The Apothecary General of BEDLAM finds his asylum a convenient place to immure his personal enemies.
This was the third of three RKO thrillers which Boris Karloff starred in for producer Val Lewton (the other two being ISLE OF THE DEAD & THE BODY SNATCHER, both 1945). Lewton had the knack of producing films full of atmosphere & menace on a very low budget. BEDLAM is no exception and Karloff gives an especially compelling performance. Gaunt & leering, calmly accepting death and torture as part of his grim business, he shows the monstrous depths to which brutish humanity is able to sink while yet retaining a veneer of civility. His behavior is the stuff of nightmares & his fate is thoroughly deserved.
Anna Lee is spirited in the role of a nobleman's protégée who gradually becomes a champion of fairer treatment for the inmates. Richard Fraser quietly underplays his part as a stern Quaker stonemason who attempts to rescue Miss Lee from Bedlam. Billy House as an obese lord & Ian Wolfe as a barrister confined to Bedlam both offer fine support.
Movie mavens will spot an unbilled Ellen Corby as one of the lunatics.
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Built as a priory in 1247 for the order of the Star of Bethlehem, the structure was first used as a hospital in 1330. Mental patients began arriving by 1403 and Henry VIII made it exclusively a lunatic asylum in 1547. At the time portrayed in the film, the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem had been moved from Bishopsgate to Moorfields and the name had generally been corrupted to Bedlam.' Great abuses did take place there during the 18th Century and members of refined society were allowed for a fee to view the inmates. Now located in Shirley, near Beckenham, it is known as the Bethlehem Royal Hospital and is England's leading facility for the treatment of the mentally ill.
The term bedlam' has come to mean a confused uproar.'
The paintings seen throughout the film are by William Hogarth (1697-1764), whose 1735 series A Rake's Progress included a scene set in Bedlam.
This was the third of three RKO thrillers which Boris Karloff starred in for producer Val Lewton (the other two being ISLE OF THE DEAD & THE BODY SNATCHER, both 1945). Lewton had the knack of producing films full of atmosphere & menace on a very low budget. BEDLAM is no exception and Karloff gives an especially compelling performance. Gaunt & leering, calmly accepting death and torture as part of his grim business, he shows the monstrous depths to which brutish humanity is able to sink while yet retaining a veneer of civility. His behavior is the stuff of nightmares & his fate is thoroughly deserved.
Anna Lee is spirited in the role of a nobleman's protégée who gradually becomes a champion of fairer treatment for the inmates. Richard Fraser quietly underplays his part as a stern Quaker stonemason who attempts to rescue Miss Lee from Bedlam. Billy House as an obese lord & Ian Wolfe as a barrister confined to Bedlam both offer fine support.
Movie mavens will spot an unbilled Ellen Corby as one of the lunatics.
*****************************
Built as a priory in 1247 for the order of the Star of Bethlehem, the structure was first used as a hospital in 1330. Mental patients began arriving by 1403 and Henry VIII made it exclusively a lunatic asylum in 1547. At the time portrayed in the film, the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem had been moved from Bishopsgate to Moorfields and the name had generally been corrupted to Bedlam.' Great abuses did take place there during the 18th Century and members of refined society were allowed for a fee to view the inmates. Now located in Shirley, near Beckenham, it is known as the Bethlehem Royal Hospital and is England's leading facility for the treatment of the mentally ill.
The term bedlam' has come to mean a confused uproar.'
The paintings seen throughout the film are by William Hogarth (1697-1764), whose 1735 series A Rake's Progress included a scene set in Bedlam.