A screenplay based around body snatchers and the doctors that purchased the bodies. Atmospheric and chilling, it is well written and would be interesting to see. It does, however, cover only one side of the story, like all poets and playwrights on this topic, who do not begin to understand the forces that led doctors to work with body snatchers in the first place. The doctor of the title is a character who is ambiguous. He says all the right things, he fights against the rigidity and mediocrity of society, he is nicer to the working class than his colleagues, and he gets the science more accurate...but the author chooses in the end to make him a monster, suggesting perhaps an ambivalence on the part of the author (or perhaps he does not see those traits as positive? It's possible, but doesn't seem likely). An intriguing work, and more poetic than usual in the stage directions. ( )

Spoiler alert. Beep beep beep.

The Doctor and the Devils is a screenplay Dylan Thomas wrote to dramatize the real-life 19th century case of famed Scottish Dr. Knox, who paid disreputable men for corpses for his anatomical studies, a practice which led to them expediting the supply of said corpses through murder. This part of the process was veiled rather thinly to Knox, but he carried on anyway, believing that the ends justified the means. When the murderers were discovered, one turned state’s evidence, the other hung, and guess what? The good doctor walked. Yes, you see, the aristocracy at the time feared that if Dr. Knox was prosecuted, it would be akin to putting the upper echelons of society and its intelligentsia on trial, leading to anarchy, chaos, dogs and cats living together, and who knows what else. How maddeningly typical of what still happens today with a lot of white collar crime.

The story is in great hands with Thomas. His imagery is sufficiently dark and creepy, he paints a great picture of the sordid life of the Edinburgh poor at the time, and his poetic sensibilities come through in a variety of ways. The coldly intellectual and fiercely independent doctor is nuanced, having married beneath his station for love, pushed real medical progress, and flouted society, all of which makes him an interesting character. Thomas keeps the story focused, and perhaps a little too focused. It’s well-told and a good, brisk, read, but maybe would have been better fleshed out more, as there is plenty of raw material to build from here.

Quotes:
On free thinking:
“To think, then, is to enter into a perilous country, colder of welcome than the polar wastes, darker than a Scottish Sunday, where the hand of the unthinker is always raised against you, where the wild animals, who go by such names as Envy, Hypocrisy, and Tradition, are notoriously carnivorous, and where the parasites rule.”

On love, conflicted:
“Is a moment enough for you, then, my dear, my dear? And all the long night to go… You’re a sad, strange boy, saying you love me and leaving me all alone…”

On old age:
“I am an old man. You should not ask old men how they feel, or they will tell you.”

On stoicism:
“Would you have me death-dance and moan, like a Gaelic dipsomaniac at a distillery fire? Must tragedy go immediately to the feet and the tongue? Because I can observe my history calmly as it burns and topples around me, you emotional gluttons think yourself cheated. ‘Oh, he can’t feel anything,’ you say. ‘When we told him his life was over, he did not tear the relics of his hair or address the travelling moon in blank verse. He blew his nose and called for Burgundy.’”

Lastly this one, loved the wordplay:
“Murray: Thomas was on top of the world.
Brown: Gracious, loquacious, insulting, exulting…
Harding: [Overtopping him] … drastic, bombastic, charming, disarming…
Brown: [Not to be outdone, with extravagant gestures] … avuncular, carbuncular…” ( )

Very vivid but extremely grim version of Burke and Hare -- the names are changed (Broom and Fallon, and Dr. Rock for thei man who bought bodies from them instead of Dr. Cox) but in general it follows the real story --much of the focus is on Dr. Rock -- full of cold intellectual pride in his work but in some ways sympathetic, especially in his love for his lower-class wife ( )

The Doctor and the Devils is a screenplay that deals with death. And "statements on the way to the grave " is how Dylan Thomas described his poetry. It is a incursion into the depths of life, the business of grave-robbing, that is so low as to suggest the possibility of killing the living to provide a supply of corpses. What moved these people to do this? There was a medical need in the era that the play is set so that is a primary possibility. I am not sure what is so fascinating about this dark story, but Dylan Thomas based this drama on real life and it shows - I found the drama both engaging and poetic. ( )

Some beautiful writing in the directions. Whether or not it would translate to the screen is debatable.