The Doctor and the Devils * (1985, Timothy Dalton, Jonathan Pryce, Twiggy) – Classic Movie Review 8777

Director Freddie Francis’s 1985 British horror movie The Doctor and the Devils is a disappointing sub-Hammer Films-style tale, based on the exploits of the infamous Edinburgh grave-robbers Burke and Hare.

It is interesting as an a revamping of an unfilmed 1940 screenplay by Dylan Thomas, in which an eminent Victorian surgeon, Dr Thomas Rock (Timothy Dalton), is supplied with fresh corpses by a couple of crooks, Robert Fallon (Jonathan Pryce) and Timothy Broom (Stephen Rea).

But, alas, the notable British cast is largely lost among the grimy studio sets, contrived screenplay by Ronald Harwood, adapting Dylan Thomas’s earlier screenplay, stodgy dialogue and silly stock characters.

One-time Hammer director Francis (who as cinematographer memorably photographed Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear) fails to revive the spirit of British Grand Guignol.

It is made by Brooksfilms, for whom Francis was cinematographer on The Elephant Man (1980)

Francis (1917–2007) is a two-time Oscar winner for Sons and Lovers (1960) and Glory (1989). Astoundingly, he never won a BAFTA Film Award.

It holds the record for the longest delay between the completion of the screenplay and the making of the movie: 32 years.

It was made at Lee International Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8777

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