not to renew his contract, crediting Lewton as "the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul".[4]
Lewton had British screenwriter Philip MacDonald adapt Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 short story "The Body Snatcher" for the screen, enlarging the role to be played by Karloff. Lewton also worked on the screenplay, writing under the pen name of "Carlos Keith". When it was suggested that the casting of Bela Lugosi might add marquee value to the film, he signed a deal with RKO, and Lewton and MacDonald wrote the small role of Joseph for him. The Body Snatcher was the last film to feature both Karloff and Lugosi.
Robert Wise, a longtime film editor at RKO, was assigned to direct the film. He had previously worked with Lewton as the replacement director of The Curse of the Cat People (1944), which had fallen behind schedule, and the director of Mademoiselle Fifi (1944).[5]
Filming
Principal photography for the film took place between October 25 and November 17, 1944. During filming, there was tension between Lewton and executive producer Jack J. Gross, who sent Lewton into production with what Lewton felt was a small budget.[6]
Release
Theatrical release
The premiere of The Body Snatcher in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 14, 1945
The film premiered at the Missouri Theater in St. Louis, Missouri, on the night of February 14, 1945.[7] The premiere event included a horse-drawn hearse outside the theater loaded with dummy cadavers, and, as it was Valentine's Day, RKO distributed Valentine's cards featuring Karloff and Lugosi with the phrase: "Please Give Me a Piece of Your Heart".[8] After the screening, there was a live spook show hosted by stage magician Dr. Neff.[9]
On May 10, 1945, the film opened at the Hawaii Theatre in Hollywood, California.[10] A grave-robbing display was placed in the lobby, and the film was preceded by a live prologue on stage by actor Eric Jason, who sought a live patron to place into a coffin.[10] The screening of The Body Snatcher was followed by the screening of another RKO-produced film, The Brighton Strangler (1945).[10]
On May 14, 1945, RKO executive Sid Kramer informed RKO that the film had been "condemned in its entirety by the city of Chicago and the state of Ohio, but with certain eliminations to be made, an adult permit at least will be forthcoming for Chicago. As for Ohio, a cut version of the picture has to be submitted for further consideration."[10] The film required cuts not only in Ohio, but also New York, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. In England, censors removed the sequence featuring Gray's apparition towards the end of the film.[10] Additionally, the film was initially banned in British Columbia, but it was passed after an appeal.[10]
The Catholic National Legion of Decency gave the film a "B" rating, deeming it "morally objectionable in part" due to "excessive gruesomeness".[10] About this rating, Kramer stated: "I feel there is too much unanimity of opinion on the part of the people in the Legion about this picture to secure any better classification than the present one."[10]
Reception
Box office
The Body Snatcher was a commercial success, grossing $317,000 domestically and $230,000 internationally, for a total of $547,000 and a profit of $118,000.[12]
Critical response
Upon its release, John McManus of the New York PM Reviews commended Karloff's performance and wrote that "The Body Snatcher inherits class from its Robert Louis Stevenson parentage; it has the distinction, like many an ancient and honorable British ballad, of being a shocker with an edifying background of fact; [...] The Body Snatcher, if you are one for well-told legends, for balladry or just for shockers by preference, is something you won't want to miss."[12] A reviewer writing for the New York Herald Tribune wrote that Karloff "proves that with capable direction and script to work with he can be a real menace instead of a mere monster."[12] A reviewer for The New York Times wrote that the film captivated the audience at its Rialto premiere "with nary a werewolf or vampire! But then, with Karloff on the prowl, what chance would a bloodthirsty hobgoblin stand?"[12]
Actor Russell Wade, recalling the premiere screening at Hollywood's Hawaii Theatre, stated: "It was a real 'audience picture'. Some of those scenes [...] such as the sudden snort of the horse, and Karloff's murder of the street singer – got tremendous audience reaction."[10] A reporter for The Hollywood Citizen News wrote of the audience reaction to the moments of dark humor in the film, noting a scene in which MacFarlane tells Gray, "You know something about the human body" (to which Gray replies, "I've had some experience!") as having "brought down the house!"[10]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 7/10.[13]
In 2018, J. Hoberman of The New York Times referred to Karloff's role in the film as "a sensationally creepy performance – at once vicious and obsequious".[2]
Home media
The film was first released on Region 1 DVD by Warner Home Video in 2005 as part of "The Val Lewton Horror Collection", a 9-film box set, on the same disc as I Walked with a Zombie (1943). A Blu-ray edition was released by Shout! Factory in March 2019, featuring a 4K scan of the original camera negative.
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, known professionally as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian–American actor, best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.
William Henry Pratt, known professionally as Boris Karloff and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film Frankenstein (1931) established him as a horror icon, and he reprised the role for the sequels Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), and voiced the Grinch in, as well as narrating, the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), which won him a Grammy Award.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a 1948 American horror comedy film directed by Charles Barton. The film features Count Dracula who has become partners with Dr. Sandra Mornay, as Dracula requires a "simple, pliable" brain to reactivate Frankenstein's monster. Dracula discovers that the "ideal" brain belongs to Wilbur Grey who is wooed by Mornay to the operating table, despite the warnings of Lawrence Talbot.
Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., and adapted from a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.
The Mummy is a 1932 American pre-Code supernatural horror film directed by Karl Freund. The screenplay by John L. Balderston was adapted from a treatment written by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer. Released by Universal Studios as a part of the Universal Classic Monsters franchise, the film stars Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron.
Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as the main antagonist. Shelley's title thus compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire.
