AllMovie

As "reincarnation" dramas go, The Sleeping Memory at least sounds interesting, albeit obviously inspired by the oft-filmed Trilby. When her father commits suicide, Eleanor Marston (Emily Stevens) discovers that he has left her a considerable fortune. But since she knows that he stole the money, Stevens turns her back on her inheritance and opts for a life of genteel poverty. Eventually she tires of her shabby existence and seeks a way out. She is afforded this opportunity by a surgeon who offers to perform an operation that will allow Eleanor to regress to her "previous life" of a century earlier. In true "Bridey Murphy" fashion, Eleanor begins behaving in the manner of her former self, which is all well and good -- until she falls into the clutches of an unscrupulous hypnotist.