The Body Snatcher

"GRAVES RAIDED! COFFINS ROBBED! CORPSES CARVED! MIDNIGHT MURDER! BODY BLACKMAIL! STALKING GHOULS! Mad Thrills of Terror And Macabre Mystery... –and don't blame us if you stay awake all night!"

Jun 25 1945 Approved 1h 18m
Horror, Thriller

Edinburgh, 1831. Among those who undertake the illegal trade of grave robbery is Gray, ostensibly a cab driver. Formerly a medical student convicted of grave robbery, Gray holds a grudge against Dr. MacFarlane who had escaped detection and punishment.

Plot

In Edinburgh in 1831, Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane runs a medical school where Donald Fettes is a student. Fettes is interested in helping a young girl who has lost the use of her legs. He is certain that MacFarlane's surgical skills could be put to great use but he is reluctant to do so. The good Dr. MacFarlane has a secret that soon becomes all too obvious to young Fettes, who has only recently been promoted as his assistant: he has been paying a local cabbie, John Gray, to supply him with dead bodies for anatomical research. Gray constantly harasses MacFarlane and clearly has a hold over him dating to a famous trial many years before where Gray refused to identify the man for whom he was robbing graves. Fettes isn't aware of any of this but soon realizes exactly how Gray obtains the bodies they use in their anatomy classes.

Written by

Robert Louis Stevenson, Philip MacDonald, Val Lewton

Directed by

Robert Wise

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

RKO Radio Pictures

Languages

English

Awards

3 nominations

Scores
# of Votes
10,731
Average Rating
7.3 out of 10
Metascore
74
Popularity
NA