by Everett Jensen

Created on: April 06, 2010

Bedlam

directed by Mark Robson

written by Mark Robson, Val Lewton

based on the engravings by William Hogarth from “The Rake’s Progress”

starring Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Richard Fraser, Glen Vernon, Ian Wolfe, Jason Robards, Leylan Hodgson, Joan Newton, Elizabeth Russell

Val Lewton teams up again with director Mark Robson to create a masterpiece of nightmarish horror.

In 1761 London at St. Mary’s of Bethlehem Asylum also known as Bedlam the inmates suffer through harsh treatment, deprivation, poor living conditions and institutionalized abuse at the hands of the Apothecary General, Master George Sims (Karloff).  Sims believes the inmates are nothing but animals and undeserving of any other treatment.  He does seem to find them amusing and conspires with a wealthy aristocrat named Lord Mortimer (House) to have them put on a little show.  It was common at this time to have the upper crust pay a small fee to be allowed the opportunity to take a close look at the inmates in their cages.  During the show a young man gilded in gold (Vernon) struggles to recite a piece and promptly drops dead.

A young woman of means and elevated birth named Nell Bowen (Lee) eventually comes to feel great pity for the inmates although initially her attitude is haughty and dismissive toward them.  She is counseled by a young Quaker named Hannay (Fraser) and learns from him the simple art of compassion for all creatures.  She decides she wants to reform the hospital but she cannot raise the proper funds.  She makes herself quite a nuisance and is eventually called before a sanity board after acting out in Sim’s presence by making a show out of biting and spitting out some money.   With this evidence the board declares her insane and she is promptly remitted to the loony bin where she makes great strides in helping out her fellow inmates wherever she can.

This is perhaps the most terrifying of all of Van Lewton’s productions as the camera leads us into a world of terrible mysteries and pitch-black secrets.  Here we have a cast of alleged mental defectives who pose a terrible threat to the viewer.  In their cages they bray and howl and when one walks past they put out their hands as if to grab one and pull one  into the belly of the cage.  It’s all done in shadows where we don’t know if some fiend is going to snap us away and do what they might to us where nobody is

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