Two ghoulish grave-robbers supply dead bodies to a medical school by any
means necessary... including murder! Moore and Hart, sinister and violent
criminals, are a reflection of their surroundings - grim, impoverished
19th-century Edinburgh. The greedy pair abuse their wives and can often be found
drunkenly languishing in the decaying confines of the local tavern. When the
inebriated Mary Paterson enters the pub with her friend Janet, Moore convinces
her to return with him to his lodgings. Hart joins Moore in the gruesome murder
of Mary, dismembering her body to fit it into the trunk they use to transport
corpses. Dr. Cox, in charge of the medical school, accepts the latest delivery
and expresses an interest in a half-witted young man named Jamie. Moore and Hart
conspire to add the unsuspecting lad to their growing list of victims.
Meanwhile, Janet has enlisted the help of her noble friend Hugh Alston to
investigate Mary's disappearance and convince authorities that Moore and Hart
are blood-thirsty murderers.
Horror Maniacs, also known as The Greed Of William Hart, was originally
filmed under the title (The Crimes Of) Burke And Hare. The threat of a lawsuit
by the ancestors of the notorious grave-robber William Hare forced producers to
redub the soundtrack and substitute new character names. The expense of this
effort was a major strain for the low-budget production and resulted in the
elimination of a music soundtrack. The film was one of the last notable movies
to star the deliriously hammy Tod Slaughter, an actor whose maniacal
performances peaked in such macabre melodramas as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber
Of Fleet Street and Murder In The Red Barn. Though his fame in the U.S. horror
film genre was eclipsed by actors such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi,
Slaughter was well known in his native Britain as a master of menace. In Horror
Maniacs, Slaughter stars alongside his real-life wife Jenny Lynn (playing the
role of Helen Moore). The scriptwriter and assistant director of Horror Maniacs,
John Gilling, filmed the same story ten years later as Flesh And The Fiends with
Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance.
Starring: Tod Slaughter Directed by: Oswald Mitchell Screenplay by: John Gilling
