Burke & Hare

 (2010)
Directed by John Landis
Written by Piers Ashworth, Nick Moorcroft
Starring Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, Jessica Hynes, Hugh Bonneville, Ronnie Corbett, Christopher Lee
IMDB Entry

As some of you might have noticed, I am the author of the novel, The Cadaver Princess, a story about body snatchers in 1831 London. It is based on a real group of people plying that trade, called "The London Burkers," whose actions led to the laws that killed that practice. But despite their influence, when you think of body snatchers, two names come to mind:  William Burke and William Hare.*  They are by far more notorious** and it was inevitable a movie might be made about them, and several were, including The Body Snatchers, with an Oscar-worthy performance by Boris Karloff. Burke & Hare had a new take on the story, turning it into a black comedy.

Burke (Simon Pegg) and Hare (Andy Serkis) were small-time con artists in Edinburgh. Hare runs a boarding house with his wife Margaret (Jessica Hynes). When a boarder dies, she has them remove the body, but on the way to the cemetery,  the learn that anatomist Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson) pays for cadavers to teach medical students. The two sell the corpse and see this as a good way to make money.  They first try to rob graves, but fail, but when a old lodger in the inn (Christopher Lee) seems close to death, they finish the job. Gradually the two graduate to murdering people in the streets.

Burke meets actress Ginny Hawkins (Isla Fisher), who has a dream of doing an all-women version of Macbeth and becomes infatuated with her. He continues plying his trade to help her out. Meanwhile, Captain Tom McLintock (Ronnie Corbett) starts to investigate the various people who vanish off the city streets.

The movie is rather tame, though there are some funny moments. Pegg does his lovestruck and sexually frustrated romantic part quite well, and Corbett's performance livens everything up whenever he appears (alas, too late in the film). Most of the bigger names -- Lee and Curry*** -- are little more than cameos. 

The movie was a disappointment when it came out. John Landis -- who had directed several comedy classics -- had not done a film in 12 years, so this comeback was disappointing. The black comedy is more black than comic.

But it was a great concept, and worth a look. Still, The Cadaver Princess is more entertaining overall, even if I do say so myself.

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*It's why the London Burkers got their sobriquet.

**Though they didn't influence changes to the law. I think that's because they were doing their dirty work in Edinburgh, Scotland. Londoners didn't care much about what happened up north, but once it happened in their own city -- well, something had to be done. 

***Hugh Bonneville had not done Downton Abbey yet.