The Flesh and the Fiends is similar, in a lot of ways, to the Val Lewton produced Robert Wise film, The Body Snatcher, but for some reason; this one has flown further under the radar. It's odd, because despite the greatness of the other film; The Flesh and the Fiends is a lot better, and has the added malevolence of being based on a true-life story. The film takes place in Edinburgh, and director John Gilling does an excellent job of ensuring that the city looks as foreboding as possible, and the perfect home for a story as macabre as this one. The film follows the idea of having to break eggs to make an omelette, and sees Doctor Robert Knox buying corpses from a couple of murderous grave robbers in order for him to have subjects, from which new surgical procedures can be ascertained. The real stars of the show, however, are the graverobbers themselves; Burke and Hare. They begin their careers by simply taking bodies from graves; but once they realise how lucrative the business of selling cadavers is, they soon resort to making a few corpses of their own...

The biggest name in the cast is the one belonging to the great Peter Cushing. Cushing has shown throughout his career that he is capable of a number of different roles, and his role here is one of the best he's had. He gets to sink his teeth into the character of Doctor Knox. In fact, this man isn't a world away from Cushing's world-beating turn as Doctor Frankenstein in Hammer's classic series, which explains why Cushing is so good at it. George Rose and Donald Pleasance give the film its extra dimension in the roles of the graverobbers. Rose is good, but it's Pleasance who really stands out in this film. Seeing him in a role like this is actually quite heartbreaking; as here we see how great he can be, rendering his roles in films like Halloween even more of a waste of time. The plot plays out from a number of different angles, ensuring that there's always enough going on around the central plot to ensure that the film never dries up and becomes boring. It's strange that a film of this quality could fly straight under the radar; but somehow it has. However, copies of this are out there; and it definitely is well worth tracking down!

This is quite possibly the finest British horror-film ever made--except that it is entirely-true. The Flesh and the Fiends is nothing-less than a fairly truthful accounting of the original 'bodysnatchers,' Burke and Hare who resorted-to-murder after running-out of 'fresh' corpses for a Dr. Thomas Knox, of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a scandalous-story that would never have been possible were it not for antiquated religious-notions that it was unholy to disinter the dead--even if approved by the deceased and their survivors--for the purposes of medical-inquiry. Shot in an shadowy-expressionist black, there are few films that top this in the horror-canon. Hammer had some great films, but this is really the capper. Burke and Hare just wanted money to drink and whore. In the squalor of early-industrial Britain, there were precursors to Jack the Ripper, and Burke and Hare could have taught Jack a few-lessons.

Britain's early-industrial poverty spawned rampant-licentiousness, disease and violence. When human-life is considered worthless, you get a tendency for crime and murder of this type. Groan all-you-want, but these were the fruits of a form of gross economic-inequality that prevails today. And for those who don't know, Great Britain in the 1820s was the time of Charles Dickens. Dr. Knox was one of numerous aristocratic-doctors of his day who had to resort to the employ of bodysnatchers to obtain fresh-cadavers for his anatomical-research. Because of this, Flesh and the Fiends is also a tale of scientific-ethics--with a wrongheaded-ending! Dr. Knox was definitely aware at some point that Burke and Hare were murdering human-beings for money (this all paid-handsomely at the time),to provide him bodies. It doesn't get much darker than this. Would we even bat-an-eye today? In Houston (circa 1960s-1970s),the coroner's office was selling the cadavers of homeless Black men to the Department of Energy for radiation-experiments. Today, there are organized-crime groups who snatch-organs from the living and the dead for the highest-bidders! Egads, bodysnatching never-ended.The film: it was produced by a tiny independent English studio called 'Independents-International', and is regarded as their best-film.

Directed by Hammer-director John Gilling, it was also a minor-hit, and is easily one of Peter Cushing's best-performances. Also noteworthy, is Donald Pleascence's performance of the deadly Hare, which is very nuanced. Cushing's performance is also nuanced, illustrating the moral-dilemma that Knox must have felt utilizing the kind-of cadavers Burke and Hare provided him. How can you lose with a movie that has him and Peter Cushing?! Everything about The Flesh and the Fiends is convincing, even for such a low-budget thriller. The original-negatives of the film were located in the 1990s, so most of the editions on DVD are superb, and contain the 'Continental version' that has plenty of flesh (and fiends) on-display. What a wild-romp, and yet what a chilling-parable of the abuses-of-power in a rotten-era of human-history. It's sad how things aren't very different. You could do worse than to watch this on those cold, Autumn-nights. This is a movie for true horror-lovers who realize horror is of human-origin. Be-sure to check the Brooksfilm (Mel's old-company) version of this story, 'The Doctor and the Devils' (1985). It's pretty good, too, though not-as-good as this. When I saw it as a kid, I thought it was about Jack the Ripper!

In 1945, Val Lewton produced a wonderfully creepy film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (THE BODY SNATCHER). It was based on a Robert Louis Stevenson novel which was a fictional story based on real-life serial killers, William Burke and William Hare, who were WAAAY over-zealous in procuring corpses for the local medical school in Edinburgh. Apparently they didn't bother waiting until the people died in order to make a few pounds--often suffocating their hapless victims!!

Years later, in 1960, another variation of the William Burke and William Hare story came to the theaters, but this one (starring Peter Cushing) was not based on the Stevenson novel but the actual crimes. While the Lewton movie was marvelous and horrifying, this one seems worth seeing as well because it is more realistic and unflinching (with some very brutal murders),plus it sticks much closer to the facts and mirrors the real decisions in the courts. Although whether or not Hare was blinded is a popular account that was never confirmed, this make for a cool inclusion in the film. Plus, I was really impressed by Peter Cushing's performance as a surgeon on a crusade--his speech before the graduating class and impassioned argument with old established "surgeons" was very impressive--some great oration indeed! Very, very interesting as well as well made--this British horror film is well worth seeing--especially since it's true!!