The Doctor and the Devils

1985

Action / Crime / Drama / History / Horror

12
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 39% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 1382 1.4K

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Plot summary

In Victorian England, two grave robbers supply a wealthy doctor with bodies to research anatomy on, but greed causes them to look for a more simple way to get the job done.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 30, 2016 at 09:07 PM

Top cast

Julian Sands as Dr. Murray
Timothy Dalton as Doctor Thomas Rock
Patrick Stewart as Prof. Macklin
Simon Shepherd as Harding
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
663.75 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 2
1.39 GB
1920*816
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by claudio_carvalho 7 / 10

Stylish Drama

In the Nineteenth Century, the renowned professor of anatomy Dr. Thomas Rock (Timothy Dalton) gives classes to neophyte medicine students in the local university. Dr. Rock uses his assistant Dr. Murray (Julian Sands) to buy corpses for his experiments from body snatchers paying a little fortune for the cadavers. When the alcoholic scum Robert Fallon (Jonathan Pryce) and Timothy Broom (Stephen Rea) overhear the conversation of grave-robbers about Dr. Rock, they decide to supply fresher corpses that worth more to the doctor, killing the poor inhabitants. Dr. Murray has unrequited feelings for the cockney whore Jennie Bailey (Twiggy) that usually hangs around with the also prostitute Alice (Nichola McAuliffe). When Dr. Murray discovers that Fallon has just sold the corpse of Alice, he seeks out the worthless Fallon and Broom to stop them from murdering Jennie. Will he arrive in time o save Jennie?

"The Doctor and the Devils" is a stylish drama, but not a horror movie. The costumes, sets and art direction are amazing, with a great reconstitution of the period with muddy streets and dirty people. The excellent cast has great performances, with great names of the British cinema and the story is also good. Unfortunately the screenplay is not good and does not offer the adequate pace for this film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Reviewed by BA_Harrison 6 / 10

Cushing and Pleasence did it better.

The Doctor and The Devils is, ostensibly, a remake of the The Flesh and The Fiends (1960), which told of the nefarious true-life activities of infamous bodysnatchers and murderers Burke and Hare in the year 1828. In this telling of the story, the names have been changed, but the crimes remain the same: realising that good money can be made from supplying fresh cadavers to anatomical lecturers at a local medical school, a pair of wretched low-lifes turn to murder.

The pair of villains in this instance are Robert Fallon (Jonathan Pryce) and Timothy Broom (Stephen Rea), and the doctor who asks no questions about the origin of his corpses is Thomas Rock (Timothy Dalton). Julian Sands plays Rock's loyal assistant Dr. Murray, who falls for local prostitute Jennie Bailey (Twiggy). When Fallon brings the body of Jennie's close friend Alice to the school, the young doctor fears that Jennie is to be Fallon's next victim and rushes to her rescue.

The penultimate film from horror director Freddie Francis, The Doctor and The Devils is very much like a Hammer movie in look and feel, and will definitely appeal to fans of the 'studio that dripped blood'. However, despite plenty of atmosphere, good production values, an impressive roster of actors (which also includes Beryl Reid and Patrick Stewart), and a screenplay by noted Welsh writer/poet Dylan Thomas, the film is no match for The Flesh and The Fiends.

The pacing is off, with much of the film feeling like padding until such time as Murray is ready to leap to the rescue of Jennie, and, despite a fine cast, no-one is able to rival the brilliance of Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence, whose memorable turns gave the earlier film such a wonderful, darkly humorous edge. Dalton and company are all fine actors, but even they have their off days, and there are some really dodgy accents on display in this film (Reid is particularly bad and I was glad when her character was finally silenced).

That said, the film is worth a shot for fans of historical horror and those particularly interested in the crimes of Burke and Hare, although I highly recommend seeing The Flesh and The Fiends first.

Reviewed by gavin6942 7 / 10

A Later Freddie Francis Masterpiece?

Grave robbers supply a doctor (Timothy Dalton) with bodies to test on.

Coming from a screenplay by Dylan Thomas with modifications from playwright Sir Ronald Harwood, directed by experienced horror director and cinematographer Freddie Francis and produced by Mel Brooks.

Now let us mention the cast: besides Dalton, we have a pre-Trek Patrick Stewart as a higher-up doctor who suspects Dalton of doing something wrong, and Julian Sands as Dalton's assistant. Sands actually has a rather large subplot of being romantically involved with a prostitute before he starts to think his boss is a little shady.

Coming from Francis' background with Hammer, there should be no surprise this has some Hammeresque qualities to it. And thank goodness!

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