The Body Snatcher (1945)

Val Lewton was a master of horror.  Not the gory, gross kind of horror, but a very controlled, haunting, beautiful kind.  The Body Snatcher is an excellent example of his mastery.  Here, Robert Wise directed and Lewton produced, but he also rewrote Philip MacDonald’s script, taking a pseudonymous credit as Carlos Keith. 

The Body Snatcher is loosely based on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story, referencing the Burke and Hare resurrectionist murders.  Boris Karloff is the body snatcher Gray, chief supplier for the arrogant Dr. MacFarlane, played by Henry Daniell.  Daniell, in perhaps his largest role, is adequate but nothing more.  His character, coldly willing to sacrifice morals for the sake of scientific progress, tormented by Gray and by his own self-doubt, is a good one, but his performance is less than masterful.

Karloff, in the first of his three roles with Lewton, gives a memorable performance.  He portrays a man eaten by moral rot yet full of evil vitality; full of strong passions but pitiless.  He shows he can be monstrous without monster makeup, although in this case he is frighteningly human as well, brimming with bitterness and jealousy.  Karloff is very sinister here, but his portrayal is not without humanity and sympathy.  The mutual hatred between Gray and MacFarlane is sometimes muted in Daniell’s performance, but always strongly portrayed by Karloff.  Karloff said Lewton was “the man who rescued me from the living dead and restored my soul”, and here Lewton (and Wise) make him shine.

Also present is Bela Lugosi, but as MacFarlane’s servant Joseph he is underutilized. He is only there for his name on the credits, and in fact the theatrical trailer was designed to suggest that his part would be much larger.  Suffering from stomach ulcers and perhaps already a morphine addict, Lugosi looks quite ill, as if even this small part is an effort for him.  This was the last Karloff/Lugosi teaming.

As usual, Lewton manages to do a lot with a little: the shadowy world of 1830’s Edinburgh is competently evoked through a few simple sets; Gray’s horse and cab clop down narrow, cobbled lanes.  An angelic-voiced street singer lightens the darkness with her voice in many scenes.  This is psychological horror; despite the theme, there aren’t many shots of bodies or their parts.  It suggests rather than shows:  shadows on a wall of a vicious struggle while Gray’s cat watches on, a victim murdered off-screen in a dark tunnel, grave robbing on a dark and stormy night.  The ending sequence is perfect, a horror classic that burns into memory.

Here as in all of his films, Lewton put a great deal of effort into all aspects of the production, elevating it above the horror film standard.  In the wrong hands, The Body Snatcher could have been excruciatingly boring, just another B movie, but with Lewton’s attention to detail and artistry, and Karloff’s great performance, it really shines- a minor classic.