Cinema of Stuff Presents....The Flesh and the Fiends!

 

This film from 1960 is all about something that happened around 18 miles from where I'm sitting right now...sure, it happened long before I was born, but I've walked the same streets that many of the real life characters in this movie would have walked before me!

For this is the tale of three notorious men, who around about 196 years ago, decided that rather than leaving newly dead folks to go to waste underground, they would use them to line their pockets and advance medicine at the same time! 

Yes, the dubious Dr. Knox, and body snatching Burke and Hare were all very real people, and are well known to anybody with an interest in the spookier side of Auld Reekie! If however, you have no idea what I'm talking about, then this film should enlighten you.....

Starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Knox, Donald Pleasance as Wiliam Hare, George Rose as William Burke and Melvyn Hayes as Daft Jamie, the film seems to have been released to mixed reception, but it has gained a bit of a cult following in recent years.....but of course, now we can make up our own minds on whether or not its any good! 

* *Also just a heads-up to be aware that this film has some nudity in it, so might not be suitable to watch in some spaces!**

---------------------------------

There is heavy use of artistic licence in the film, so here's a few facts to clear things up a bit...

Whether or not Dr. Knox was actually aware that the corpses he was purchasing had been freshly murdered is still up for debate, but after the scandal and capture of Burke and Hare and their wives, his reputation was certainly in tatters. This caricature below from the time of the trial, shows Dr. Knox harvesting new bodies....

He resigned from his position as curator of the College of Surgeons museum, and was gradually excluded from university life by his peers. Later after moving to London, he was debarred from lecturing by the Royal College of Surgeons and ended his days working in a cancer hospital. 

The real Dr. Knox

Daft Jamie was not the last victim, and although one of Knox's assistants did think they recognised the corpse of Mary Paterson, there was no news of any relatonships..

Both Burke and Hare were married, and both their wives also faced prosecution, but were delivered a not guilty verdict, as was Hare....

Hare was actually protected after being cleared of the murders, and not blinded in an alley, and would eventually disappear into obscurity. Burke on the other hand was hanged, and his 

skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School where it still remains to this day. His death mask and a book said to be bound with his tanned skin is on display at Surgeons' Hall Museum, and can be seen by visitors to said museum...

Burke's Skeleton

 After the murders, a new poem started circulating the streets of Edinburgh....

"Up the close and doon the stair,

But and ben wi' Burke and Hare.

Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,

Knox the boy that buys the beef."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be sure to go and check out the Countdown Hub by clicking the badge below, and you can hopefully find something a bit less grim to lighten the mood.....