This bona fide classic may be, as Gregory Mank says, the best American horror picture of the 1940s. The teaming of Boris Karloff and Henry Daniell is sensational. Producer Val Lewton gives the players career-best characterizations and dialogue, and director Robert Wise adds tension and chills. Bela Lugosi is in for a supporting part. Icing on the grave-robbing cake is a new 4K scan from the original negative — we can forget the dull and dark prints seen in the past.

The Body Snatcher
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1945 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 77 min. / Street Date March 26, 2019 / 29.99
Starring: Boris Karloff, Henry Daniell, Bela Lugosi, Russell Wade, Edith Atwater, Rita Corday, Haryn Moffett, Donna Lee.
Cinematography: Robert deGrasse
Film Editor: J.R. Whittredge
Original Music: Roy Webb
Written by Philip McDonald, Carlos Keith
Produced by Val Lewton
Directed by Robert Wise

Here’s a picture that we never expected to see in such good condition…  and NOBODY is complaining.

RKO never gave their house producer Val Lewton proper credit for practically saving the studio with Cat People. But they changed his production profile for Isle of the Dead and The Body Snatcher, actually doing him a big favor. Boris Karloff was hired, which pushed the pictures to a higher level of industry respectability. All three of Karloff’s films were to be period pieces, with perhaps a few more dollars allocated to the budget. Lewton still rankled at being told what he had to produce, and still remained an intense worrywart that should have been looking out for ulcers and heart attacks. But the producer got along exceedingly well with Karloff, who was grateful to be given such elevated material to play — leading roles with complex characters. The Body Snatcher turned out to be one of the better Lewtons. Karloff may give his best film performance this side of the original Frankenstein.

Lewton’s film unit creates an impressive Edinburgh on RKO’s standing sets, using only a few stock shots of the city’s famous castle. Impoverished cabbie John Gray (Boris Karloff) follows in the footsteps of the infamous Burke and Hare by ‘procuring’ unusually fresh corpses for the dissection classrooms of noted anatomist Wolfe ‘Toddy’ MacFarlane (Henry Daniell). When the graveyards are too closely guarded, Gray asphyxiates his victims with his large hands, a technique he calls ‘Burking.’ MacFarlane’s promising anatomy student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) discovers the illegal commerce going on below stairs and tries to stop the killing by interesting his teacher in curing a paralyzed child (Sharyn Moffett). But Toddy and Gray are engaged in a grim war of entreaties and threats… as much as he denies it, MacFarlane is complicit in murder, a fact the bitter Gray won’t let him forget.

Do all of Val Lewton’s movies begin with music suitable for a funeral?  That’s the mood set here, surely. To adapt Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale Val Lewton tapped Philip McDonald, a contributor to Rebecca back at Selznick’s, and an author who would end up with credits on several memorable pictures, including Sahara. Lewton’s own writing contribution to The Body Snatcher was so substantial that he gave himself a credit under his occasional nom de plume Carlos Keith. His adaptation of the basic Burke and Hare resurrectionist story is an excellent example of how clever writing could reshuffle gory and sordid material into a form acceptable to the Production Code. Other ‘straight’ tellings of the same tale (1959’s The Flesh and the Fiends and 1985’s The Doctor and the Devils) use the all-too predictable device that one of the ‘Burked’ corpses turns out to be someone beloved to the anatomists. Lewton bests them by managing a semi-superstitious shocker of a finale that really surprises audiences. He also works in the Edinburgh legend of Greyfriars Bobby.

The dialogue is superb, particularly between Boris Karloff and Henry Daniell. The two fine actors are given scenes they can really sink their teeth into; this is probably Daniell’s finest acting hour as well. Gray and MacFarlane are a pair of symbiotic ghouls, ‘fiends for the flesh’ yet also sympathetic. MacFarlane has respectable breeding, high ideals and a lofty station in society, yet he lacks the ability to empathize with his patients. When the little handicapped girl won’t answer his questions, he doesn’t realize that she’s simply afraid, and would trust him if he stopped being so autocratic. John Gray is even more complicated — he likes people and animals, and easily charms the little girl by introducing her to his horse. But he’s also a verminous lowlife who long ago lost his faith in justice. He now lives in a stable. The proud Gray has an unlimited ability to hold a grudge. Having once served a prison sentence for MacFarlane, resentment oozes from his pores. Once Gray gets his hooks into the imperious ‘great man of consequence’ nothing can make him loosen his grip.

Karloff’s role here will be a revelation to many. The great actor made so many films that wasted his potential, it’s gratifying to see him cut loose and show what he can do. Whether sitting alone in his stable or downing a pint in the pub, ingrained hatred shows though Gray’s feigned good manners. As he punctures a piece of bread with his knife, Gray surmises that “Toddy would like to do this all over my body,”  Karloff’s lisp adds to his character. Unlike the greedy ghouls of the other body-snatching movies, money is not Gray’s basic motivation. He is raw material for a one-man lower-class revolution. It’s a Grand Guignol situation: Gray doesn’t want peace with the pompous doctor, as he derives far too much pleasure from watching him squirm. Karloff would play an even more complicated character in his final film for Val Lewton, Bedlam.

Bela Lugosi has little to do. He looks pitiful stuttering through scenes completely overwhelmed by the ‘upstart’ who took over the mantle of horror king so many years before. Although various commentators say that Lugosi’s scenes with Karloff are an equal match, it’s just not borne out in the film. The young lead Russell Wade is more credible than he was in The Ghost Ship but is still merely adequate. Later genre favorite Robert Clarke is a standout as another student of anatomy. Edith Atwater’s Meg is a perfect example of a Val Lewton ‘minor’ role given special significance: the ‘great doctor’ MacFarland hides their relationship because she’s not of his class, yet she remains devoted to him. The subplot about curing a little girl’s injured back is handled exceedingly well, yet it seems ordinary when placed against the movie’s darker themes.

