The Black Sleep
| The Black Sleep | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Reginald Le Borg |
| Produced by |
Howard W. Koch executive Aubrey Schenck |
| Written by | John C. Higgins |
| Based on | story by Gerald Drayson Adams |
| Starring |
Basil Rathbone Akim Tamiroff Lon Chaney, Jr. John Carradine Bela Lugosi Herbert Rudley Tor Johnson |
| Narrated by | Basil Rathbone |
| Music by | Les Baxter |
| Cinematography | Gordon Avil |
| Edited by | John Schreyer |
Production company |
Bel-Air Productions (Prospect Productions) |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $225,000[1] |
The Black Sleep (1956) is an American black-and-white horror film, scripted by John C. Higgins from a story by Gerald Drayson Adams developed for producers Aubrey Schenck and Howard W. Koch, who had a four-picture finance-for-distribution arrangement with United Artists. The film was re-released in 1962 as Dr. Cadman's Secret.
The film was directed by Reginald LeBorg and included in its starring cast Bela Lugosi in his last true film role. Also featured were Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and Akim Tamiroff in a role originally written for Peter Lorre. In a "prominent" supporting role was Ed Wood regular Tor Johnson.
Plot
Set in England in 1872, the story concerned a prominent, knighted surgeon whose wife has fallen into a coma caused by a deep-seated brain tumor. Due to medicine's state of the art at the time, he does not know how to reach the tumor without risking brain damage or death to the woman he loves, so he undertakes to secretly experiment on the brains of living, but involuntary, human subjects who are under the influence of a powerful Indian anesthetic, Nind Andhera, which he calls the "Black Sleep". Once he has finished his experiment, surviving subjects are revived and placed, in seriously degenerated and mutilated states, in a hidden cellar in the gloomy, abandoned country abbey where he conducts his experiments.
Cast
- Basil Rathbone as Sir Joel Cadman
- Akim Tamiroff as Udu the Gypsy
- Lon Chaney Jr. as Dr. Monroe aka Mungo
- John Carradine as "Bohemund"
- Bela Lugosi as Casimir
- Herbert Rudley as Dr. Gordon Ramsay
- Patricia Blake as Laurie Munroe
- Phyllis Stanley as Daphnae
- Tor Johnson as Curry
- George Sawaya as Sailor Subject
- Sally Yarnell as Female Subject
- Peter Gordon as Det. Sgt. Steele
- Claire Carleton as Carmoda Daily
- John Sheffield as Det. Redford
- Clive Morgan as Roundsman Blevins
- Louanna Gardner as Angelina Cadman
- Aubrey Schenck as Prison Coroner's Aide (uncredited)
Release
Produced during 1955, the film went into theaters in the early summer of 1956, just ahead of the TV syndication by Universal Pictures of its two decades of "monster movies" through Screen Gems, under the package title of Shock Theater. Writer Higgins, director LeBorg, and stars Rathbone, Chaney, Carradine, and Lugosi had all been significantly associated with Universal "horror films" or related B movies. It is similar to the two "houseful of monster" films of Universal in the mid-40s, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, only relying on a completely new cadre of human monsters.
United Artists released The Black Sleep out as the A-film in a double feature with The Creeping Unknown. In 2016 it was released on Blu-ray by Kino with an audio commentary by Tom Weaver and David Schecter.
See also
References
- ↑ Tom Weaver, Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup McFarland, 1 Jan 2006 p 211
External links
- The Black Sleep at the Internet Movie Database
- The Black Sleep at AllMovie
- The Black Sleep at Basilrathbone.net
- The Black Sleep at the TCM Movie Database
| ||||||