| The Greed of William Hart | |
| Director: | Oswald Mitchell |
| Producer: | Gilbert Church |
| Starring: | Tod Slaughter Henry Oscar Jenny Lynn Aubrey Woods |
| Cinematography: | D.P. Cooper S.D. Onions |
| Editing: | John F. House |
| Studio: | Bushey Studios |
| Distributor: | Ambassador Film Productions |
| Runtime: | 80 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
The Greed of William Hart is a 1948 British horror film directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Tod Slaughter, Henry Oscar, Aubrey Woods, Patrick Addison, Jenny Lynn (star Tod Slaughter's real life wife), Winifred Melville and Arnold Bell.[1] The film depicts two Edinburgh bodysnatchers closely modelled on the real Burke and Hare. However, neither the real Burke and Hare nor the characters of Moore and Hart in the film, actually did any bodysnatching, but murdered the people whose bodies they sold to Dr Knox.
In 1828 Edinburgh, Scotland, two Irish immigrants, Mr. Hart (Tod Slaughter) and Mr. Moore (Henry Oscar), take up murdering the locals and selling their bodies to the local medical school, which needs fresh bodies for anatomy lectures and demonstrations. When a young woman, Mary Patterson, goes missing, recently qualified medic Hugh Alston (Patrick Addison), just returned from his first voyage as a ship's doctor, is alerted by Daft Jamie and Janet that Mary has been taken by a man to Gibb's Close. Jamie says the resurrectionists live there.
Alston suspects the Hart and Moore are involved in foul play, but the arrogant, amoral Dr. Cox (Arnold Bell) – the main buyer for the bodies – attempts to hinder his investigation. Meanwhile, the murderous duo set their sights on eccentric local boy "Daft Jamie" (Aubrey Woods) and an old woman.
NB: Although playing Henry Oscar's character's wife in this film, in real life Jenny Lynn was married to Tod Slaughter.
The film was originally made as a fairly direct historical adaptation of the Burke and Hare murders. The British Board of Film Censors, however, insisted that all references to the real-life murderers be removed. The film was then re-titled and re-dubbed with different character names, substituting "Hart" and "Moore" for Hare and Burke, respectively, and "Dr. Cox" for Dr. Knox. All other names, including victims Mary Patterson, Mrs. Docherty, and "Daft Jamie" Wilson, remain unchanged.[2]
Writer John Gilling would go on to script another version of the same story in 1960, titled The Flesh and the Fiends. This version used the correct names for the killers.
The film was made at Bushey Studios.
The film was distributed in the United States by J.H. Hoffberg Productions in 1953, slightly edited, as Horror Maniacs.