The corpse thief
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The corpse thief |
| Original title | The Body Snatcher |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 77 (USA) 75 (Germany) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Wise |
| script |
Philip MacDonald Val Lewton based on the novel The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson |
| production | Val Lewton for RKO Pictures |
| music | Roy Webb |
| camera | Robert De Grasse |
| cut | JR Whittredge |
| occupation | |
Not in the credits
| |
The body thief (original title: The Body Snatcher ) is an American horror film from 1945 based on the short story The Corpse Robber by Robert Louis Stevenson with Henry Daniell in the lead role . Directed by Robert Wise . In this adaptation, the two horror film stars of the 1930s, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi , stood together for the last time in front of the camera.
action
The action takes place in Scotland in 1831.
The Edinburgh teaching physician Dr. MacFarlane is a very ambitious researcher who is constantly trying to increase his knowledge with unusual methods. When Mrs. Marsh visits him, she begs the doctor to help her paralyzed daughter Georgina. MacFarlane hires one of his students, Donald Fettes, to examine the girl. Although Dr. MacFarlane recommends an operation, but because of his teaching activities he cannot perform it himself. When Fettes wants to give up his medical studies due to lack of money, the doctor offers him a job as his assistant in conducting medical experiments. As a result, Fettes learns that not all of the specimens that the students had previously dissected came from the local morgue.
Fettes soon has to learn the whole sinister truth about MacFarlane's corpse retrieval when he is woken one night by a loud knock on the door. John Gray stands in front of him, who again delivers a corpse on behalf of the doctor. Gray is a sinister fellow who officially earns his living as a coachman during the day and hired himself out as a corpse robber on behalf of the researcher at night. This time Gray brings a male corpse.
MacFarlane takes Fettes to the next meeting with Gray. You meet in a pub and the doctor has to listen to all sorts of taunts from his corpse-stealing assistant because he does not want to dare the operation on Mrs. Marsh's daughter. Gray even begins to blackmail his client into performing the necessary operation. But MacFarlane refuses to go into the operation by claiming that he lacks another corpse for this serious operation that he can rehearse on beforehand. John Gray then delivers the dead body of a blind street singer to the doctor, whom Fettes had seen quite alive a short time before.
Fettes is appalled and accuses Gray of cold-blooded murder in front of MacFarlane. The doctor's servant, old Joseph, overhears the conversation. MacFarlane makes it clear to Fettes that if he goes to the police with his knowledge, he could be accused of complicity. A little later the doctor dares to undertake the difficult operation on Mrs. Marsh's daughter, but she still cannot walk afterwards. Joseph wants to capitalize on his knowledge and tries to blackmail him during a visit to Gray. Gray then strangled Joseph and presented his body to Dr. MacFarlane in the most cynical way as a "gift". The doctor's housekeeper, Meg Camden, who knows the secret of the theft of bodies, advises Fettes to leave this eerie place before a second Dr. MacFarlane will.
The doctor wants to free himself from the slavish dependence on his corpse thief and therefore offers John Gray money if the latter leaves him alone in the future. But Gray mocks his client again and threatens to torment him with his presence until the end of his life. A fight ensues in which Dr. MacFarlane Gray slays. Immediately afterwards, Fettes visits Mrs. Marsh and her daughter Georgina. When she suddenly gets up he realizes that Dr. MacFarlane's operation was a success after all. Fettes desperately wants to report this good news to his mentor, but MacFarlane has traveled to another city to sell Gray's horse and cart.
Fettes meets the doctor in a tavern, where he tells his assistant that he now wants to take on Gray's work himself and that he intends to steal a fresh corpse from a grave that has not yet been filled in. Fettes is ready to help. And again, John Gray's horse-drawn cart serves as a means of transport. This night it storms and rains heavily. On the drive back, MacFarlane thinks he can hear Gray's mocking voice from behind. He stops the wagon and orders Fettes to check the corpse. In the lantern light, MacFarlane says he recognizes John Gray in the corpse. In the middle of the thunderstorm, the horses shy away and run away. They fall over a cliff and tear the doctor into the abyss and into his death. In the last scene you can see the corpse at the side of the dead doctor: it is that of a woman.
Production notes
The Corpse Thief was created in autumn 1944 and was premiered on May 25, 1945. The German premiere took place on October 29, 1971 as part of the ZDF horror film series Der phantastische Film .
Reviews
The critics praised this film, despite the rather weak tension, mainly due to its atmospheric density and the successful interplay of the two horror film veterans Lugosi and Karloff. Here are a few examples.
Leonard Maltin wrote: “Fine, atmospheric tale from Robert Louis Stevensons short story… Last film to Team Karloff and Lugosi, their scenes together are eerie and compelling. One of the classic Val Lewton thrillers ”.
Halliwell's Film Guide found: “A familiar theme very imaginatively handled and well acted, though the beginning is slow. The best of the Lewton thrillers ".
Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times on May 26, 1945: “This new gloom-lodger, though not as nerve-parlyzing as the performers might lead you to expect, has enough suspense and atmospheric terror to make it one of the better of its genre. … "The Body Snatcher" is certainly not the most exciting "chiller-drama" —the Rialto has often done much better — but it is somewhat more credible than most and manages to hold its own with nary a werewolf or vampire! But then, with Karloff on the prowl, what chance would a blood-thirsty hobgoblin stand? "
The Lexicon of International Films stated: “Atmospherically dense film adaptation of a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson; a well-played classic of horror cinema that does without gross shock effects. "
In The Bad Guys it is pointed out that Henry Daniell played a villain with his corpse doctor for once in this film, which attracted the sympathy of the audience, while Boris Karloff made one of his best appearances here with the corpse robber Gray.
Web links
- The Body Snatcher in theInternet Movie Database(English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Movie & Video Guide , 1996 edition, p. 144
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide , Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 128
- ^ The Body Snatcher in The New York Times
- ↑ The corpse thief. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ William K. Everson: The Bad Guys. A Pictorial History of the Movie Villain. The Citadel Press, Secaucus, New Jersey, 5th Edition 1972. p. 150
- ^ Everson, p. 211