The Body Snatcher

The Body Snatcher is a 1945 horror movie I decided to go ahead and look at because of the Robert Wise Blogathon. It'll be one less to choose from during October. I think I have a million or so put aside for October, so one less is a good thing.

This film is directed by Robert Wise in his first solo job as director, and stars Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Henry Daniell. The music is by Roy Webb. It's based on a story with the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson, and you can read the story online here. This has a similar theme to The Flesh and the Fiend in having to do with surgeons who aren't too particular about how their subjects for dissection are obtained.

trailer:

Moria gives this film high praise. 1000 Misspent Hours calls it "quite a good film" and says that "with his performance here, Boris Karloff created what may well be the greatest screen villain of his time." Variety calls the film "a winner". The New York Times says it "has enough suspense and atmospheric terror to make it one of the better of its genre."

11/5/2009: The Vault of Horror has a review.