Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Everybody Who Was Ever Scary Is In It!


Greenbriar Deep In The Black Sleep (1956) --- Part One

BS Was No Classic, But Stills For It Surely Were
I believe there's more scholarship on The Black Sleep than for any picture released in 1956, including The Ten Commandments. It's nobody's favorite horror film, and yet close to hearts of many. BS was gothic when most of the genre was spacemen and bugs. Old-time faces were combined for a sort of pre-Mad, Mad World of chilling. Each could be had for comparative change, Basil Rathbone a sort-of exception for getting $10-15,000 to star, but even that was a bargain when you factor value of his name. Others of the group, according to recall of producing Aubrey Schenck, drew down from a thousand (Lon Chaney) to measly hundreds (poor Bela). Accounts here do vary, however. Lugosi's wife, Hope, said he got a grand, and since she was the one managing rent and groceries, I'd call her account most reliable. What does any of this matter after fifty-eight years? Nothing perhaps, but fact is it does matter, a great deal, to those who'd choose The Black Sleep's shooting set as Destination One in event of time travel becoming reality.

Best Since Dracula and Frankenstein? According to Anecdotes,
 A Lot of 1956 Kids Thought So

First, an acknowledgement of source from which data flows. 90% of what's out there on The Black Sleep --- interviews, research as in boots-on-ground --- is work of Tom Weaver, who dug into detail of the film's production years ago when many of participants were still among us (virtually all gone now). He is the reason we know so much of The Black Sleep, so be assured that everything here is merely Greenbriar's read on what Weaver wrote. And incidentally, he has a new book out in a few weeks, the definitive history of all three Creature (as in Lagoon) features made by Universal-International in the 50's. This will be answer to prayers of sci-fi fandom and all those who revere the Gill Man, a most hotly anticipated 2014 publishing event (The Creature Chronicles: Exploring The Black Lagoon Trilogy, available from Amazon).

Tor, Carradine, and Herb Rudley Chill Out Between Takes

Back to The Black Sleep. There is so much, maybe too much I'd say about The Black Sleep. At what point does one's enthusiasm for a topic outrun everyone else's interest, or patience? And so I guess Greenbriar is an only place I can Sleep sound, and dream of what took place for those couple or three weeks during which the show was shot, and what circumstance brought a fabled cast to say Boo in underpaid unison (that last is the fan in me talking --- I'd have been for giving Rathbone, Lugosi, Chaney, Carradine, even Tor Johnson, a million each --- of Aubrey Schenck's money). Most, I'd suppose, were grateful for the work. They all seemed to have shown up, in any event --- but what more invitations went out, and to whom? Was Karloff approached? You'd think he'd have been first. Peter Lorre had his chance, but said no, a "billing dispute," according to Variety (1/23/56). Lorre was to have had the Akim Tamiroff role. A pity we lost him, as Tamiroff was an only white sheep among a black flock, his resume notably shy of horrific content.

I'd Visit The Louvre If They Had This Framed and Six-Sheet Size On The Wall

Trades also reported Lesley Selander being replaced by director Reginald LeBorg. Were we poorer for the switch? From what I've seen of respective work, may-be. Selander was better at tempo, and could uplift weak material, but belief at the time was that LeBorg had higher pedigree for chilling (his many for Universal during the 40's). Or maybe it was just money. For all I know, Selander wanted $100 more to direct The Black Sleep, and that queered him. The film was shot at rented facility (Ziv, where TV magic was made with Highway Patrol and etcetera). The last Mrs. Lugosi visited the set and reported it a dump, but she would say that because Hope seemed to have little hope for humanity, let alone any of Bela's ventures (what a dark cloud this woman was upon BL's last horizon). LIFE magazine actually sent a photographer to cover The Black Sleep shoot during February of 1956 (they must have intended to do a magazine feature on the film --- did that transpire?). The LIFE visit yielded oodles of great art and backstage glimpses. Everyone is caught candid, looking tired, maybe a little resigned. No, this wasn't MGM, but by 1956, even MGM wasn't MGM anymore.


A great and unheralded thing about The Black Sleep was stills they took ... I mean beyond the LIFE captures. Wonderful, moody portraits of all the cast, plus group posing to better evoke a haunted house than for any chiller I've seen advertised from that period. Others say The Black Sleep was like a 40's Universal, Columbia, or Monogram mad doctor operation being performed again. It is an old-fashioned yarn, done by middle-age men who remembered scares of yore. Writing seems peeled off blueprint Sleep's cast had consulted before, by Lugosi especially. He'd complain of "big cheese" Rathbone now playing the lead that would have gone Bela-way a decade before --- before Lugosi went into voluntary rehab for drug addiction, that is. Could he have possibly carried Basil's bags (and lots of dialogue) in these last months of life? (Lugosi died in 8/56) What we'd all like in hindsight is opportunity for him to at least try, but how realistic is that? People were spending real money to finish The Black Sleep on schedule, and that money was, after all, short.


Lugosi Gets a Leather-Bound Copy of Black Sleep's Script
Basil Rathbone found Ziv a slumming address in any case. He'd been the merry prankster on We're No Angels the previous year, according to its ingĂ©nue Gloria Talbott, but that was Paramount and Technicolor and company of Humphrey Bogart as star, with Michael Curtiz directing. Basil was affable for pride in being there, We're No Angels an inarguable "A," just as was his last before The Black Sleep, which was The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. Co-player Herbert Rudley said Rathbone kept to himself through The Black Sleep. Maybe I'd have done the same under similar humbling circumstance. Rathbone did reach out to Bela Lugosi, who was, of course, worse off than Basil's darkest hours before, or to come. A little poem BR sent BL, to effect that we can't change what's past, but must look to a better future, was meant to boost a beaten man, but you wonder how proud Bela took the gesture. Did he figure big cheese Basil to be patronizing him? Oh, to have been an observer on that set, and all the human drama it afforded.

Part Two Of The Black Sleep is HERE.

3 Comments:

Blogger Reg Hartt said...

There is so much unbelievable sadness in all these faces. I remember the excitement I had walking into a theater to see it. I knew nothing about them beyond the names on the posters. That's poignant now knowing what happened to these men. Still, they had some extremely good times and left us some extraordinarily fine movies. Life has been far worse to many others. How many current stars have names which will resonate as theirs do? Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney, Rathbone. There is proper magic in those names.

3:57 PM  
Blogger Bill O said...

Ironic that it was paired with Creeping Unknown, a Hammer film, the studio that would take over gothic horror.

6:49 AM  
Blogger Tom said...

As bizarre as this collection of Hollywood stars, now has beens, may be, I agree that there is a profound sadness to looking at the faces of these tortured men.

At least two of them addicts, Lugosi and Chaney (and Lorre would have been a third if he had joined them), with both Rathbone and Carradine reduced to slumming it in order to still make a living in the Hollywood factory of the '50s.

I can understand why Rathbone, so extroverted on the set of the Bogart "A" the year before, may have kept to himself on the Black Sleep set.

And what awaited Lugosi and Tor Johnson at this time - Edward D. Wood, the one man wanting to work with them. What an odd collection of souls those three would make.

8:13 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024