The Devil's Sleep

Wow, Mr. America of 1948. What a big lunk. I guess Laurence Olivier wasn't available for this film. They don't get much more preachy and dumb than this one. The authorities are so dull, most of the kids would have died of boredom rather than from the drugs presented. It is the tale of youth running rampant, doing things because they have been given drugs. They are holding up banks, burglarizing houses, doing lewd things in public. Then there's the old health club with its reducing drugs. Of course, all these drugs cause memory loss so people have trouble trying to figure out what they did. The circuit judge's daughter gets something in a coke and poses nude. One thing I did notice is that there are some pretty risqué little scenes here. That surprised me. It's cheesecake that must have got the censors involved to some degree. Just plain awful in a Reefer Madness kind of way. Don't miss the doctor's speech at the end. At one point he squints to read the card in front of him.

Timothy Farrell is not a household name. However, among bad movie buffs he's a god--or at least should be one. While not a terrible actor, he managed to star in a huge string of absolutely awful films--such as "Glen or Glenda?", "Jail Bait", "Dance Hall Racket", "Racket Girls", "Gun Girls" and "Test Tube Babies"--as well as this film, "The Devil's Sleep". All of these movies managed to achieve an amazing degree of crappiness as well as sleaziness that you just have to see to believe. As for me, if I know Farrell is in a movie, I'm sure to see it! This film is about a campaign to clean up the streets by stopping low-lifes who target teens for the drug trade. The idea is to get the kids hooked and then to use them to commit crimes to make the big boss, Umberto Scalli (Farrell) rich. However, getting the goods on this jerk won't be easy, as he has an aura of respectability about him and runs a local health spa. So, it's up to the police and some teens to infiltrate the place and see what's cooking.

Many times during the film, ladies take their clothes off--showing quite a bit more than a Hollywood production of the time and titillating the audience. It's amazing how much they show you without really revealing that much! This is pretty much the norm for exploitation films--and this is clearly one of them. However, it's a bit better than most--with mostly decent acting, competent direction and some weird stars. Apart from Farrell, you'll see Lita Grey (one of Charlie Chaplin's ex-wives and George Eiferman (Mr. America, 1948). Neither of these two had any obvious acting ability and were probably chosen for name recognition and so that the producers could exploit the heck out of their being in the film. Overall, quite enjoyable sleaze.

Our kids are in trouble, as Judge Lita Grey Chaplin explains, but it's not their fault. There are adults who take advantage of them, people like Timothy Farrell, who makes his money selling "goofies".

You know there are some issues with a movie when Timothy Farrell gives the best performance. Here, he's the owner of a workout gym, contemptuous of the middle-aged women (thirtyish, I'd guess) who are his overweight clientele. They look fine to me. Farrell plays it smarmy, and he's very good at it, as the guy who uses his gym as a front to push his bootleg prescription drugs; they'll take the weight off you in a flash, but don't use them if you have heart problems. Lita Grey is top-billed, which shows you how desperate for star power this production was. The compositions were suitable for girlie magazines, and the film's 'serious message' is delivered by a man playing a doctor, droning along.

Clearly an exploitation picture, this was the sort that distributor Screen Classics might have "four-walled": rent a theater, cover the town with pamphlets and keep all the receipts themselves.

"There is a terrible scourge running through the community in the form of pills be pushed to the youth through a local women's health club. A female judge, with the aid of a police detective, looks to crusade against this problem in the community and eliminate it. Unfortunately, the drug ring has some compromising photos of the judge's daughter they hope to use as an advantage against her," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. For producer George Weiss, Timothy Farrell's sleazy "Umberto Scalli" makes his debut.

This isn't a movie as much as it is a chance to for the producer to show off as many muscles and midriffs as he could manage to get away with. Bikinis and briefs abound. "Mr. America of 1948" George Eiferman appears as a women's exercise instructor. And, put your "headlights" on "high beam" for the skin scene highlight, when a towel-clad woman shows everything she can, before stepping into a steam bath. The movie ends with one of those preachy "messages", so you won't feel too bad about enjoying the flesh.

Top-billed Lita Grey (as "Judge" Rosalind Ballentine), one of Charlie Chaplin's wives, contributes little; her best line is, "Somehow all of this has a familiar smell." Harold Lloyd's wife, Mildred Davis (as Tessie Tallulah Tesse) makes an arguably embarrassing "talking pictures" debut; her best line, considering her 51-47-64 measurements, is "Ain't two Tessies enough?" But, hey, whoever hired Stan Freed (as Hal Holmes) to play a hopped-up Benzedrine dealer had a sense of humor, since he went to town as "Hoppity" (1941).

*** The Devil's Sleep (5/18/49) W. Merle Connell ~ Timothy Farrell, Hal Holmes, Lita Grey Chaplin

I was shocked to discover this little gem on my 100 mystery movie collection. This is good stuff here, lots of skimpy outfits, fat jokes, sight gags, brief nudity, horrible acting...the whole thing!

I realized something was up when the leading man from Test Tube Babies walked on stage as the hunky hero. This guy should have given lessons on how to be a horrible actor. He is almost as wooden and lifeless as the guy who plays Ridge on The Bold and Beautiful...almost anyhow.

This film is a lot of fun. It's stupid, campy, and downright weird and pointless. A good one. Definitely one of the better examples of the genre!