Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Please don't spend money on this.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

One of the earliest films in the Sarah Keate "series" (though each film has a different cast and setting), "While The Patient Slept" resembles a lot the Hildegarde Withers films of the same period, especially in the love-hate relationship between the male detective and the female nurse here - schoolteacher there. In some of the films Keate (also called Keating) actually solves the case herself, in others she does practically no detective work; in this one, she falls somewhere in between. Despite some fairly snappy dialogue and a large cast (including the doll-like Patricia Ellis) where everyone is a suspect, this film slows down at times; however, it is worth your patience for a (literally) last-minute surprise, just when you thought you had it all wrapped up. Allen Jenkins' comic relief is sometimes too loud but occasionally funny. **1/2 out of 4.

This is among the better entries in the comedy/mystery genre popular in the 1940s. No one liked the person murdered. Many people had reason to do him or her in. All are assembled in creepy surroundings.Apart from a plot that's easy and logical, what sets this apart is Aline MacMahon. She plays a nurse who happens to be in the house and who helps the police solve the crime.MacMahon was unique in Hollywood history. Though only in her thirties here, she was already playing an old maid. Yet she had an occasional fling at glamor roles. And she was an exceptionally good actress, with a haunting beauty.Her rather heavy-lidded eyes seem to bore right through her co-players, here as elsewhere. ZaSu Pitts had a somewhat parallel career. But at least Erich Von Stroheim saw her as a beauty and a great actress.Maybe MacMahon really couldn't have done it. But I think she had the potential for far greater roles than she was given. As strange as this probably sounds, I can see her, decades later, as the tragic Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night." (She would surely have been better than Katharine Hepburn, an actress, I often liked, in that role.)

WHILE THE PATIENT SLEPT in the creepy old house, his alert nurse looks for clues that will help catch a killer...Fast-moving & fun, this is another example of the comedy crime picture that Warner Brothers was so expert at producing. Casts & plots could be shuffled endlessly, with very predictable results. While this assembly line approach created few classics, audience enjoyment could usually be assured.Intricately plotted, the film boasts excellent production values & a finely sustained spooky atmosphere. Clutching hands, hidden passageways, resentful relatives, suspicious servants & sudden death all make this a prime entry into the Old Dark House genre of suspense films. However, there are enough solid laughs to help lighten the mood.Aline MacMahon, as a starched no-nonsense nurse, shows once again why she was one of the finest character actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. Her facial expressions & body movements are perfectly controlled and constantly entertaining to watch. Arch & angular, she has the right riposte for any situation, but she is also warmhearted & fearlessly brave. From her very first scene, Miss MacMahon puts the picture in her pocket & walks off with it.Chubby Guy Kibbee & loudmouthed Allen Jenkins both add considerably to the entertainment as the cops assigned to the murder case. The suspects consist of a whole gaggle of cousins, including pretty Patricia Ellis, stalwart Lyle Talbot, prissy Hobart Cavanaugh & spiteful Dorothy Tree - as well as mysterious butler Brandon Hurst & the family lawyer, Henry O'Neill.The MacMahon & Kibbee characters reappear in THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 (1938) and MYSTERY HOUSE (1938), although portrayed by other performers.

This is probably the first entry in the "Lance O'Leary/Nurse Keat" detective series; in subsequent O'Leary films, he was played by much younger actors than Guy Kibbee.A group of relatives (all played by well-known character actors) gathers in an old house (on a rainy nite, of course!) to speak to a wealthy relative, who goes into a coma.While they wait for him to recover, all sorts of mysterious goings-on happen, including a couple of murders.A creepy film; worth seeing!