In Victorian England, two grave robbers supply a wealthy doctor with bodies to research anatomy on, but greed causes them to look for a more simple way to get the job done. Based on the horr... Read allIn Victorian England, two grave robbers supply a wealthy doctor with bodies to research anatomy on, but greed causes them to look for a more simple way to get the job done. Based on the horrifying Burke and Hare case.In Victorian England, two grave robbers supply a wealthy doctor with bodies to research anatomy on, but greed causes them to look for a more simple way to get the job done. Based on the horrifying Burke and Hare case.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Billy Bedlam
- (as Philip Davis)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDylan Thomas' screenplay was written in the 1940s, but plans to film it fell through. His screenplay was published shortly after his death in 1953. The script attracted the attention of Director Nicholas Ray in the mid 1960s, although it was elaborately re-written to transfer the action from Scotland to Vienna. Ray announced that he would make the film in Belgrade, with Maximilian Schell and Susannah York, but the production was abandoned before shooting began. The project was inactive for another twenty years.
- GoofsThe song Jennie sings in the tavern ("Whisper and I Shall Hear") was not written until 1891, while the Burke and Hare murders on which the film is based took place in 1828.
- Quotes
Doctor Thomas Rock: I don't need any friends, I prefer enemies. They're better company and their feelings towards you are always genuine.
- Alternate versionsUK versions are cut by 9 secs to remove a cockfight.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Children of Times Square (1986)
- SoundtracksTAINTED HANDS
Written and Performed by In Tua Nua
The film was produced by Mel Brooks' company which had also been behind David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) which, incidentally, had marked Freddie Francis' own return to being a director of photography! Timothy Dalton as the overzealous doctor has a couple of good scenes in the first half, but he is clearly overshadowed by the more flamboyant turns of Jonathan Pryce and Stephen Rea as the nefarious night diggers. The impressive cast is completed by Twiggy, Sian Phillips, Beryl Reid, Julian Sands and Patrick Stewart; Twiggy (as another whore with a heart of gold) gets to sing as well and, predictably, medical student Sands falls for her charms.
I recall the film playing theatrically but, needless to say, I was too young to catch it back then. It's based on an original, unproduced script by celebrated Welsh playwright Dylan Thomas adapted here by future Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood; curiously, the names of the characters have been changed from the real ones of Knox, Burke and Hare so had been the case with THE BODY SNATCHER, for that matter, but that one had the excuse of being based on a Robert Louis Stevenson novella! Apart from the starry cast and the film's undeniably evocative look, its main asset is a spare, unusual but effective score provided by longtime Mel Brooks collaborator John Morris.
- Bunuel1976
- Oct 18, 2008
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $147,070
- Gross worldwide
- $147,070