The Black Sleep

The Black Sleep

82 mins | Science Fiction, Horror | June 15, 1956

In 19th century England, a noted brain surgeon rescues a former student from being hanged on a false conviction for murder, and spirits him away to an ancient, repurposed abbey far in the countryside. There, he connives his pupil into assisting him in mapping the functions of the various parts of the human brain, using living subjects who are under a terrible animation-suspending drug called "black sleep". Subsequently, the student, along with the daughter of one of the subjects, discover that most of these subjects have survived but are being kept in a dungeon-like cellar, in various stages of physical and mental derangement...

The Black Sleep

82 mins | Science Fiction, Horror | June 15, 1956

The Black Sleep
In 19th century England, a noted brain surgeon rescues a former student from being hanged on a false conviction for murder, and spirits him away to an ancient, repurposed abbey far in the countryside. There, he connives his pupil into assisting him in mapping the functions of the various parts of the human brain, using living subjects who are under a terrible animation-suspending drug called "black sleep". Subsequently, the student, along with the daughter of one of the subjects, discover that most of these subjects have survived but are being kept in a dungeon-like cellar, in various stages of physical and mental derangement...
IMDb rating 6.0
Producers United Artists, Bel-Air Productions
Original title The Black Sleep
Directors Reginald Le Borg
Writers Gerald Drayson Adams, John C. Higgins

Cast

Basil Rathbone

as Sir Joel Cadman

Herbert Rudley

as Dr. Gordon Ramsay

Patricia Blair

as Laurie Munroe

Akim Tamiroff

as Odo the Gypsy

Phyllis Stanley

as Daphne

Lon Chaney Jr.

as Dr. Munroe, aka Mungo

Bela Lugosi

as Casimir

John Carradine

as Bohemund

George Sawaya

as Sailor-Subject

Tor Johnson

as Mr. Curry

Sally Yarnell

as Female Subject

Peter Gordon

as Sgt. Steele

Claire Carleton

as Carmona Daly

Clive Morgan

as Roundsman Blevins (uncredited)

Louanna Gardner

as Angelina Cadman

Aubrey Schenck

as Prison Coroner's Clerk (uncredited)

John Sheffield

as Det. Redford (uncredited)