Dr. Rock is a brilliant and principled physician and lecturer. He instructs in anatomy at the local University, where he engages young minds and is immensely popular with his students. As the field of medicine grows in stature, his classes are packed with eager neophytes. He has a problem, though. To teach surgery, as well as to further his own research, he requires cadavers — lots of cadavers. Such commodities are in short supply, limited to what the hangman can provide.
Word on the street is, Dr. Rock will pay good money for dead bodies.
Lured by the promise of easy money, it’s not difficult for destitute and desperate men to turn to grave-robbing to line their pockets. It’s rough going, though. As graves are exhumed, even this supply dwindles. Rotten and withered corpses are no good for the march of scientific progress; fresh bodies are required!
Enter Robert Fallon (Jonathan Pryce) and Timothy Broom (Stephen Rea), a pair of bumbling opportunists who try their hand at providing cadavers for the good doctor. Running into the problem of a lack of fresh graves to pilfer, they get creative. They get… downright entrepreneurial. What do you do when you can find something you need? You make your own.
Fallon and Broom soon turn to murder, targeting folks who won’t be missed and killing by asphyxiation so as not to leave any incriminating markings upon the bodies.
The three leads are quite extraordinary to watch; the casting is a big part of what interested me in the film in the first place. Each is not only brilliantly acted, but indicative of a different manner of evil. Jonathan Pryce is cackling maniac, his loud, sing-songy dialogue sometimes reaching Bobcat Goldthwait levels of weird exuberance (his very different and far better known role in Brazil debuted just a couple months later). His Fallon is the most bloodthirsty, killing not only for profit but for the pleasure as well. Broom, on the other hand, is the more passive partner but weak-willed and easily coerced to cooperate along with Fallon’s evil designs. Dr. Rock similarly looks the other way, even when he suspects that the pair may be murdering to provide bodies, but he never asks, as if to wash his hands of any wrong-doing. His great sin, though is probably his hubris. He continues to seek illegal cadavers and employ the services of Fallon and Broom, despite many warnings and arguments from other the other instructors at his University, including Professor Macklin (Patrick Stewart).
Rock defiantly tries to justify his role in the situation as a position of innocence, and even when presented with evidence of Fallon and Broom’s crimes, he brushes off such concerns. To him, the quest for knowledge and advancement of science and learning is a greater good that justifies lesser evils. Of what importance are a few lives weighed against the saving of many lives through medical research and raising up a new generation of doctors? It’s not just for show, either. Dr. Rock, a very complex character, cares deeply for the poor and passionately applies himself to his work and a burning desire to right society’s ills. When a clearly destitute woman insists on giving him a gift in thanks for saving her brother’s mangled leg, he eventually acquiesces and quietly remarks in awe of her sacrifice, “Aren’t people extraordinary?”
The Doctor And The Devils, despite its Scream Factory release and macabre subject matter, is not so much a horror film as a morality drama. Watching the film, it’s immediately apparent that this story bears a lot of similarity to the historical account of the killers Burke and Hare, whose tale has been adapted into several films over the years. This theory is quickly verified in the the Blu-ray’s commentary and on-disc interview. Despite the change in names, it is not only inspired by those incidents but a direct and fairly accurate retelling of them.
The Doctor And The Devils is also noteworthy for the creative talents behind the scenes. The film was based on a decades-old script by deceased writer Dylan Thomas, and directed by Freddie Francis, helmer of several Hammer Films, and with this old fashioned duo fits right into the Gothic horror aesthetic for which Hammer was well known. Mel Brooks produced the picture under his Brooksfilms banner, where it is accompanied by his other elegantly dark, dramatic productions including Lynch’s The Elephant Man and Cronenberg’s The Fly.
THE PACKAGE
The Doctor And The Devils arrives on Blu-Ray in a new edition from Scream Factory. Unlike most Scream Factory titles, it has neither a slipcase nor reversible cover. Subtitles are included on the disc, which may help with some of the strong cockney accents. The film is rated R.
Special Features and Extras
Interview With Executive Producer Mel Brooks, Producers Jonathan Sanger and Randy Auerback (15:42)
The production discusses how the film was conceptualized and created, and also contextualizes its relation to the historical Burke & Hare.
Commentary With Author Steve Haberman (15:42)
Steve Haberman is a film historian and oft Mel Brooks writing collaborator. This commentary is more much interested in the Dylan Thomas script and the historical Burke & Hare than the actual film.
Theatrical Trailer (1:32)
With a stellar cast and a thoughtful spin on a familiar historical story, The Doctor And The Devils is an easy recommend for anyone given to take an interest in the subject matter.
A/V Out.
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