Once again, I am catching up with a Val Lewton production I had not previously seen. This year it's 1945's The Body Snatcher starring Boris Karloff, one of three pictures Karloff made with Lewton. (The other two are Bedlam and Isle of the Dead.)
It's clear Boris Karloff has a lot of fun in his role as John Gray, the blackmailing body snatcher. He's always got a sly smile on his face, which works particularly well next to the perpetually scowly Henry Daniell as Dr. MacFarlane, the recipient of Gray's grave robbing. Bela Lugosi also has a small part as a lab assistant, and this would mark the final time Karloff and Lugosi appeared in a film together.
This was also the second film Robert Wise directed for Lewton, after he successfully replaced the fired first director of Curse of the Cat People. This movie isn't as good as that one, or some of Lewton's bigger hits, but it's still fun, with an ending that's completely silly, but also kind of perfect.
I watched The Body Snatcher on TCM.
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