The Black Sleep

"The Black Sleep" is a glorious, elegant all-star "monster romp" in black and white from Hollywood's "ghoulden era." The film has it all: rich performances (both mimed and spoken), evocative sets, lighting and cinematography, an involving story and detailed script, mad science, swirling mists, dark London streets, gaslight, an old abbey (complete with an oaken door with a medieval viewing-window), rumblings of thunder, burning candles, horse-drawn carriages, elegant costumes and period (1872 England) detail, gigantic fireplaces with sliding panels, shadowy corridors replete with ghostly "knight's armory" lurking in dark corners, sinister music, hidden torchlit chambers, suggestive sound-effects, subtly chilling props and special effects (including clanking chains, coffins, syringes, a musty skull, and a pulsating brain!), a moody matte-painting of a castle atop a hill overlooking a valley of gnarled, wind-blown branches, gruesome monster make-up, and a stunning ensemble cast of mystery and terror specialists that features Basil Rathbone, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson! To promote the film, make-up artist George Bau was commissioned to create life-sized wax replicas of many of the cast members, which were later displayed in New York City to coincide with the picture's June, 1956 release. For good measure, Boris Karloff, who was in town at the time, is said to have posed with these wax sculptures in publicity photos to help give the film an extra push; in the following year, Boris would work with "The Black Sleep"'s director, Reginald LeBorg, its production company, Bel-Air, and many of the same technical crew to make "Voodoo Island," an eerie zombie tale set on a tropical isle. Herbert Rudley (who would later appear in "The Mothers-In-Law" TV series), Patricia Blake (aka Patricia Blair), Phyllis Stanley, Sally Yarnell, George Sawaya, Peter Gordon, Claire Carleton, John Sheffield, Clive Morgan, Louanna Gardner, and the unbilled players (who always add so much to the creating of a world in which a film is set--one of whom is Howard W. Koch, who helped produce the film!) all join together with the aforementioned players in bringing a magical level of conviction to this tale of a scientist and the strange drug he tampers with (which produces a death-like trance to all who come under its influence). Dr. Max Andler is the Beverly Hills neuro surgeon who served as technical advisor during the "brain surgery" sequences. A well-produced tale of terror, directed by Reginald LeBorg (who helmed such other favorite shockers as "The Mummy's Ghost," "Diary of a Madman" and the above-mentioned "Voodoo Island.") Curl up on a rainy night and enjoy "The Black Sleep"!

Oddly enough The Black Sleep was some years ahead of its time medically speaking. The title refers to a drug from India that scientists Basil Rathbone uses to do that. Today it's a technique to enable recovery from certain illnesses or injuries. But being that this is Basil Rathbone mad scientist you know the drug will be used for all kinds of nefarious purposes.

Rathbone gets Dr. Herbert Rudley out of prison to assist him by use of his coma inducing Black Sleep. Rudley is in prison for a murder he didn't commit. When he 'dies' before the death sentence is carried out that's the end of it. But Rathbone has a lot of work for Rudley to do, operations on some willing and not so willing patients. What it's all about you have to see The Black Sleep for.

If you do see it you're in for a treat because with a cast of scene stealing actors such as Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and John Carradine, this is not to be missed. All three of their characters are products of Rathbone's failed experiments. Carradine in particular is joy. He plays a deranged man who thinks he's a Crusader King and he's overacting outrageously and I'm loving every minute of it. Also in the film is Akim Tamiroff as a gypsy grave robber who also aids Rathbone.

All these people have legions of fans still. So if you want to see a film that's a combination of Frankenstein and the Island of Dr. Moreau with a great cast you can't miss with The Black Sleep.

Dr Cadman saves the life of an old student, Ramsay, by giving him a drug nick named the "black sleep" prior to his going to the gallows. The drug simulates death and Ramsay is believed to have died before the hangman could have his way with him. Cadman revives Ramsay and has him help with his operations mapping the centers of the brain. Of course Cadman is mad, his desire to help his wife who is in a coma, has reduced him to using means that are less than savory. Tension mounts as Ramsay's good nature clashes with Cadman and the weird things that are going on in the house.

