The Body Snatcher

The Body Snatcher (1945)

Directed by: Robert Wise

Written by: Philip MacDonald & Carlos Keith based on the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson

Starring: Henry Daniell, Boris Karloff, Russell Wade, Edith Atwater, Rita Corday, Sharyn Moffett, Bela Lugosi, Donna Lee

I saw this movie once during my youth, and, surprisingly, I remembered most of it. It just stuck with me for some reason.

It's the one about the doctor (and former student of Dr. Knox) who just can't get rid of the spooky resurrection man (resurrection men are, by definition, spooky. You don't get to be a resurrection man (or resurrection person as they like to be called these days) unless you're spooky). This one's not too bad, though. I mean, he's nice to his horse, and the little crippled girl, and he has a really cute cat.Mind you, he does kill people. But that kitten is just so damn cute.

Anyway, I was always rather fond of this movie. Seeing it now, it seems kind of funny, but in a good sort of way. It's just so... chirpy? Sure, why not. It's cute. I mean, yeah, it's spooky and all that too. Boris Karloff is always spooky. He can't help it. It's the accent.

He looked really old in this, though. Jeez. He didn't look quite as awful as Lugosi (actually, he managed to look reasonably okay well into his old age). Bela by this point was starting to get a little fat and saggy. I don't think he was doing too well. This was about the time the work started to peter out for him. He only did, like, eight movies after this.

But enough of me worrying about Bela Lugosi (the time has come and passed for that, I'm afraid).

So this is one of those Val Lewton flicks from the '40s. Yeah, they're pretty good. So dark. So spooky...

Captain America, the Preserver of Justice there kind of annoyed the hell out of me (that's a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?). I mean, if they'd at least said he was a medical student from America I would have felt a little better, it's just that everyone else could do a competent British/Scottish accent. What the hell was his problem (actually, I'm not sure about one or two of the people - I wasn't really listening to them).

As did the singing chick, but that's just because I can't stand people who sing like that. She got horribly murdered though so no worries.

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