Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Lack of good storyline.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Definitive Spook Show typical of those Mid-Fifties (Live Theatrical Come-Ons) Capitalizing on the Horror Movies of Past Glory and Iconic Actors that Fleshed them out. Today this could be Labeled a Mini-Reboot of sorts, but more Accurately a Last Gasp Glory for its Participants.This Name Dropper of a Film includes, in No Particular Order or Screen Time...Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Akim Tamiroff, Tor Johnson...along with...Phyllis Stanley, Patricia Blair, and Herbert Rudley.It's a Has-Been Dream Team and Movie Marquee Maintenance Men must have Grumbled.The Movie is about Rathbone discovering an Exotic Drug that induces "The Black Sleep" and allows Brain Surgeon Basil to Poke around in the Human Skull and Explore Grey Matter yet Untapped by Mortal Man. Akim Tamiroff is quite Good as a Body-Snatching Gypsy.This causes "Complications" and assorted Makeup Challenges for Low-Budget Artists. Most of these "Monsters" don't Show Until the Third Act. During Act One and Act Two Chaney and Lugosi Appear as Mutes. Lugosi (near death in real life) barely manages to stay upright (sorta sad really). But Overall, this Mad Monster Movie is Atmospheric and gains Attention with its Bombastic Music and "All Star" Cast, some Lurid Operating Room Stuff and in that Third Act All Hell Breaks Loose with Maniacal Mayhem. Definitely a Must See for Horror Historians.

Fairly classy horror feature. Of course, Rathbone, with his blade-like nose and parsed speech, could impart class to a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Here he's a mad doctor—what else—who's researching brains in order to cure his comatose wife. Meanwhile he's accumulated an all-star line-up of horror performers to help—a raving John Carradine, a ravaged Lon Chaney, a hulking Tor Johnson, a decrepit Bela Lugosi, and a slimy Akim Tamiroff. With a mob like this who needs special effects. Actually, most of the time is taken up with high-brow discussion of medical ethics. Naturally, Rathbone thinks ends justify means, while Rudley considers each life precious. Thus, unlike Rathbone, Rudley thinks research has its ethical limits. In fact, actor Rudley carries much of the narrative. A relative unknown, he gets lesser billing behind the all-stars. Nonetheless, he proves a very capable actor and foil for Rathbone. However, he's not the usual handsome hero and rescuer of damsels in distress. I'm not sure what the producers were reaching for here with the literate script and extended dialogue. Still, there are a few good jolting moments, like when a maniacal Carradine makes a first appearance. Then too, the movie came out at a time when Roger Corman's rubber monsters were dominating the screen, especially drive-ins. Anyway, it's a good chance to catch several horror icons in their declining years (Lugosi would pass just several months after), along with the incomparable Rathbone, a strikingly pretty Blair, and one of Hollywood's many unsung talents, Herbert Rudley.

Yes, this film does have horror icons Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone, Tor Johnson, and John Carradine...not to mention character actor great Akim Tamiroff all in one film. The cast alone is worth a look at this fairly low budget horror film about a mad doctor(Rathbone) who performs unnecessary brain surgery on people brought to him presumed to be dead but in reality alive having taken "the black sleep" drug that the film's prologue tells us about in order to save his comatose blonde, young wife. Whew! That was a sentence and a half! Rathbone over does it with his hammy yet always fun performance. The male "hero" lead is nicely done by Herbert Rudley. In fact the story and by-play between Rudley and Rathbone gives the film an appearance of some chilling Victorian potboiler until we get to Rathbone's castle and find the servant opening the door - the deaf servant -is none other than a very old(and sickly) looking Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's role is probably his last "real" screen role and he doesn't even get to say a word and has little screen time. Lon Chaney plays Mungo - supposedly once a college professor, but c'mmon...he looks like he just got back from the saloon - acts like it too. Tor Johnson has a very minor role. The best performance for my money is the way over-the-top performance of John Carradine who is barely in the movie's first two-thirds but explodes onto the scene in the third act. He is as thick a slice of ham as you will find spouting dialog about Saracens, etc... and having an old Moses beard. The Black Sleep isn't a great horror film but definitely a fun one. You just cannot go wrong with these actors even in a slightly less-than-stellar vehicle as this. Just watching Rathbone make little witty quips or seeing Carradine yell "Up! Up!...Kill! Kill" to a band of freakish mutant coming through a fireplace is worth seeing it all by itself.

