The Flesh and the Fiends

A somewhat rickety old chiller (to the backdoor of Dr Knox's Edinburgh medical academy come the 'Resurrectionists') not helped by the stiff second leads, Laverick and Walsh, but much enlivened by the black-comic caperings of Pleasence (Ulster accent and rolling eyes) and Rose (a very simple-minded killer) as the body-snatchers Hare and Burke. The film, written by John Gilling and Leon Griffiths, is notably cold-hearted when it comes to the off-hand murders, young 'Daft' Jamie (Hayes), for instance, being strangled in a pig pen, amid the squealing of the porkers. Incidental pleasures include Billie Whitelaw, as a noisy trollop, and Renee Houston, as Mrs Burke, a most businesslike murderess.