The Black Sleep (1956)

Despite being made as late as 1956, when nuclear bombs, mutants created by radiation and flying saucers were all the rage for B-movie topics, The Black Sleep is very traditional horror film, harking back to the Universal, or even Monogram, features of the forties.  Which shouldn't be surprising, as it is effectively a vehicle for a number of horror stars from that era and is directed by Reginald LeBorg, who had toiled away in Universal's B-unit, mostly working on horror movies (despite being a specialist in musicals), during the forties.  Set in nineteenth century England, the plot involves mad scientist Dr Cadman (Basil Rathbone) using his drug (derived from the Orient), 'The Black Sleep', which can make a subject appear dead, rescue a former colleague, wrongly convicted of murder, from the gallows.  Back at Cadman's creepy old remote ancestral home, the revived medic is expected to assist Cadman in his brain surgery experiments.  Obviously, these haven't been going well, resulting in a cellar full of failed subjects, including another former doctor (Lon Chaney), transformed into a violent brute and assorted other lunatics including John Carradine and Tor Johnson.  Bela Lugosi turns up as Cadman's mute butler.

Cadman's experiments are all part of his attempts to revive his wife from a comatose state and inevitably end in disaster, as the inmates of the cellar escape and eventually kill him.  Along the way it is revealed that it was Cadman and his gypsy henchman (Akim Tamaroff), who were behind the condemned medic's framing for murder.  To be fair, this independently made film is actually not at all badly put together, easily on a par, production-wise, with the better forties Universal B horrors.  Unfortunately, though, it offers nothing new in terms of ideas and provides only meagre scares.  That said, it is fun to see the likes of Rathbone, Lugosi, Chaney and Carradine together in a horror film again, although, in reality, Carradine's role is little more than a cameo, Chaney is reduced to playing an imbecile and poor Bela has no dialogue whatsoever, (due largely to the state of his health - this was his last completed film role before his death that same year).  Rathbone, however, pulls out all the stops in a suitably hammy performance as Cadman.  LeBorg's direction does its best to inject some style into proceedings, but the film is all too often bogged down by a talky script, full of too much exposition.  Still, for completists, we do get to see two titans of low budget exploitation, Lon Chaney and Tor Johnson, fight to the death.