Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

poe-48833 Basil Rathbone is at the top of his game, here in THE BLACK SLEEP. A solid production, with solid performances from all of the leads (especially Akim Tamiroff as Udu/Odo "the gypsy," the part originally to have been played by Peter Lorre) and some solid direction. "You're only Legally Dead," Rathbone tells the man he framed for murder: "Justice has been satisfied." When it turns out that the dead man they're operating on is, in fact, alive, Rathbone again shrugs it off: "In the interest of Science, anything- ANYTHING!- is justified." Lon Chaney, Jr. stalks the halls, attacking anything that moves (including his own daughter), while Lugosi creeps around cleaning up the doctor's messes. It turns out that in the basement are John Carradine (who comes out swingin') and Tor Johnson, among others. Not a bad lineup, if you ask me. (I once saw a man in a heroin-induced "coma" standing on a corner one day: his eyes were shut and he didn't move for an hour. Talk about a Black Sleep...)

calvinnme This film has all of the great devices of the horror films of the 30's and 40's and keeps the tension and fright level up in the age of the atomic bomb, partly by being set in the 19th century. You've got Basil Rathbone as a doctor living in a medieval castle who is willing to do a hundred brain surgeries if necessary to bring his sleeping beauty wife back from a brain tumor induced coma. She really is too young for you Basil! You've got the mute "Mongo" played by Lon Chaney Jr. who had a paralysis cured by Basil's character, Dr. Cadman, but in the process lost his reason. Bela Lugosi is the mute servant Casimir, who really doesn't have too much to do. Then you have Daphne, a willing servant in Cadman's experiments who seems to be a bit in love with the doctor. And finally there is Laurie, Mongo's daughter, who is just assisting in the hope that Cadman will operate on "Mongo" again and restore his reason. He was once a brilliant physician and loving father.The protagonist, Dr. Ramsay, was sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit, and is rescued by Cadman to help in his operations by faking his natural death. Ramsay agrees to help Cadman not only out of gratitude, but because Cadman is mapping the human brain through a series of operations on cadavers. Or at least that's what he thinks he is doing.There are secret passage ways, the mysterious "black sleep" that simulates death and will actually cause death if the anecdote is not administered, and finally there is a basement full of maniacs that have an axe to grind with Doctor Cadman if they ever get loose. This one is a great homage to "The Black Cat", "The Raven", "The Old Dark House", and "Bride of Frankenstein" among others, which is strange when you think about it, because these are all Boris Karloff films and he is notably absent from this send up of the old Universal horrors. Very much worth your time and much better than the current rating reflects.

st-shot The Black Sleep is an inferior mad scientist generic that conjures up past their prime horror masters for marquee value only. With the fight out of their fright you find yourself worrying about their fragile health in this chill less thriller.On the eve of his execution for a murder he did not commit Dr. Ramsay is visited by Sir Joel Cadman who administers a potion to Ramsay to make him appear dead before prison officials. Whisking the body back to his laboratory he revives Ramsay who he needs to help him bring his comatose wife back to life. Ramsay questions such ethics however as Cadmon's staff of assorted flunkies Mungo, Borg, Casimir and Odo the Gypsy resort to unsavory practices in assisting him.Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. are a long way from their Universal hay days as they huff and puff about the castle trying to muster some fright factor who along with John Carradine appear like worn out dummies from a traveling carny fun house all the chill thrills rusted. Basil Rathbone's distinguished air does give the film a small degree of polish in the early moments but as problems arise, nerves fray and things get a little bumpier in the night Rathbone begins to go Colin Clive. Akim Tamirroff's Odo the body snatcher easily steals the show with a wry sense of dark humor; the only way to approach this film if one is to salvage anything from it.

Scott_Mercer Wow, a movie with Bela Lugosi AND Tor Johnson, and it ISN'T an Ed Wood movie? Are you serious?YES! This movie has everything a fan of Gothic horror could ask for: creepy castle, mad scientist, British accents (from some of the actors) hidden passageways, grave robbing, mutants chained up in the dungeon, brain surgery on live victims, women chained against their will, the mute manservant, the dead-but-not-dead bride, etc. It's like a greatest hits of horror! This movie really is a fantastic, unheralded little gift, but by this time it looks like it has been somewhat rediscovered after many decades in obscurity, after being screened by TCM a few years ago. The film was made in a lull period for horror, especially Gothic horror stories of this type. Made in 1955, it was released in 1956.Hammer Films was a year away from beginning their great cycle of Dracula and Frankenstein films which reinvigorated the horror genre. Hollywood had grown tired of classic horror, giving a last gasp around 1945 with House of Dracula etc. By 1948 they were turned to spoofs to do anything at all with horror, turning out Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein (great) and films like like Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (crap) and several Bowery Boys horror themed productions (lovable crap). By 1955, invasions of flying saucers and giant insects were all the rage in fantastic filmmaking. Even the Creature From The Black Lagoon had more of a science fiction slant than horror.So to discover a respectable Gothic horror title from 1955 is quite a surprise for many film fans. Even if it is low budget.And let's not forget the cast, a great round-up of horror film icons. The only way this could have been better was to put Boris Karloff in the Basil Rathbone part (though Rathbone manages to be both ruthless and sympathetic in his part as Dr. Cadman, no mean feat for any actor), and Peter Lorre (as originally intended) in the part played very well by Akim Tamiroff. That would have REALLY been a horror film cast to end all horror film casts. But I can't complain, especially when ** SPOILER ALERT ** the climax of the movie rewards you with Tor Johnson strangling Lon Chaney Jr. to death while John Carradine beats Lon over the head with a staff! The climax of the movie is quite nutty, and quite enjoyable. A great find for horror buffs and a great way to spend 82 minutes, in spite of its somewhat low budget origins.And yes, this was Bela Lugosi's true last film role; Plan Nine From Outer Space, released later, features Lugosi in test footage shot with no particular movie in mind. Just a shame that here Bela was cast as a mute and had no lines. Same thing with Lon Chaney, but par for the course for Tor Johnson, who was much better off cast as a mute, as Tor's few lines of dialog in Plan Nine From Outer Space prove.