This film is an adaptation of the story of real-life killers William Burke and William Hare who, around 1827 in Edinburgh, Scotland, did provide more than a dozen "fresh" corpses to the anatomist Dr. Knox.
Burke was hanged and his corpse was dissected and his skeleton displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School where, as at 2020, it remains.
The murders raised public awareness of the need for bodies for medical research and contributed to the passing of the Anatomy Act 1832.
Peter Cushing plays the role of Dr Knox with his left eye partially closed throughout, in the character of the real-life Dr Robert Knox whose left eye had been badly damaged by smallpox in infancy.
The DVD release contains the UK version and the European version which includes topless women , seen only very briefly in the tavern then prominently in its two backroom revelry scenes. (latter, Billie Whitelaw berating them there.)
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By what name was The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) officially released in India in English?
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