Now THIS is a cast! The screen's greatest horror stars: Basil Rathbone! Star of "Son of Frankenstein", "Tower of London", and 'Hound of the Baskervilles'! Lon Chaney Jr! Star of "The Wolf Man", "Man-Made Monster", and "Spider Baby"! Bela Lugosi! Star of "Dracula", "The Raven", and "Murders in the Rue Morgue"! John Carradine! Star of 'Bluebeard", "House of Frankenstein" and "Face of Marble"! Tor Johnson! Star of "Bride of the Monster", "Plan 9 from Outer Space', "The Unearthly'! and Akim Tamiroff! Yeah, Akim! Star of such horror classics like...uh....uh...I dunno, maybe he snuck in through the back?Any fan coming in to "The Black Sleep' eager to see his favorite horror stars cavorting in a 'Bat pack' of the horror genre will be sorely disappointed, as Basil Rathbone(more of a mystery star and villain in costume dramas than a horror specialist) and Akim Tamiroff(playing a role intended for Peter Lorre) get the juiciest roles, and the rest are relegated to cameos at best. This dilemma has made the "Black Sleep" more of a "Black Sheep" among horror fans, but there are worse things to lose sleep(hehe heh) over, and if you stop yer' whinin' for a minute, you'll find this to be a perfectly satisfying, and quite literate, Gothic horror film which, as has been pointed out, spreads the seeds of what would be sewn in the oncoming Hammer films cycle the following year.Herbert Rudley plays Dr. Gordon Ramsay, a neurosurgeon(and TV chef) who is about to be hanged for the murder of a moneylender which he did not commit. He is saved by his former mentor, Sir Joel Cadman(Rathbone)who has discovered a drug which places people in a death-like coma which he acquired under mysterious circumstances(Friar Laurence needed the money you see, after that little Montague/Capulet scandal...). He arranges to have the body delivered to his wisecracking tattoo artist henchman Udo(Tamiroff); a lecherous gypsy who thinks he's the reincarnation of dozens of things. Cadman offers Ramsay the chance to hide out in his seaside manor in return for his assistance in performing experimental brain operations. Having no real choice, but grateful to the doctor, our hero accepts.(Hmmm, hero is framed and sent to prison, becomes mad doctor's assistant, what Hammer Frankenstein movie did I see this in? It may have had a MONSTER in it, FROM HELL possibly).Right from the beginning, it becomes apparent that Cadman's medical practice is not what it seems, first, the butler named Cassimir(Lugosi) is mute, apparently as a result of Cadman's experiment, second, a gigantic homicidal maniac named Mungo(Chaney Jr) is loose! Mungo, a mute tard dressed like a medieval highwayman, runs around trying to rape/strangle a servant girl named Laurie, but all it takes to calm him is a command from Cadman's aged but attractive housekeeper, and then he's gentle as a lamb.Ramsay recognizes Mungo as Dr. Munroe, a kindly professor from medical school. Cadman claims that he operated on Munroe to save him from paralysis, but accidentally destroyed his capacity to reason. This should be final proof that Cadman isn't as benevolent as he seems, I don't know about you, but if a formerly gentle college professor became a gigantic strangler because of a guy's experiments, who also changed his name to that of a circus gorilla and gave him clothes a few centuries out of style, I'd be mighty suspicious! It doesn't help that Laurie turns out to be Munroe's daughter(!!!). The clincher comes when Ramsay witnesses Cadman's callous experiment on a sailor's exposed brain(An amazingly graphic scene for this film's era), then there's the implication that there have been past victims of the experiments, and more to come, as Cadman is ruthlessly devoted to his secret goal....Rathbone gives what is probably his best horror performance. His character is ABSOLUTELY a prototype for Peter Cushing & Whit Bisssel's portrayals of Baron Frankenstein, but with a considerable depth of character, as Cadman has a rather sympathetic goal(his wife is dying of a brain tumor). This also makes him a prototype for Vincent Price's various Poe-villains. Rathbone masterfully portrays a good man who has become pure evil through his ruthlessness and obsession. Rudley is a refreshingly mature and unattractive leading man, and his romance with Laurie is very convincingly played. The girl playing Laurie generates a lot of sympathy too, as she battles the monster her father has become. Chaney is legitimately menacing as Mungo, but also pitiable. Akim Tamiroff's wisecracking gypsy provides a great contrast to the dour Cadman: He may be more likable, but he's just as evil. John Carradine is a laugh riot as a test subject who thinks he's a medieval crusader("KILL THE INFIDELS!!!").I was expecting Ed Wood-level trash, but the superb acting and literate dialogue(overlooking the plot holes and requisite horror trappings)won me over. I really enjoyed this. Don't miss it.~