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The Greed of William Hart
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Wikipedia article
'The Greed of William Hart' is a 1948 British horror film directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Tod Slaughter, Henry Oscar, Aubrey Woods, Patrick Addison, Jenny Lynn, Winifred Melville and Arnold Bell. The film depicts two Edinburgh bodysnatchers closely modeled on the real Burke and Hare.
Plot
In 1828 Edinburgh, Scotland, two Irish immigrants, Mr. Hart (Tod Slaughter) and Mr. Moore (Henry Oscar), take up murdering the locals and selling their bodies to the local medical school, which needs fresh bodies for anatomy lectures and demonstrations. When a young woman, Mary Patterson, goes missing, medical student Hugh Alston (Patrick Addison) is alerted by Daft Jamie and Janet that Mary has been taken by a man to Gibb's Close. Jamie says the resurrectionists live there.
Alston suspects the Hart and Moore are involved in foul play, but the arrogant, amoral Dr. Cox (Arnold Bell) the main buyer for the bodies attempts to hinder his investigation. Meanwhile, the murderous duo set their sights on eccentric local boy "Daft Jamie" (Aubrey Woods) and an old woman.
Cast
* Tod Slaughter William Hart
* Henry Oscar Mr Moore
* Jenny Lynn Helen Moore
* Winifred Melville Meg Hart
* Aubrey Woods Daft Jamie Wilson
* Patrick Addison Hugh Alston
* Arnold Bell Dr. Cox
* Mary Love Mary Patterson
* Ann Trego Janet Brown
* Edward Malin David Patterson
* Hubert Woodward Innkeeper Swanson
* Dennis Wyndham Sergeant Fisher
NB: Although playing Henry Oscar's character's wife in this film, in real life Jenny Lynn was married to Tod Slaughter.
Production
The film was originally made as a fairly direct historical adaptation of the Burke and Hare murders. The British Board of Film Censors, however, insisted that all references to the real-life murderers be removed. The film was then re-titled and re-dubbed with different character names, substituting "Hart" and "Moore" for Hare and Burke, respectively, and "Dr. Cox" for Dr. Knox. All other names, including victims Mary Patterson, Mrs. Docherty, and "Daft Jamie" Wilson, remain unchanged.
Writer John Gilling would go on to script another version of the same story in 1960, titled 'The Flesh and the Fiends'. This version used the correct names for the killers.
The film was made at Bushey Studios.
Distribution
The film was distributed in the United States by J.H. Hoffberg Productions in 1953, slightly edited, as 'Horror Maniacs'.
See also
* 'The Flesh and the Fiends' (1960)
* 'Burke & Hare' (1971)
* 'The Doctor and the Devils' (1985)
* 'Burke & Hare' (Comedy, 2010)
References
Bibliography
* Richards, Jeffrey (ed.) 'The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema, 1929-1939'. I.B. Tauris, 1998.
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