Director- Robert Wise
Starring- Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell
A med student begrudgingly assists a medical professor acquire bodies from a graverobber for medical study. It's revealed pretty early on that Prof. "Toddy" (Daniell) and graverobber John Gray (Karloff), who drives a buggy during the day, were once colleagues. In fact, Gray admits that it was he who taught Toddy everything he knows, and had what Toddy had before the two were found out Gray took the fall.
Lugosi played the somewhat bit part of Toddy's servant, who finds out what Gray is up to and attempts to extort him. I was surprised to see both Karloff AND Lugosi in a movie together, and there were NO monsters!
There was great acting all around, and I was convinced of the conflicted consciences in many of the characters. I loved the cynicism Karloff brought to his role. His character knew how "evil" his profession was, and accepted it, chastizing Toddy for trying to make himself out to be better that he really was. On the other hand, this was for the purpose of medical progress. DaVinci did it. And it's dead bodies, come on! They don't care. They've shed their fleshly vessels, blah blah blah.
Rating: Another 5/5 Bonedaddies for being AWESOME.
Posts
2 comments:
One of my favourite Karloff performances. I remember seeing it as a kid and loving the fact that it was based on the true story of Scottish grave robbers Burke and Hare. Oh, and a belated thanks for dropping by my own, seldom updated, blog.
Will
Thanks Will, both for the kind words and being the first to comment on this blog!
Come to think of it, I remember reading about it being based on a true story.
Post a Comment