The Doctor and the Devils (1985)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Freddie Francis

Writers:

Dylan Thomas (earlier screenplay)
Ronald Harwood (writer)

Release Date:

4 October 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Drama

Plot:

Grave robbers supply a doctor with bodies to test on. |

Plot Keywords:

Grave Robber | Doctor | Mental Illness | Corps | England

Cast

Timothy Dalton	...	Doctor Thomas Rock
Jonathan Pryce	...	Robert Fallon
Twiggy	...	Jennie Bailey
Julian Sands	...	Dr. Murray
Stephen Rea	...	Timothy Broom
Phyllis Logan	...	Elizabeth Rock
Lewis Fiander	...	Dr. Thornton
Beryl Reid	...	Mrs. Flynn
T.P. McKenna	...	O'Connor
Patrick Stewart	...	Prof. Macklin
Siân Phillips	...	Annabella Rock
Philip Davis	...	Billy Bedlam
Philip Jackson	...	Andrew Merry-Lees
Danny Schiller	...	Praying Howard
Bruce Green	...	Mole

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (cut) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Lee International Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Brooksfilms

Trivia:

Last cinema film of Jack May.

Quotes:

Doctor Thomas Rock: I don't need any friends, I prefer enemies. They're better company and their feelings towards you are always genuine.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Greed of William Hart (1948)

Soundtrack:

WHISPER AND I SHALL HEAR

well done and fairly disturbing

If you were poor, and had a chance to make a few bucks off your fellow man by selling corpses to a rich doctor for experiments, would you do it? Nope, me neither, but it sure seemed like a good idea to these two guys in this movie. Set in the 1800's, the idea is that this doctor needs corpses on which to experiment to further science and medicine, and these two guys (a variation on Burke & Hare) get the idea that digging up fresh corpses from graveyards is icky so why not just take them freshly killed street trash? They get paid and no one really questions it, at least not right away. Timothy Dalton, pre-Bond, plays the good doctor but his role is rather minimal, actually. The worst of the money-grubbing types is Jonathan Pryce, who made "Brazil" around the same time and therefore proves he has tremendous acting range. And Twiggy plays a whore, and does it quite well actually (I mean, considering that she was a model, not that she has true-to-life experience). Most disturbing is the sequence in which the two ghouls get an old woman drunk to rob her and kill her and use her body, there's obviously no lines drawn for their choice of victims. A pretty good movie, just about right in every way. 8 out of 10.