MOVIE REVIEW : ‘DOCTOR AND DEVILS’ MAKES AN UNEVEN BLEND

“The Doctor and the Devils” (selected theaters) takes us to an unnamed English city of the 1840s. There, a fiery professor of anatomy (Timothy Dalton), in defying the laws limiting medical research to the cadavers of executed criminals, falls in league with a pair of grave robbers (Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Rea) who keep him supplied with fresher corpses. (The actual incident that inspired the film took place in Edinburgh 20 years earlier.)

In espousing an end-justifies-the-means philosophy, Dalton inadvertently turns Pryce and Rea into professional assassins. Ripe opportunities lie within this premise, but “The Doctors and the Devils,” which was adapted by “The Dresser’s” Ronald Harwood from a Dylan Thomas--yes, Dylan Thomas--screenplay and directed by cinematographer and horror specialist Freddie Francis, can’t make up its mind whether it’s social satire, black comedy or horror-thriller. (Be warned: there’s some really wrenching grisliness.) It does come all together toward the end, but this matters little because the film suffers from further diffuseness as to just whose story this is in the first place.

As if these weren’t liabilities enough, Dalton’s doctor is insufferable in his righteous arrogance--we should really be able to be far more sympathetic with him than we are--and Pryce and Rea merely slide from folly to outright evil. That leaves Dalton’s young assistant (Julian Sands) and a pretty prostitute (Twiggy) he meets and falls in love with. Sands and Twiggy are appealing but not central enough to be the film’s dominant figures. But then no one really is, which finally leaves us no one to root for.

The film switches back and forth tediously between Dalton’s college lecture hall and laboratory, a Skid Row area called Pig’s Lane, which has a singularly phony and theatrical look to it, and Dalton’s handsome home. He and his anatomy illustrator-wife (Phyllis Logan) live with Dalton’s sister (Sian Phillips), who’s mortified--you should excuse the expression--by her brother’s scandalous anti-Establishment views. The film’s few exterior shots simply serve to make the film seem all the more set-bound and artificial.

In “The Doctor and the Devils” (rated R for gruesome touches) Mel Brooks’ Brooksfilms Productions were apparently looking for another “Elephant Man,” a kind of “Sweeney Todd” without music. All the ingredients are here for a thoroughly offbeat experience; they just weren’t blended with much imagination or conviction.

‘THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS’

A 20th Century Fox release of a Brooksfilms production. Executive producer Mel Brooks. Producer Jonathan Sanger. Director Freddie Francis. Screenplay Ronald Harwood; from an original screenplay by Dylan Thomas. Camera Gerry Turpin. Music John Morris. Associate producer Geoffrey Helman. Production designer Robert Laing. Costumes Imogen Richardson. Film editor Laurence Mery-Clark. With Timothy Dalton, Jonathan Pryce, Twiggy, Julian Sands, Stephen Rea, Phyllis Logan, Beryl Reid, Sian Phillips.

Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).