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The Body Snatcher (film)

 

 
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The Body Snatcher (film)
 
 
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The Body Snatcher , is a horror film
Horror film

Horror films are movies that strive to elicit responses of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of the supernatural....
 directed by Robert Wise
Robert Wise

'Robert Earl Wise' was an United States sound effects editor, film editor, and Academy Awards-winning United States film producer and director. Among his many famous films are Citizen Kane, The Sand Pebbles , The Sound of Music , West Side Story , The Hindenburg , Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Day the Earth Stood...
 based on the short story The Body Snatcher
The Body Snatcher

The Body Snatcher is a short story by the Scotland author Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in the Pall Mall Christmas "Extra" 13 ....
 by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson , was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and Travel writing. Stevenson was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov, J....
. The film's producer Val Lewton
Val Lewton

Val Lewton was an United States film producer and screenwriter, who is best known for a sequence of nine brooding horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s....
 helped adapt the story for the screen, writing under the pen name of "Carlos Keith". The film was marketed with the tagline The screen's last word in shock sensation!.







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The Body Snatcher , is a horror film
Horror film

Horror films are movies that strive to elicit responses of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of the supernatural....
 directed by Robert Wise
Robert Wise

'Robert Earl Wise' was an United States sound effects editor, film editor, and Academy Awards-winning United States film producer and director. Among his many famous films are Citizen Kane, The Sand Pebbles , The Sound of Music , West Side Story , The Hindenburg , Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Day the Earth Stood...
 based on the short story The Body Snatcher
The Body Snatcher

The Body Snatcher is a short story by the Scotland author Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in the Pall Mall Christmas "Extra" 13 ....
 by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson , was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and Travel writing. Stevenson was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov, J....
. The film's producer Val Lewton
Val Lewton

Val Lewton was an United States film producer and screenwriter, who is best known for a sequence of nine brooding horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s....
 helped adapt the story for the screen, writing under the pen name of "Carlos Keith". The film was marketed with the tagline The screen's last word in shock sensation!.

Plot

In Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
 in 1831, one year before the Anatomy Act was passed, a surgeon
Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage....
 hires a cabman to dig up graves
Body-snatching

Body-snatching was the secret disinterment of bodies from churchyards to sell them for dissection or anatomy lectures in medical schools. Those who practised body-snatching or grave robbing were often called "resurrectionists" or "resurrection-men."...
 to provide him with fresh corpses for dissection – but the body provider turns to murder
Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
 to get new corpses for the doctor.

The frequent mentions of Burke, Hare, and Dr. Knox
Robert Knox

Robert Knox Doctor of Medicine Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Royal Society of Edinburgh was a Scotland surgeon, anatomist and zoologist....
, all refer to the West Port murders
West Port murders

The Burke and Hare murders were Serial killer perpetrated in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom in 1827 and 1828. The killings were attributed to Northern Ireland immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the Cadavers of their 17 victims to the Edinburgh Medical College for dissection....
 in 1828.

Cast

  • Boris Karloff
    Boris Karloff

    Boris Karloff was an Cinema of the United Kingdom who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein , 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein....
     as Cabman John Gray
  • Béla Lugosi
    Béla Lugosi

    B?la Lugosi was a Hungarians-born United States actor of theatre and film, well known for playing Count Dracula in the Dracula and subsequent Dracula ....
     as Joseph
  • Henry Daniell
    Henry Daniell

    Henry Daniell was an England actor, best known for his villainous screen roles, but who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films....
     as Dr. Wolfe "Toddy" MacFarlane
  • Edith Atwater
    Edith Atwater

    Edith Atwater was an American stage, film and television actress.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Atwater made her Broadway debut in 1933. In 1939 she starred in The Man Who Came to Dinner....
     as Meg Camden
  • Russell Wade as Donald Fettes
  • Rita Corday as Mrs. Marsh
  • Sharyn Moffett
    Sharyn Moffett

    'Sharyn Moffett' was an United States child actor of the 1940s. Moffett, born 'Patricia Sharyn Moffett' on September 12, 1936 to a show business family, appeared in a dozen films including The Body Snatcher , the film noir The Locket , Child of Divorce Banjo , and Mr....
     as Georgina Marsh
  • Donna Lee - Street singer


DVD release

The film was released for the first time on DVD
DVD

DVD, also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc,"is a popular optical disc data storage device media format. Its main uses are video and data storage....
 in 2005, along with I Walked with a Zombie
I Walked with a Zombie

I Walked with a Zombie is a horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton for RKO Pictures; the first was the very successful Cat People , also directed by Tourneur....
, as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection.

See also

  • Boris Karloff filmography
    Boris Karloff filmography

    This is a filmography of Boris Karloff. Born as William Henry Pratt, he joined a touring company and adopted the stage name Boris Karloff. During these early stages of his career he was mostly left in obscurity....
  • Béla Lugosi filmography
    Bela Lugosi filmography

    B?la Lugosi was in a large number of movies during the course of his career. The following list is believed complete....


External links

  • Bibliography