The Greed of William Hart
| The Greed of William Hart | |
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Theatrical Poster
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| Directed by | Oswald Mitchell |
| Produced by | Gilbert Church |
| Written by | John Gilling |
| Starring |
Tod Slaughter Henry Oscar Jenny Lynn Aubrey Woods |
| Cinematography |
D.P. Cooper S.D. Onions |
| Edited by | John F. House |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Ambassador Film Productions |
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Release date
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Greed of William Hart is a 1948 British crime 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.
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 goes missing, medical student Hugh Alston (Patrick Addison) suspects the two 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.
NB: Although playing Henry Oscar's character's wife in this film, in real life Jenny Lynn was married to Tod Slaughter.
The film was originally made as a fairly direct historical adaptation of the Burke and Hare murders.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.
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