''The Greed of William Hart'' is a 1948 British horror film directed by

Oswald Mitchell Oswald Albert Mitchell (1890 - April 27, 1949) was a British film director who directed several of the Old Mother Riley series of films.

Tod Slaughter Norman Carter Slaughter (19 March 1885 – 19 February 1956), also known as Tod Slaughter, was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas. Early life Slaughter was born o ...

Henry Oscar Henry Wale (14 July 1891 – 28 December 1969), known professionally as Henry Oscar, was an English stage and film actor. He changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Dram ...

Aubrey Woods Aubrey Harold Woods (9 April 1928 – 7 May 2013) was an English actor. Biography and career Woods was born on 9 April 1928 in Edmonton, Middlesex and grew up in nearby Palmers Green. He was educated at the Latymer School. His first film ...

, Patrick Addison, Jenny Lynn (star Tod Slaughter's real life wife), Winifred Melville and Arnold Bell. The film depicts two

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

bodysnatchers closely modeled on the real

Burke and Hare The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection ...

Plot

In 1828

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, 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 Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

lectures and demonstrations. When a young woman, Mary Patterson, goes missing, recently qualified medic Hugh Alston (Patrick Addison), just returned from his first voyage as a ship's doctor, 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

– William Hart *

– Mr Moore * Jenny Lynn – Helen Moore * Winifred Melville – Meg Hart *

– 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 Dennis Wyndham (15 January 1887 – 19 August 1973) was a South African born stage and film actor. Long based in Britain, he appeared in more than 40 films between 1920 and 1956. He was born in Natal, South Africa. On 23 May 1917, he marrie ...

– 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 The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national clas ...

, 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 John Gilling (29 May 1912 – 22 November 1984) was an English film director and screenwriter, born in London. He was known for his horror movies, especially those he made for Hammer Films, for whom he directed ''The Shadow of the Cat'' (1961) ...

would go on to script another version of the same story in 1960, titled ''

The Flesh and the Fiends ''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 Bu ...

''. 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''.

References

Bibliography

* Richards, Jeffrey (ed.) ''The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema, 1929-1939''. I.B. Tauris, 1998.

External links

* 1948 films 1948 crime films British serial killer films Films directed by Oswald Mitchell Biographical films about serial killers Films set in the 1820s Films set in Edinburgh British black-and-white films Bushey Studios films Cultural depictions of William Burke and Hare British crime films 1940s serial killer films 1940s English-language films 1940s British films {{1940s-crime-film-stub