shocking and surprisingly potent horror feature about the possible downfall of edinburgh anatomy professor dr. robert knox ( peter cushing with one eyelid collapse ) who illegally accept murdered body from suppose graverobber hare and burke ( donald pleasence and george rise ) . burke and hare scheming of kill and supply work until they murder knox apprentice chris jackson ( john cairney ) and chris prostitute lover mary ( billie whitelaw ) and and especially well liked young jamie ( melvyn hayes ) . cushing a the cold and logical doctor who abandon emotion because it just get in the way of his work and and pleasence a cruel scoundrel hare be both chill in their own way . this film should be quite an interesting pairing with the 1987 film and the doctor and the devil because both film deal with the same theme yet change in certain way . in flesh there a positive outlook for knox who come to the understanding of what he be do wrong because he have abandon any emotion when it come to accept any corpse those two bring him only think about science and leave away the conscience . in devil and timothy dalton anatomy professor be always sympathetic to the plight of those around him and always have emotion present on his face . yet and dalton doctor outlook be a bit gloomy in that film . also julien sand and twiggy ( represent the character play by cairney and mary in the devil version ) have a much good outcome in their film than the pupil and prostitute in flesh and the fiend . this be quite a well make chiller and atmospheric and quite stunningly violent for the time it be a make .