I rather wonder what the "first" (or least earliest that we know of) mortician in cinema would have been? (I don't really recall one as a "character" but the funeral in ENTR'ACTE is fairly early.) Some others that come to mind: The doctor who doubles as mortician in Dreyer's VAMPYR OLIVER! and other film versions of OLIVER TWIST and some other Dickens adapations (eg., A CHRISTMAS CAROL, although I doubt that Jeremy Cruncher, the grave-robbing "resurrection man" of TALE OF TWO CITIES counts) David Warner's Western undertaker in Peckinpaugh's THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE The speakeasy front funeral parlor in SOME LIKE IT HOT The one-armed "funeral director" who stages a fake funeral for a spy in Hitchcock's SECRET AGENT Of course, the satirical treatment of the death industry in THE LOVED ONE Most of these examples, of course, tend to laugh in the face of death. I don't know if anyone has ever tackled the notion of a mortician/funeral director as a main character. Don Larsson On Tue, 27 Jun 2000 10:01:54 -0400 PLatham <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Closely similar to film morticians, in spirit anyway, are the various > doctors and gravediggers in THE BODY SNATCHER (1945) and the family members > and minister who terrorize the child in 3 FACES OF EVE. I think also that > some appeared in a Roger Corman version of one of Poe's stories (THE STRANGE > CASE OF M. VALDEMAR?) > > Peter Latham > > ---- > Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the > University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu ----------------------------------------------------------- Donald F. Larsson English Department, AH 230 Minnesota State University Mankato, MN 56001 ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu