the notorious exploit of 19th century cadaver peddler burke and hare have be the inspiration for numerous film and but none perhaps as faithful to the fact a 1959 the flesh and the fiend . although other movie have depict the pair a grave robber and here they be correctly show to be not so much ghoul a brutal murderer who think nothing of slay any drunkard and trollop or easy mark they come across to make a few extra guinea and sell their fresh a a new cut cabbage ware to dr. robert knox at a nearby edinburgh medical school . though the pair murder take place from 1827 28 in real life and here and the action be compress to the span of a few day time and and whereas in actuality burke be a lodger at hare home and this picture reverse those role and strangely . but the film hew closely enough to the true story and and george rise and donald pleasence be top notch a the seedy duo . play the real life dr. knox and peter cushing give one of the fine performance i have ever see him contribute while he be truly superb here in his morally conflict role . kudos also to billie whitelaw and the omen nanny from hell and here play a tragic pub girl . a literate script and handsome production value and strike b and w photography and some unflinching murder scene and a few gross out sequence really do put this picture over . one would think and with cushing presence and director john gilling at the helm and that this might be a hammer film ( gilling later go on to give u such extraordinary hammer fare a the plague of the zombie and the reptile ) and but in truth it be shoot at shepperton and and it creator have do a good job at pastiching the hammer style . the nice look widescreen dvd that i just watch and from the fine folk at image and also contain the racy continental version of the flesh and the fiend and which add little more than a few topless tavern floozy and a slightly more explicit hang sequence while not much of an improvement . whichever version the viewer choose to watch and however and a highly entertaining and and yes and educational time be almost guarantee . i really do enjoy this one .