The Flesh and the Fiends
| The Flesh and the Fiends | |
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A poster bearing the film's American title: Mania
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| Directed by | John Gilling |
| Produced by |
Robert S. Baker Monty Berman |
| Written by | John Gilling (story and screenplay) Leon Griffiths (screenplay) |
| Starring |
Peter Cushing June Laverick Donald Pleasence George Rose |
| Music by | Stanley Black |
| Cinematography | Monty Berman |
| Edited by | Jack Slade |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Regal Film Distributors (UK) Valiant (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes (UK and USA theatrical version) 95 minutes (Continental version) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | approximately £55,000 |
The Flesh and the Fiends (US title Mania) is a 1960 British horror film directed by John Gilling. It stars Peter Cushing as 19th-century medical doctor Robert Knox, who purchases human corpses for research from a murderous pair named Burke and Hare (George Rose and Donald Pleasence). The film is based on the true case of Burke and Hare, who murdered at least 16 people in 1828 Edinburgh, Scotland and sold their bodies for anatomical research.
In 1828 Edinburgh, Scotland, Dr. Knox (Peter Cushing) is a highly skilled anatomist who draws large crowds of medical students to his lectures on the human body. Though he is constantly at odds with his stuffy, backwards colleagues, he is highly venerated by his students and believes his duty is to push the medical profession forward. Unfortunately, due to the laws of the time very few cadavers are legally available to the medical profession, necessitating the use of graverobbers or "Resurrection men" to procure additional specimens. Dr. Knox's assistant Dr. Mitchell (Dermot Walsh) and a young student named Jackson (John Cairney) and are given the task of buying the bodies, which are worth a small fortune... especially when fresh.
Meanwhile, drunken miscreants William Burke (George Rose) and William Hare (Donald Pleasence) discover that a lodger at Burke's boarding house has died still owing £4 in rent. When they find that the body can make them a handsome profit, they begin a career of murdering locals and selling them to the medical school. When Jackson goes to a local tavern to give Burke and Hare their pay, he becomes involved with tempestuous local prostitute Mary Patterson (Billie Whitelaw), who is also well-known to the killers.
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Wikipedia