by Tommy Hayfield

Created on: June 27, 2010

The word 'bedlam' we're all familiar with as a term that people use to describe uncontrolled chaos is comprehensibly related to the scenes portrayed in the 1946 movie directed by Mark Robson and produced by Val Lewton.  The movie is set in 1761 London at St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum where since 1747 those judged insane and many other people as well were put at the whim of the Master who in this movie is George Sims.  Sims is played by a 59-year old Boris Karloff who cruelly treats the inmates and even sells 'looks' at the residents there to the curious Londoners who could afford a small fee to see the unfortunate in their enclosures.  This look at the cruelty of Master George Sims (Karloff) would only be revealed by a reformer who reluctantly at first has little sympathy for the people immured there but after she becomes a nurse there she begins to understand the cruelty of Sims as he has the residents there recite amusing poems for the small groups he admits to see the spectacle for an admission fee.  Anna Lee plays Nell Bowen and comes to see the cruelty of treating sick people like animals.  She is encouraged by a London Quaker to try to improve the  conditions of the asylum.  The Quaker eventually tries to rescue her from the asylum after Master George Sims and the committee running the place conspire to have her declared insane.  She was committed to the horrible place and endures the horror you'll have to watch the movie to have revealed to you.  All's well in the end but you'll also have to watch it to see how it ends.  It's not a terribly happy movie but it's a message movie that was filmed at a time when mental patients were treated very badly in the United States-the movie was filmed in 1945 and 1946. 

I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies uncut from start to finish.  It's in black and white and also features a few names you older people might be familiar with.  Jason Robards, Sr. played the part of an alcoholic who is there to sober up.  In the movie it was revealed that many residents of 'Bedlam' were sent there to get them out of someones way I guess we could say.  It was sort of like a neighborhood confinement center for Londoners and nearby residents who lost favor with the wrong people.

The movie runs 77 minutes and was released on May 10, 1946.  It was released under different titles in Europe.  The genre could be described as drama/ terror. 

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