The Flesh and the Fiends

Based on historical events, filmmaker John Gilling’s 1960 British horror classic centers on real-life 'resurrectionists' (i.e., grave snatchers) William Burke (George Rose) and William Hare (Donald Pleasence), who supplied bodies to Dr. Robert Knox’s (Peter Cushing) school of anatomy in Edinburgh, Scotland, circa 1828. Although the ghoulish pair initially delivered days-old corpses for dissection, the medical need for 'fresh' subjects and the prospect of steady money led to Burke and Hare cutting out the middle step of visiting cemeteries in the night; instead, they began to murder drunks and travelers and immediately take the bodies to Knox. Two subplots offer contrasting relationships: Knox’s niece, Martha (June Laverick), is staidly courted by Dr. Geoffrey Mitchell (Dermot Walsh), while medical student Chris Jackson (John Cairney) falls hard for alcoholic prostitute Mary Patterson (Billie Whitelaw). The first couple are largely unrelated to the plot, but the second figure heavily and suffer much more. Haughty towards fellow doctors, Knox is not 'particular' about where he gets his cadavers, but once the killings start to multiply and the police become involved, Burke, Hare, and Knox all find themselves in the crosshairs of the court. Shot in black-and-white, The Flesh and the Fiends is a disturbing film, not just because of the moral implications (the reality is that many early 19th-century doctors had don’t-ask-don’t-tell arrangements with grave robbers while they worked to advance medical knowledge), but also because of the realism of the murders—the victims frantically fight for their lives before slowly succumbing to asphyxiation at the hands of the killers. Presented with a 2K digital transfer in the full-length 'continental' version—which features a fair amount of female nudity—extras include an informative audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, and the alternate 74-minute U.S. cut (The Fiendish Ghouls aka Mania), which eliminated the nudity and toned down the violence. Recommended. (R. Pitman)