Burke & Hare (1972 film)
1971 horror film directed by Vernon Sewell
Burke & Hare (also known as Burke and Hare, The Horrors of Burke and Hare and The Body Snatchers) is a 1972 British horror film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derren Nesbitt, Harry Andrews, and Glynn Edwards. It is based on the true story of the Burke and Hare murders, and was the last film to be directed by Sewell.
Plot
In Edinburgh, in 1828, there are two sides to society: men living in dirty hovels and grave robbing to make a living; and rich men going to the brothels. Meanwhile, the doctors dine together and drink wine. Surgeon Dr Robert Knox needs bodies for dissection to satisfy the training needs of his medical students. As only hanging victims may be used, bodies are in short supply. In order to serve the greater good of medical science he employs grave-robbers Burke and Hare to supply fresh corpses for his anatomical lectures at the medical academy. The authorities turn a blind eye knowing that stemming the crime would lessen the medical training.The pair of "resurrectionists" are paid £7 10s for their first body – a truly large sum at that time.
The students in the anatomy theatre appreciate Knox's lectures and demonstrations. However, when graveyard supplies run low, the industrious pair turn to murder to keep the business going and simply claim to have robbed the bodies.
“Burke & Hare (1972 film)” enters the record as 1971 horror film directed by Vernon Sewell. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Burke, Hare and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4101604. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 1828.
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