Cat People is a 1942 American supernatural horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced for RKO by Val Lewton. The film tells the story of Irena Dubrovna, a newly married Serbian fashion illustrator obsessed with the idea that she is descended from an ancient tribe of Cat People who metamorphose into black panthers when aroused. When her husband begins to show interest in one of his coworkers, Irena begins to stalk her. The film stars Simone Simon as Irena, and features Kent Smith, Tom Conway, and Jane Randolph in supporting roles.
Val Lewton was a Russian-American novelist, film producer and screenwriter best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. His son, also named Val Lewton, was a painter and exhibition designer.
"The Body Snatcher" is a short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894). First published in The Pall Mall Gazette in December 1884, its characters were based on criminals in the employ of the surgeon Robert Knox (1791–1862) around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders of 1828.
The Black Cat is a 1934 American pre-Code horror film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi. It was Universal Pictures' biggest box office hit of the year, and was the first of eight films to feature both Karloff and Lugosi. In 1941, Lugosi appeared in a comedy horror mystery film with the same title, which was also named after and ostensibly "suggested by" Edgar Allan Poe's short story.
Son of Frankenstein is a 1939 American horror film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The film is the third in Universal Pictures' Frankenstein series and is the follow-up to the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein. Son of Frankenstein stars Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein who, with his wife Elsa and son Peter, returns to his late father's estate. Near the castle lives Ygor, a crazed blacksmith whose neck was broken in an unsuccessful hanging attempt. Among the castle's remains, Frankenstein discovers the remains of the Monster and decides to try to save his family name by resurrecting the creature to prove his father was correct. He finds, however, the Monster only responds to Ygor's commands.
Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
Charles Henry Pywell Daniell was an English actor who had a long career in the United States on stage and in cinema. He came to prominence for his portrayal of villainous roles in films such as Camille (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Holiday (1938) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Daniell was given few opportunities to play sympathetic or 'good guy' roles; an exception was his portrayal of Franz Liszt in the biographical film of Robert and Clara Schumann, Song of Love (1947). His name is sometimes spelled "Daniel".
House of Frankenstein is a 1944 American horror film starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine. Based on a story by Curt Siodmak, it was directed by Erle C. Kenton and produced by Universal Pictures. The film is about Dr. Gustav Niemann, who escapes from prison and promises to create a new body for his assistant Daniel. Over the course of the film, they encounter Count Dracula, Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's Monster.
House of Dracula is a 1945 American horror film released and distributed by Universal Pictures. Directed by Erle C. Kenton, the film features several Universal Horror properties meeting as they had done in the 1944 film House of Frankenstein. The film is set at the castle home of Dr. Franz Edelmann, who is visited first by Count Dracula and later by Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, who are trying to cure their vampirism and lycanthropy, respectively. Talbot is eventually cured, which leads him to discover the body of Frankenstein's monster in a cave below the base of the castle. Edelemann takes the monster's body back to his laboratory but finds Count Dracula has awakened and by attacking his assistants, he captures Edelmann and forces a reverse blood transfusion, which gives Edelmann a split personality and makes him a killer.
Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1932 American horror film directed by Robert Florey, based on Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The plot is about Doctor Mirakle, a carnival sideshow entertainer and scientist who kidnaps Parisian women to mix their blood with that of his gorilla, Erik. As his experiments fail because of the quality of his victims' blood, Mirakle meets with Camille L'Espanye, and has her kidnapped and her mother murdered, leading to suspicion falling on Camille's fiance, Pierre Dupin, a medical student who has already become interested in the earlier murders.
Garrett Elsden Fort was an American short story writer, playwright, and Hollywood screenwriter. He is mostly known for his connections with 1930s horror films, with film historian Gary Don Rhodes describing him as "one of, if not the pre-eminent horror film screenwriters of the classic era." He was a close follower of Meher Baba, and travelled to India while developing a screenplay based on Baba's philosophy.
Isle of the Dead is a 1945 horror film directed by Mark Robson and made for RKO Radio Pictures by producer Val Lewton. The film's script was inspired by the painting Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin, which appears behind the title credits, though the film was originally titled Camilla during production. It was written by frequent Lewton collaborator Ardel Wray. It starred Boris Karloff. Isle of the Dead was the second of three films Lewton made with Karloff, and the fourth of five pictures Robson directed for Lewton.
You'll Find Out is a 1940 American comedy film directed by David Butler and starring Kay Kyser. In 1940, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 13th Academy Awards. In the film, members of an orchestra hired to play at a young heiress's birthday party uncover a plot against her. The film was very popular and made a profit of $167,000.
Frankenstein is a film series of horror films from Universal Pictures based on the play version by Peggy Webling and the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. The series follow the story of a monster created by Henry Frankenstein who is made from body parts of corpses and brought back to life. The rest of the series generally follows the monster continuously being revived and eventually focuses on a series of cross overs with other Universal horror film characters such as The Wolf Man. The series consists of the following films: Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
References
↑ John C. Tibbetts, and James M. Welsh, eds. The Encyclopedia of Novels Into Film (2nd ed. 2005) pp 35–36.
↑ Louis Berg (12 May 1946). "Farewell to Monsters"(PDF). The Los Angeles Times. p.F12. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 September 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
↑ Gehring, Wes D (2012). Robert Wise: Shadowlands. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. pp.71–78. ISBN978-0-87195-296-7.
↑ Keenan, Richard C. (2007). The Films of Robert Wise. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810858855.
Mank, Gregory William (2017). Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration, with a Complete Filmography of Their Films Together. McFarland & Company. ISBN978-1476672342.
Jacobs, Stephen (2011). Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster. Tomahawk Press. pp.300–304. ISBN978-0-95576-704-3.
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