The notorious exploits of 19th century cadaver peddlers Burke & Hare have been the inspiration for numerous films, but none perhaps as faithful to the facts as 1959's "The Flesh and the Fiends." Although other movies have depicted the pair as grave robbers, here they are correctly shown to be not so much ghouls as brutal murderers who think nothing of slaying any drunkard, trollop or easy mark they come across to make a few extra guineas, selling their "fresh as a new-cut cabbage" wares to Dr. Robert Knox at a nearby Edinburgh medical school. Though the pair's murders took place from 1827-28 in real life, here, the action is compressed to the span of a few days' time, and whereas in actuality Burke was a lodger at Hare's home, this picture reverses those roles, strangely. But the film hews closely enough to the true story, and George Rose and Donald Pleasence are top-notch as the seedy duo. Playing the real-life Dr. Knox, Peter Cushing gives one of the finest performances I have ever seen him contribute; he is truly superb here in his morally conflicted role. Kudos also to Billie Whitelaw, "The Omen"'s nanny from hell, here playing a tragic pub girl. A literate script, handsome production values, striking B&W photography, some unflinching murder scenes and a few gross-out sequences really do put this picture over. One would think, with Cushing's presence and director John Gilling at the helm, that this might be a Hammer film (Gilling later went on to give us such extraordinary Hammer fare as "The Plague of the Zombies" and "The Reptile"), but in truth it was shot at Shepperton, and its creators have done a good job at pastiching the Hammer style. The nice-looking widescreen DVD that I just watched, from the fine folks at Image, also contains the racier "Continental" version of "The Flesh and the Fiends," which adds little more than a few topless tavern floozies and a slightly more explicit hanging sequence; not much of an improvement. Whichever version the viewer chooses to watch, however, a highly entertaining and, yes, educational time is almost guaranteed. I really did enjoy this one.