When RKO split up the Val Lewton / Jacques Tourneur team, Lewton insisted on promoting his star editors Robert Wise and Mark Robson to director status. Had his Orson Welles association not put him in the doghouse, the solid talent Robert Wise might have started directing two years earlier. He does a very good job, but he’s not an actor’s director — Karloff and Daniell hardly need direction, and the performances of the other overtaxed contract players are not exemplary. It’s all in the script and a bit of special casting.

I’m reminded that Wise was always better than Mark Robson, which is not exactly major praise. My favorite Lewton The Seventh Victim must be appreciated despite a number of weak, sketchy performances that needed a better director. Robert Wise made many superb movies, but I probably fixate on too much of the wrong information about him. I still think of Wise as a producer’s director who played a sharp political game. Two of his major career moves involved taking over from other directors that had fallen out of favor with the front office. And when he and Robson were in a position to start their own film company, Val Lewton was all but destroyed by their decision to edge him out in favor of Stanley Kramer, and then Theron Warth. Lewton may not have known how to be a partner instead of a boss, or the younger men may have decided that he was ill-equipped to survive in the cutthroat movie business, but still…

Lewton can’t afford many extras, but a parade of guardsmen in uniform gives a street scene excellent flavor. Nailing the Scottish atmosphere is the small role played by 15 year-old Donna Lee, a singing prodigy whose voice manages a heartbreaking accent. Often credited to Robert Wise is an effective minimalist scene of murder that uses just one static angle on an arched roadway, and a plaintive folk song. The scene puts an end to our split attitude about John Gray — despite his underdog status, he’s thoroughly despicable.

Although still not an ‘A’ production,  The Body Snatcher could no longer be called an impoverished B Picture because it outperformed RKO projects that cost five times as much. It was about this time that Val Lewton was earning national publicity, inspired by glowing reviews from critic James Agee. Savant once read a publicity-oriented Life magazine article that bestowed upon Lewton the title, ‘Sultan of Shudders.’  I wonder if the publicity actually hurt Lewton’s standing with the new regime at RKO. ‘B’ unit ’employees’ were likely expected to remain invisible, to earn safe money, and not make the studio’s hierarchy look upside-down.

Scream Factory’s Blu-ray of The Body Snatcher knocks us out. When inquiring about the beat-up, dupe-y status of some RKO pictures, I was once told that the extremely popular The Body Snatcher had been printed to death through several reissues, and that good elements no longer existed. In 1977 a Ron Haver-curated RKO season at the Los Angeles County Museum of art paired The Body Snatcher with Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past. The marvelous film noir looked amazing — a flawless NITRATE PRINT — but all they had for Snatcher was a beat-up 16mm copy. The 2005 DVD from Warners was no beauty either.

So suddenly we’re confronted with a ‘4K scan from the Original Camera Negative.’ They always say that, but my contacts tell me that OCN is so carefully protected that actual scans are usually taken from a dupe master. Maybe policies for older movies have changed?  The important part is that The Body Snatcher now looks very, very good. The image behind the main title was once a dark blur, but now we can tell that it is artwork of Edinburgh Castle. There are no scratches or breaks to speak of, the image is stable and clear, the contrast is rich and the focus is sharp. We can see every stubble hair in Karloff’s gnarly unshaved face. The famous shot of the coach disappearing under the dark archway is no longer a dirt storm of white speckles. The video looks almost as good as the excellent stills we see for this vintage title. The ultra-clear soundtrack also deserves applause — no more hiss under the street singer’s song, or pops and scratches.

Was a near-perfect negative there in the vaults all the time?  Either this is a major find that should have been reported on the same level as The Sea Wolf or Mutiny on the Bounty, or we should be anticipating that other RKO greats, like the Astaire-Rogers pictures, will be given the full 4K scan treatment as well. (I realize that Swing Time is already on the way from Criterion.)

The final coach ride scene once looked dark in some prints, but is fine here. As with the selective blurring and exposure-shifting used judiciously in Cat People and Howard Hawks’ The Thing, Linwood Dunn’s optical geniuses enhanced the ‘surprise passenger’ shots by grossly overexposing certain parts of the frame (you’ll know what I mean). On my monitor they almost look TOO bright, but they now carry a real kick.

Licensing the Lewton pictures to Scream Factory gives us a slightly fancier presentation. This time around most of the extras came from Warners’ older DVD. I believe the fine commentary is taken from a very old Image laserdisc. Robert Wise talks about his career and the Lewton experience, and Steve Haberman is also heard on the track. The lengthy documentary The Val Lewton Legacy comes from the old DVD set as well. It pulls in many spokespeople and uses the ‘don’t let any one person recite a full thought’ editorial technique. But the speakers are well chosen: Val Lewton, Jr., Sara Karloff and the directors George Romero, Joe Dante, John Landis, William Friedkin, and Robert Wise.

Another reissue trailer is included. A new featurette You’ll Never Get Rid of Me: Resurrecting The Body Snatcher is not about the restoration (too bad) but is a somewhat redundant appreciation piece hosted by author-authority Gregory Mank. Don’t see it first because it’s at least 40% clips from the film. Fans may eat it up but for me it has too much repetitive praise for Karloff and Lugosi. (Greg has a new book out, about the life of actor Colin Clive.)

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The Body Snatcher
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Commentary by Robert Wise with Steve Haberman; appreciation featurette by Gregory Mank; long-form docu The Lewton Legacy, Still Gallery, Trailer.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: March 19, 2019
(5961body)

Visit CineSavant’s Main Column Page
Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: cinesavant@gmail.com

Text © Copyright 2019 Glenn Erickson