The Body Snatcher (film)
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- This article is about the film. For other meanings of The Body Snatcher, see The Body Snatcher (disambiguation).
The Body Snatcher | |
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Directed by | Robert Wise |
Produced by | Val Lewton |
Written by | Robert Louis Stevenson (story), Philip MacDonald, Val Lewton |
Starring | Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell |
Music by | Roy Webb |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures Inc. |
Release date(s) | May 25, 1945 |
Running time | 73 min. |
Language | English |
All Movie Guide profile | |
IMDb profile |
The Body Snatcher (also known as Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher) is a 1945 horror film directed by Robert Wise based on the short story The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film's producer Val Lewton helped adapt the story for the screen, writing under the pen name of Carlos Keith.
Tagline: The screen's last word in shock sensation!.
[edit] Synopsis
The setting is Edinburgh in 1831 (one year before the Anatomy Act was passed).
The plot is about a surgeon who hires a cabman to dig graves to provide him with fresh corpses for dissection. But the body provider turns to murder to get new corpses for the doctor.
The frequent mentions of Burke, Hare, and Dr. Knox, all refer to the West Port murders in 1828.
[edit] DVD release
The film was released for the first time on DVD in 2005, along with I Walked with a Zombie, as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection.