The Devil's Sleep

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.

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.

Unintentionally hilarious, The Devil's Sleep is almost as funny as Reefer Madness, another exploitation film about drugs made in 1936. This one was made in 1949 and there are more amateurs in this film than there are in the Olympic games.

Let's begin with the horrendous production values. Probably spent less than $100 on those. No lighting, sound or prop care. The direction is so bad it makes Wood movies seem professional. I really don't want to use the words actors or actresses, either, as that would be an insult to the profession at large.

Suffice it to say that the acting is so bad, I am sure no one read their lines in advance. Speaking of lines, there are a few good cracks in the film "The exercise I'm giving these fat dames won't reduce a fever" was pretty funny, and when the Judge says at a gathering "I'm glad this is over", truer words were never spoken. The fighting? Sequence looks like it was done for Pee Wee's Playhouse.

And the lead gangster? Onions Oregano was more convincing as a gangster in Soupy Sales than this turkey. None of these people were ever heard from again in film, or at best, were used when there was no one else available. See it for a laugh.

Devil's Sleep, The (1951)

** (out of 4)

Incredibly silly "drug warning"/exploitation film from legendary producer George Weiss (Glen or Glenda?). A pusher (Timothy Farrell) is selling pills to fat women in a gym and the school kids. A tough as nails Judge (Lita Grey Chaplin) wants to hammer him down but her daughter gets set-up and now the pushers blackmail the Judge with a nude photo. Poor acting, poor directing and a poor script adds to the overall "so bad it's good" nature of this film. There's some insanely funny dialogue that matches Ed Wood, especially one un-PC scene where the overweight women are the "butt" of all the jokes. Very funny throughout and contains some of the same sets as Glen or Glenda?. Lita Grey Chaplin was the former wife of Charles and it's clear he wasn't teaching her how to act. Also contains some full frontal nudity, which certainly wasn't the norm for 1951.

"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