Der Arzt und die Teufel

I'll leave it up to others to debate whether 'Mania' (a.k.a. 'The Flesh and the Fiends') is technically a horror movie. While dealing with horrific events, and told in a fashion with plenty of creepy moments, I would still say it isn't horror myself. Whatever you classify it as it is a seriously underrated thriller with strong performances from an above average cast. Director John Gilling went on to make the Hammer classic 'The Plague Of Zombies' later in the 1960s, and stars Peter Cushing ('Twins Of Evil') and Donald Pleasence ('Halloween') both made a strong impact on the horror genre, so fans will be interested to see this for those reasons alone. Cushing is excellent as the stubborn and driven Dr. Knox who needs a steady supply of corpses to dissect, and Pleasence plays the slimy William Hare, who along with his equally creepy colleague William Burke (George Rose), gleefully fills that need. The only problem is that Burke and Hare have no qualms about where the corpses come from, or whether they need a little "help" along the way. Burke and Hare were real body snatchers, but I have no idea just how historically accurate the events depicted in this movie are. But it certainly is entertaining and worth watching for the terrific performances by Cushing, Pleasence and Rose, and also for Billie Whitelaw ('The Omen') who has a small but important supporting role as the love interest for one of Dr. Knox's medical students (John Cairney - 'Jason And The Argonauts').

(aka: MANIA)

This is sort of a variation of the Val Lewton film, THE BODY SNATCHER (1945) starring Boris Karloff with the original story written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

This version is quite good (although I still prefer the earlier film) with an effectively creepy atmosphere that has the look of a Hammer flick, even though Hammer Studios didn't participate in this one.

Peter Cushing plays a medical professor who employs grave robbers (Donald Pleasance and George Rose) in order to steal freshly buried corpses for his medical anatomy classes. The robbers get greedy for more money so they start killing people in order to supply more fresh corpses. At first it's done without the doctor's knowledge, but then when some evidence turns up casting doubt upon the whole affair, he turns a blind eye about it and doesn't seem to care.

We all know justice prevails in the end although I thought the last minute of the film where Cushing restores faith in his students, looked a little too down-pat to me. But only the lower classes suffer the consequences while the upper class gets off scot-free, right?

The Image DVD has both the censored UK version and the Continental version that contains scenes of barmaids with their tops slipping down exposing their breasts. You can also tell because the quality of these deleted scenes is grainer that the film as a whole. I guess they needed something racier for the continental audiences to watch, although Billie Whitelaw gets to keep her top on. Bummer.

The widescreen b/w print is in fair condition with some bad splices and flaking in some scenes, but it's a vast improvement over the old Sinister Cinema VHS tape that was floating around a few years back. Other extras include posters and stills.

6 out of 10

Now that this film has been restored for DVD by Image Entertainment, it is a joy to watch -- nice but not flashy photography and directing, and masterful but not overbearing acting make this a good find. But it's not quite as satisfying as "The Body Snatcher" on the same Burke/Hare theme because it doesn't engage the dark undertones of the human psyche through its sadistic "graverobbers" as much as the Karloff film, but instead dwells more on the scientific ethics issues. Still, some sick, slightly scary scenes with Pleasence. Cushing is excellent as always. If you saw this on video or TV, you might want to give it a second look (like I did) on DVD because it looks a whole lot better.

John Gilling's (The Mummy's Shroud) film is listed as a horror film, but it is really an exciting thriller about an anatomy teacher (Peter Cushing) and grave-robbers (Donald Pleasence - Halloween, Dracula, & George Rose).

Billie Whitelaw (Hott Fuzz, The Omen), with two BAFTA wins and four more nominations, plays a prostitute that falls for one of the medical students (John Cairney).

The grave-robbers find that it is easier just to kill someone and sell them, than to dig them up. It wasn't long before Mary (Whitelaw) had a spat with Chris (Cairney) and fell into the clutches of the murderers.

Imagine Chris' surprise when she shows up on the slab in class the next day.

Soon, the grave-robbers were committing murders to cover up their murders.

Excellent performances by Pleasence, who got what he deserved in a weird sense, Cushing, and Dermot Walsh, as Cushing's assistant. A fascinating story that is supposedly based upon a true event.

Solid, well-crafted but rather patchy cinematic treatment of the saga of notorious 19th Century "Resurrectionists" Burke and Hare and their unorthodox employer Dr. Robert Knox; in the vein of Hammer horror (featuring two of their most notable participants in Cushing and Gilling) though the lack of color makes it seem a half-hearted attempt (even if, with an eye on the low-budget, it was probably a conscious choice by the film-makers as the intentions were clearly of a serious undertaking)!

Anyway, the best thing about the film - apart from the vivid recreation of the era - are the performances of Peter Cushing (as the cold Dr. Knox, not unlike Baron Frankenstein), Donald Pleasance (an impressive early performance as the oily but quick-thinking Hare - his come-uppance is especially eerie) and Billie Whitelaw (as the proverbial "tart with a heart of gold" who ends up as one of the victims); Burke is played as a scurrilous but jovial brute (but who murders with the apparent complicity of his own wife) by character actor George Rose. Dr. Knox's condescending attitude towards his fellow colleagues also provides a number of entertaining confrontation scenes (my favorite line is during their face-off at his house, when he brusquely terminates the discussion by instructing them to "incline their heads slightly to the left...{in order to} observe the door...{and could they} please use it!"); Cushing, of course, is equally commanding while addressing his lectures or when scrutinizing the newest corpse.

The film makes a fine, though essentially unpleasant, companion piece to the more literate and subtle THE BODY SNATCHER (1945); the theme was again handled (by another horror veteran, Freddie Francis) a quarter of a century later in THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS (1985) - while Gilling himself had contributed to the script of an earlier variation, THE GREED OF WILLIAM HART (1948), starring Tod Slaughter! By the way, the producing team of Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman (who doubled as cinematographer) also brought to the screen the nefarious deeds of other historical figures such as JACK THE RIPPER (1959) and THE HELLFIRE CLUB (1961; upcoming on DVD from Dark Sky Films).

Image's DVD also includes the "Continental Version" which contains about a minute of more explicit violence and nudity (in the many tavern sequences) - though this only helps render it even more unsavory than it already is! The prints are distractingly soft throughout, and the severe widescreen ratio (2.35:1) hampers somewhat the viewer's complete involvement (at least on a normal T.V. screen); the "Continental Version" fares even worse, showing more damage and having rather scratched audio to boot! Unfortunately, the liner notes by Jonathan Sothcott were not available with my copy: it's probable that the disc was initially released as a snapper-case (with the essay on the inner sleeve) but was then dropped when re-issued in the more manageable keep-case!