The Greed of William Hart

Now whilst this not on a par with Val Lewtons The Bodysnatchers,it has a lot going for it,despite the pennypinching production.Of course Todd Slaughter is the chief attraction.Enjoyable ham cut from the bone.

Atmospherically lit but studio-bound and talky. Having made several Old Mother Riley films with Arthur Lucan, Tod Slaughter must by comparison have seemed to director Oswald Mitchell like a Method actor; and although he cackles diabolically a couple of times his performance actually seems rather subdued set beside his thirties villains and Robert Newton's Bill Sykes the same year.

Aubrey Woods as poor 'Daft Jamie' came fresh from playing Smike the previous year in Cavalcanti's 'Nicholas Nickleby'; while it would be another twenty years before Eddie Malin became a familiar face on TV as Walter Tattersall in 'Nearest and Dearest'.

HORROR MANIACS (aka: THE GREED OF WILLIAM HART) is a very-thinly veiled version of the Burke and Hare story. None other than Tod Slaughter plays the exceedingly loathsome Hart (aka: Burke), and Henry Oscar is the equally odious Moore (aka: Hare). It's the same basic setup about murder and graverobbing for fun and profit. Hart and Moore are in the employ of the fiendish Dr. Cox / Knox (Arnold Bell), who benefits from the deadly duos nocturnal work.

This is another perfect vehicle for Mr. Slaughter, who never disapoints. His gleefully eeevil portrayals are legendary. Here, he's almost matched by his two demonic costars. Almost, since Mr. Slaughter still manages to outdo his fellow ghouls.

Another classic Tod Slaughter film...

In an attempt to clean up the soundtrack, which is rather scratchy and noisy, a digital audio remastering was done. The problem with this remastering is that between every line of dialog (where the background soundtrack noise would be audible) has now been reduced to absolute silence. The effect is jarring when you watch the movie as the dialog appears to start and stop. It is bad enough when listening via regular TV speakers but when run through an amplified system it becomes unnerving. Additionally, when there is background music in these segments between dialogue the music sounds incredibly muted. The same problem exists on Alpha Video's companion DVD "Sweeney Tood" so beware. These movies are 70+ years old and some leniency must be allowed when viewing these old prints. In this case, those who transfer these items to digital should have left well enough alone.

Greed of William Hart, The (1948)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Tod Slaughter, Britain's biggest horror star, makes one of his final appearances in this film also known as Horror Maniacs. The history behind the film is actually a lot more interesting than the film itself. This was originally called The Crimes of Burke and Hare with those two names used in the film. However, the British censors objected and a relative of Hare threatened to sue so they had to dub the names, which cost so much money that the producer's couldn't afford a music score. As for the film, it's a pretty dull take on the Burke and Hare story with Slaughter very dry up until the end when he goes so over the top that you can't help but laugh. Clearly this was meant to challenge The Body Snatcher but doesn't come close.