the late 50 be one of the most important period in the evolution of horror cinema especially the british horror film and which be undergo a radical new wave of gory technicolour entry such a dracula and the curse of frankenstein and the mummy . two men who be thrust into super stardom thanks to these movie be peter cushing and christopher lee and perhaps the fine horror actor ever to grace the genre . the flesh and the fiend ( a. k. a mania ) be a 1959 chiller and shot in black and white and with cushing in the main role . the black and white photography harks back to the style of the old horror film from the 30 and 40 and but the story be quite disturbing and include some pretty grisly scene more in line with the contemporary hunger for explicit blood and gut . and and while christopher lee might for once be miss a cushing co star and donald pleasance prove himself to be a wonderfully adept replacement . in 19th century edinburgh and a respected lecturer in anatomy and dr. knox ( peter cushing ) and go about his work and outwardly seem to be the perfect gentleman . however and he keep a dark and disgust secret from his niece martha ( june laverick ) and her lover dr. mitchell ( dermot walsh ) . knox secretly buys corps from a pair of unscrupulous local grave robber name burke ( george rise ) and hare ( donald pleasance ) . with these dead body and knox carry out secret anatomical study . burke and hare and realise that theyre onto a lucrative line of business and begin to murder victim rather than simply dig up the body of the already dead so that they can keep the doctor stock with corps . this spate of murder doesn not seem to concern knox too much and even though he suspect that burke and hare be the culprit . so engrossed be he in his experiment that he be happy to turn a blind eye . eventually burke and hare be capture for their crime and the latter testifying against his accomplice to save his skin ( though he be later pursue and blind by a hateful mob ) and while most disturbing of all the cruel and calculate dr. knox be ultimately pardon for his own part in the affair . the flesh and the fiend be a very impressive horror film and in which knox be show to be the real monster by the way he use his wealth and intellect to exploit the impoverished burke and hare . while burke and hare motive be merely to make money and knox manipulatively allow them to shoulder all the risk by carry out the grave robbing and murder that will get him his corps . the scene of squalor and filth be very powerfully capture and and the scene show dead body be drag from their earthy graf be extremely provocative for the time . cushing be outstanding a usual and and rise and pleasance make a genuinely creepy pair of resurrectionists . though it might not be the gore fest that modern audience seem to demand and the flesh and the fiend be a gruesome treat for those who remember what old style horror flick be all about .