{"id":1825,"date":"2008-05-26T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-26T14:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2021-03-14T10:05:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T14:05:39","slug":"the-black-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1825","title":{"rendered":"The Black Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Last night I was in the mood for an old-time horror movie<\/span>. But what to watch? How about one starring Basil <\/span>[Sherlock Holmes] Rathbone<\/span> [as the mad scientist], Lon<\/span> [The Wolfman] Chaney, Jr.<\/span> [as one of the monsters], Bela<\/span> [Dracula] Lugosi<\/span> [as Rathbone’s assistant], John<\/span> [Dracula] Carradine<\/span> [as a madman] and Tor<\/span> [“Plan 9 from Outer Space] Johnson<\/span> [as another monster]? Yep, “The Black Sleep”<\/span> fit the bill perfectly!<\/span><\/span>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What, you’ve never heard of “The Black Sleep”<\/span>? I wouldn’t be surprised. Unless you’re a real aficionado of the horror genre<\/span>, you probably haven’t. I guess that’s what makes it a cult film<\/span>. The sad thing is, “The Black Sleep”<\/span> is one of the better low-budget 50’s horror films<\/span>. So let’s take a look at it…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Pitch:<\/span> “Frankenstein”<\/span> meets “The Island of Doctor Moreau.”<\/span> A mad scientist<\/span> [Rathbone<\/span>] frames a former student [Herbert Rudley<\/span>] for murder and then helps him escape the gallows. In return Rudley<\/span> must help Rathbone<\/span> with his evil experiments<\/span> which turn his subjects into monsters<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Good:<\/span> The movie is introduced by Lon Madnight<\/span><\/a>! Having Lugosi<\/span> [in his final role] along with Chaney, Carradine, Johnson <\/span>and Rathbone<\/span> sharing screen-time is a hoot for any horror fan<\/span>. Akim Tamiroff<\/span> as Odo the Gypsy<\/span> steals every scene he’s in. The screenplay is more complex than most of the genre — we have the mad scientist<\/span> performing evil experiments, but he does so in hopes of learning a way to save his dying wife — we have a framed hero<\/span> who must solve a murder mystery<\/span> in order to clear his name — we have monsters<\/span> chained in hidden cells below the castle, but they are victims of Rathbone’s experiments<\/span> — at the same time the police are following leads leading to… a great climax<\/span> with the monsters<\/span> breaking free just as… ah, but that would be giving it away! [Be sure to keep watching after “The End” credit appears — there’s an added bonus<\/span>!]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bad:<\/span> What the experiments do to the subjects! Poor Bela<\/span> is regulated to the role of a mute assistant — he was in terrible health in his final days. The hero’s name<\/span> is Gordon Ramsay.\u00a0 <\/span>(Yep, reminded me of the Hell’s Kitchen guy.)<\/p>\n

The Ugly:<\/span> Tor Johnson<\/span>, Lon Chaney<\/span> and the rest of the monsters<\/span>! Also there’s a great scare<\/span> with a beautiful girl who’s suddenly revealed to be one of the monsters<\/span>!<\/p>\n

In Summary:<\/span> “The Black Sleep”<\/span> is a welcome addition<\/span> to any horror fan’s library<\/span>. The transfer is crisp and clean with excellent sound. The disc also includes trailers<\/span> for other films in the AC DVD library<\/span>\u00a0as well as the first chapter of a Blackhawk<\/span> cliffhanger serial. “The Black Sleep”<\/span> is another winner from Bill Black<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I was in the mood for an old-time horror movie. But what to watch? How about one starring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horror","category-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25823,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/25823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}