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| The Body Snatcher |
| Boris Karloff .... John Gray Bela Lugosi .... Joseph Henry Daniell .... Dr. MacFarlane Edith Atwater .... Meg Camden Russell Wade .... Donald Fettes Dircted by Robert Wise Written by Val Lewton and Phillip MacDonald While most of Lewton's subtexts take a little digging (pun intended) it is pretty obvious what The Body Snatcher is all about.Death.Perhaps that we're not allowed even a little dignity in death as our bodies are being dug up and used for medical studies.In death we have no privacy. Henry Daniell is the cold methodical Dr MacFarlane.While he can teach medicine he cannot relate to his patients or his fellow man.He tries but to no avail.He's even gone so far as to hide his marriage to his "housekeeper" although the why is never explained, only hinted at.It seems that MacFarlane studied under the infamous Dr Knox.Knox had bodies supplied to him by the even more infamous Burke & Hare.MacFarlane barely avoided a horrible fate in the court due to John Gray. Donald Fettes is the young med student that can relate to his patients but lacks MacFarlane's ruthlessness.Together they are two halves to a whole.Fettes becomes the doctor's personal assistant which puts him in touch with John Gray, cabman and "resurrection man".He supplies corpses dug out of the cemetaries for the medical students to learn on. Karloff as Gray gives one of the most complex portrayals of his long career.Gray is very sweet with a crippled young girl.Yet later that evening he viciously kills a small dog protecting the grave of his young master.He also isn't above murder to supply bodies for the pay he gets from MacFarlane.Gray is the personal demon of MacFarlane.Always there to remind him of the time that he failed to stand up for himself and Gray "took the fall for him" so to speak. Gray actually goads MacFarlane into operating on a severly ill young girl.Even though the operation is a success the girl will not walk, frustrating the doctor.Gray tells MacFarlane he doesn't have a soul and doesn't understand his patients.When Joseph (Lugosi in a wasted role) tries to blackmail Gray, Gray murders him and delivers him to the medical school. MacFarlane begs Gray to leave him alone and offers to buy him a home somewhere far away.But Gray refuses as he wouldn't have "Toddy"MacFarlane to beg."I am a small man,a humble man and being poor have to do much I did not want to do.But as long as the great Dr MacFarlane jumps to my whistle,that long I am a man.If I don't have that, then I am nothing.Then I am only a cabman and a grave robber.You'll never be rid of me Toddy".This leads to a terrific life and death struggle and a morbid finale during a heavy thunderstorm that uses the Lewton trademark of sound as scares. |