The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti |
| Original title | The Black Sleep |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 81 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Reginald Le Borg |
| script | John C. Higgins |
| production |
Howard W. Koch Aubrey Schenck |
| music | Les Baxter |
| camera | Gordon Avil |
| cut | John Schreyer |
| occupation | |
| |
The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti is an American horror film from 1956 by Reginald Le Borg . With the exception of Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, all stars of the American horror film of the 30s to 50s can be seen in the main roles: Basil Rathbone , Lon Chaney junior , John Carradine and Bela Lugosi , who played his final full role here.
action
England in 1872. The well-known and respected surgeon Sir Joel Cadman (in the German version: Dr. Thosti) is desperate. Since his wife has suffered from an almost inoperable brain tumor , she has fallen into a deep coma. Since scientific and medical research did not advance too far in the Victorian era, Dr. Cadman gained his surgical experience through the practical way of learning by doing. In order to be well enough prepared for the crucial operation to save his wife, he wants to "practice" on the brains of some highly involuntary patients as a precaution. To do this, he uses a secret Indian drug called Nind Andhera , which has a strong numbing effect. Cadman calls it The Black Sleep .
The night before his execution, the young scientist and doctor Dr. Gordon Ramsay was visited by his colleague Cadman in the prison cell. Ramsay is (wrongly) accused of murder and was sentenced to death for it. For this deed he is supposed to end up on the gallows the next morning. Cadman absolutely needs Ramsay's alert expertise if his previously unsatisfactory brain experiments are ever to lead to success. And so Ramsay can also enjoy the "black sleep". When the death row inmate is found in shock, Ramsay is pronounced dead and his "corpse" is Dr. Leave Cadman. Back home, Cadman brings Ramsay back to life and makes him his right hand. With the young Laurie Monroe in tow, who brings her missing father Dr. Monroe searches, but the young medic soon comes across Cadman's dark secret.
Sir Joel Cadman is not just an unscrupulous, mad scientist and unscrupulous doctor who uses his patients for criminal experiments. Rather, he has the ambition to restore the victims of his crude brain transplants to the original condition after the operations that have been carried out. But with this intention he fails. His patients wake up in completely different circumstances, are either severely degenerated or severely mutilated. Soon Cadman has an army of his bizarre victims, whom he holds like slaves in a dark, hidden vaulted cellar of a dark abbey, against him. There was a revolt against the surgeon, and the abused creatures, including the dumb mongoose, Laurie's father Dr. Monroe, take terrible vengeance on your tormentor.
Production notes
The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti was shot in 1955 and premiered in June 1956. In Germany the horror flick, which was produced quite cheaply at around $ 225,000 production costs, was launched on November 29, 1957.
Reviews
The film was judged almost unanimously negatively by national and international critics:
"Despite the cast with competent horror stars just a primitive horror fairy tale with cheap effects."
"Exaggerated horror fairy tale, staged cheaply, pathologically fantastic."
Leonard Maltin wrote: “Big horror cast cannot save dull, unatmospheric tale of doctor performing brain transplants in remote castle. Laughable ”.
Halliwell's Film Guide found: "Gruesome and humourless horror film notable only for its gallery of wasted talent".
Web links
- The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945/58. Cologne and Düsseldorf 1959, p. 376
- ↑ Movie & Video Guide , 1996 edition, p. 125. Translation: Big horror movie star cast can't save this stupid, in-atmospheric story of a doctor performing brain transplants in a remote castle. Ridiculous.
- ↑ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide , Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 114. Translation: Gruesome and humorless horror film, remarkable only for its accumulation of wasted talent.