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The Body Snatcher (1945) – Episode 66 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“You’ll never get rid of me, Toddy.” Somehow, when Boris Karloff says this line, you believe him. Join this episode’s Grue Crew – Whitney Collazo, Chad Hunt, and Jeff Mohr – as they try to keep from getting snatched and “Burked” in The Body Snatcher (1945), an RKO Val Lewton production featuring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in their last of eight collaborations.

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era
Episode 66 – The Body Snatcher (1945)

A ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.

– IMDb

Your loyal Grue-Crew can’t gush enough over The Body Snatcher and considering the cast and crew, it’s easy to see why! This one is Whitney’s pick and she gives her customary, insightful point-of-view into the motivations of the story’s characters. According to Chad, Karloff gives what might be his best performance and even though Lugosi’s part is small, his character and one pivotal scene with Karloff are critical to the film’s success. Jeff reveals his growing fan-boy crush on all things Lewton and wallows in cast-related and historical trivia as usual. This time he’s even talking about Bill Williams and Robert Clarke.

As a whole, the Classic Era Grue-Crew love the look and feel of The Body Snatcher and give it the highest recommendation!

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era is part of the Decades of Horror 3-week rotation with the 1970s and 1980s. In three weeks, the next episode in their very flexible schedule will be The Black Cat (1934), from Universal, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and again starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, this time in their first of eight screen collaborations. 

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Jeff Mohr
Jeff lives smack dab in the middle of the cornfields of Iowa and is a long-time horror fan. His first remembered encounters with the genre were The Wizard of Oz, Tarzan gorilla chases, and watching the first broadcast of The Twilight Zone episode, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." While he now qualifies as an old fart, he strives to be an Old Boy. Paraphrasing Robert Bloch, he has the heart of a small boy. He keeps it in a jar on his desk. Jeff has written for Horrornews.net and SQ Horror Magazine. He currently writes for Gruesome Magazine and is a co-host of the Decades of Horror podcasts - The Classic Era, 1970s, and 1980s - and the Gruesome Magazine Podcast.