Mania (1959)

Horror legend Peter Cushing stars in Mania, a fine and bloodily graphic adaptation of the Burke and Hare grave robbing legend. Cushing portrays Dr. Robert Knox, the respected director of a prestigious medical school who believes that cadavers make the perfect tools for the study of medicine. Because exhuming bodies for medical purposes is illegal, Knox must rely on William Burke (George Rose) and William Hare (Donald Pleasance), graverobbers who are eager to keep him supplied with fresh corpses. The suspicion of the authorities is aroused when Burke and Hare take a shortcut and begin increasing their supply of corpses by murdering local down-and-outs.

Released in the UK as The Flesh and the Fiends, Mania features a wonderfully atmospheric representation of dismal 19th century Edinburgh, and stars some of Britain’s most respected actors.

1959, B&W, 92 minutes