Somehow this little gem slipped under my radar and it wasn't until recently that I even knew this movie existed. With a cast that would be the delight of any classic horror movie fan (Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi,Lon Chaney, John Carradine, Tor Johnson, Akim Tamiroff) this is a one of those movies that they don't make any more. This is an odd mix of what you think of as classic horror and modern graphic visuals with a moody castle passageways and graphic brain operations and disfigured monsters. It walks that fine line of being link between the Universal style horror films of the 30's and 40's and the drive in monster fare of the 50's and 60's (it feels like a black and white version of the Hammer Frankenstein films or something like Blood of the Vampire) . Its a great deal of fun, and more than a tad creepy and tense since you really can't be sure whats going to happen next. In its way its a classic of its kind.

My only real complaint is that the casting of Lugosi, Johnson and Carradine is a bit misleading since Lugosi only has a few scenes as a mute butler, and Carradine and Johnson only show up in the final 15 minutes. They are really no more than cameos and don't deserve the high placement in the credits they receive.

Definitely high on my recommend list to anyone who likes classic style horror. This is a movie to search out and enjoy late on a rainy Saturday night.

There is a good deal of talking in this movie, which probably puts a lot of people off. It's also not as cut and dry as most movies, the "bad" guy makes a good case for his experiments, he's just too passionate about them. There's an uneasy sense of dread here; the smell of death sulks in every black and white frame. Some viewers might be bored, confused, disturbed by the morbidity of it all.

But hang on to your straight jacket kids! The climax of this opus is completely deranged! It comes out of nowhere, it's incredibly disturbing and ends all too soon! Loonies! Religious nuts! Mutants! Dungeons! Exposed brain matter! A refreshingly intelligent premise and a nutso finale. My kind of movie.

Good luck finding it though.

The Black Sleep (1956)

This is one of those campy horror movies, two decades after the great originators, that fans will really love and newbies or outsiders will have trouble getting.

I'm mostly a fan, but even as the titles rolled and I couldn't believe the great cast, I was aware that this was 1956, that Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. were well past their prime. And the lead, Basil Rathbone, was playing an evil doctor (a shade like Dr. Frankenstein, pushing moral boundaries with his surgery), was more known as Sherlock Holmes. Still, along with John Carradine, what a cast!

And this is really Lugosi's last uncompromised appearance in any movie, even though he plays a mute and we don't get to hear him. ("Plan 9" comes after this, but Lugosi's role there is famously limited.) He's terrific! And Chaney's appearance is also mute, a brief each time, and not such a big deal. (Once there is nice, corny subjective p.o.v. camera as he attacks his prey.)

The plot? The title? Well, it's all a bit obvious what's happening, though the opening twenty minutes is more a straight drama that actually suggests a really good movie is ahead. A man is on death row, and Rathbone visits him and gives him the Black Sleep potion, which puts him into a fake death and he is carted away and revived. That doesn't give too much away. For the rest of the movie the potion is really just used as anesthesia at the crazy doctor's castle and is no big deal.

There is the pretty girl in a coma, a misunderstood nursing assistant who is daughter of the Chaney character, another nurse who is oddly cold and efficient (and not a Nazi--this is all 1872), and then there is the main character, the man from death row, who happens to be a crack surgeon that the evil doctor needs for his research.

For the middle half of the movie you see minor tensions and some brain surgery that is meant to seem cutting edge and unscrupulous. Then, in a huge surprise, almost as if the director woke up, a bunch of old patients appear out of nowhere (maybe they escaped their cells). And it's a bit of absolute mayhem, with Carradine playing an angry Moses type, and it's pretty crazy.

Look, I said too much perhaps but you should know this isn't a great movie. But it's great camp. It's silly, it's filled with icons from the old days, and it's not so badly made at all, edited well and filmed better than you would think for this nadir of Hollywood productions. This is around the time of the new Castle low budget films, and early Corman stuff, but this one is clearly from the old school of 1930s Hollywood. See it on those terms and like it!