Description

Director: Vernon Sewell, 1972

PLEASE NOTE: This is an NTSC (USA/JAPAN format) Region 1 DVD

Two of the most notorious figures in the history of medicine, William Burke and William Hare were a pair of enterprising street thugs who provided anatomical specimens to the Edinburgh Medical College – often by robbing the graves of the recently dead, sometimes through even more nefarious methods.

Derren Nesbitt and Glynn Edwards bring these two scoundrels to life in Burke & Hare, a colourful, early 1970s rendition of life in the taverns, brothels, and surgical theatres of 1820s Scotland. While other filmmakers have treated the Burke and Hare murders as a source of gothic horror, director Vernon Sewell (The Blood Beast Terror) offers a playful spin on the Irish body snatchers, blending dark comedy with bawdy eroticism, seasoning it with the grotesque, then crowning it with a playful theme song by the pop band The Scaffold.

Special features:

Mastered in HD from the 35mm negative

Grave Desires: Corpses on Film, an interview with Dr. Patricia MacCormack

* Interview with actress Françoise Pascal

Original trailer

Film details:

UK 1972 Colour 94 min 1.66:1 Mono

Directed by Vernon Sewell

Produced by Guido Coen

Screenplay by Einle Bradford

Director of Photography: Desmon Dickinson

Music by Roger Webb

With Darren Nesbitt, Glynn Edwards, Harry Andrews,Françoise Pascal, Yutte Stensgaard

NOTE: This title does not ship to the UK