The Sleep of Death

A lot of negative things can be written about "The Sleep of Death" (and I will...) but NOT that the title is inaccurate! When watching this, you can either fall to sleep or bore yourself to death. Since I don't wish any harm to nobody, I sincerely hope it's the first.

Yes, it's an incredibly boring film! I even got bored reading the other user's praising review (not BA's, but the other one) but still proceeded. In fact, I deliberately sought out this movie because earlier this year I watched "Victor Frankenstein", by the same Swedish director Calvin Floyd and also starring the charismatic lead actor Per Oscarsson, and thought it was great! It's the most faithful and perhaps even best version of Mary Shelley's classic novel, and it urged me to seek out the other works of this director. I found "In Search of Dracula" (a sort of documentary on Vampire movies that I have yet to see) and I found "The Sleep of Death" (which is based on a novel no living soul has probably ever heard of).

"The Sleep of Death" looks and starts interesting enough, with a setting in the late 17th/early 18th century, and the premise of a naïve and spoiled English Lord in pursuit of a mysterious countess dressed in black. Such a blind crush can only lead to trouble. For some inexplicable reason, though, the whole thing becomes uninteresting and tedious after 15-20 minutes already. The young Lord becomes involved with alchemists, murders that look like they may have been committed by vampires, and a sadist army general (Oscarsson) of whom I never figured out what he has got to do with the story.

The costumes look nice, and it's always a pleasure to see Patrick Magee in another macabre role, but still... not good enough.

A SPLENDID INTERPRETATION

A generally textual adaptation of THE ROOM AT THE DRAGON VOLANT by Irish writer of Gothic tales Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, this is a Swedish/Irish production that offers a sterling European cast with a Swedish director, superior recreation of period costuming, and a selection of evocative locations in England and Eire appropriate for the atmospheric significance within Sheridan LeFanu's book. Set in 1815 in a France that is rebuilding after the Napoleonic Wars, the plot follows the activities of a wealthy young Englishman, Robert Terrence (Brendan Price), as he begins his belated Grand Tour with an eye upon using a borrowed and supposedly guaranteed method of winning at casino roulette, but who instead is lured by a captivating French noblewoman (Marilu Tolo) to her estate, resulting in his being in danger of losing more than his funds, while becoming involved in an adventure that far surpasses his romantic aspirations in its effect upon him. Rather than trying to peel away the layers of intensity that distinguish the original in order to establish linear continuity, director and co-scriptor (with his wife Yvonne) Calvin Floyd wisely emphasizes psychologically based gambits deployed by many of the characters, while holding to the plot and actually strengthening it through addition of elements taken from other pieces by Sheridan LeFanu. The film's temper is dark, and some of the photography is too much so but this, along with overmuch use of a synthesizer in the scoring, are its only serious flaws and the acting of Patrick Magee as an enigmatic nobleman, Niall Toibin as Robert's loyal servant Sean, and Price stand out among many performances that leave nought to be bettered. It is noteworthy that such a production is released, one based upon a literary work of merit, that eschews the overfamiliar Grand Guignol normally splashed into cinema of this genre, in favour of focussing upon those inner conflicts that provide the characters with universal significance.

As I type this, there is only one IMDb review for The Inn of the Flying Dragon (AKA The Sleep of Death). I'm not that surprised: the film is so boring that I can't imagine many people would watch it to the end and that even less would actually be arsed to write about it.

Based on the 1872 novella The Room in the Dragon Volant by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu, the film stars Brendan Price as young Englishman Robert Terence, who, whilst travelling through France with his manservant Sean (Niall Toibin), becomes besotted with Countess Elga (Marilù Tolo), wife of the mysterious Count St. Alyre (Curd Jürgens). Believing that the countess is being held against her will by her tyrannical husband, Robert endeavours to help the woman escape, unaware that he is being fooled: the count and countess are thieves who, before robbing their victims, drug them with a potion that renders them cataleptic.

A dreadfully dull pace, dreary performances, and a plot that suggests some kind of vampire is at work before revealing the far less interesting truth, all go to make The Inn of the Flying Dragon a total snooze-fest, one that has been all but forgotten, and deservedly so.

2/10. Struggling to remain focussed, I found the ending very confusing: why was Robert riding a horse naked and how did the count end up taking his place in the coffin?