Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

zardoz-13 Director Mark Robson's fifth film, "Bedlam," drew its title from the infamous St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in London in the 18th century. This polished, period piece ranks as one of "Cat People" producer Val Lewton's finest productions with nothing to detract from it. Although it isn't strictly horror, this atmospheric character-driven melodrama derives its impact from by its asylum setting. Reportedly, William Hogarth's painting Bedlam Plate #8 "The Rake's Progress" inspired this witty suspense yarn. What is truly creepy about "Bedlam" is Master George Sims' callous treatment of his unfortunate patients and the way he exploits them for the amusement of the upper classes. He charges a tuppence for visitor to turn the asylum as if it were a zoo. When Sims isn't ruling his patients like a tyrant, he flatters an obese nobleman Lord Mortimer (Billy House of "The Stranger") so he can maintain his support. Each character is skillfully written, and drama galore unfolds in this enthralling RKO Picture."Bedlam" takes places in 1761. Lord Mortimer (Billy House of "The Stranger") and his protégé, actress Nell Bowen (Anna Lee of "Seven Sinners"), stop at St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum, an infamous mental institute nicknamed "Bedlam," where a crowd has gathered. One of the inmates died trying to escape, his driver tells him, and then adds that Mortimer knew the gentleman. Sure enough, Mortimer recognizes the corpse as his friend the poet Colby. Earlier, director Robson showed the feeble poet struggling to hoist himself onto the roof, hanging onto the gutter for dear life. Another man arrived and promptly ground Colby's fingers with his boot. Inevitably, Colby loses his grip and plunges to his death.Lord Mortimer blames Apothecary General Master George Sims (Boris Karloff of "Frankenstein") for Colby's ill-timed demise. Apparently, Mortimer had paid Colby the sum of 20 guineas to pen him a masque for his fete. Not only does Mortimer lose the money but now also the evening's entertainment that Colby was hired to furnish. Sims argues that Colby's death was accidental. "This was a misadventure contrived by the victim and executed by Nature's law that all who lose their grip on gutters must fall." Furthermore, he adds Colby came to visit him at St. Mary's to discuss poetry while he—Sims--was absent. The guards thought Colby was a lunatic and locked him up. Colby escaped, but he didn't get away. Sims announces that he will make Lord Mortimer's fete "a frolic you will remember." He convinces Mortimer to all him to stage the entertainment at St. Mary's, and everybody will be overjoyed.Nell Bowen is a woman of opportunity. Starving as a theatrical actress, she won over Lord Mortimer, and he has her around to amuse him. Dressed in the height of fashion, she accompanies him everywhere. Nevertheless, she ridicules Mortimer with qualm at every opportunity. She has trained her parrot to describe Lord Mortimer as a sloth. The moment that she encounters Sims, she hates the head warden with a virulent passion. She criticizes every word he utters, and she snaps at Mortimer, too! The loathsome Sims knows how to bring people around to his way of thinking. He butters up the bumptious Mortimer and slyly outfoxes Nell. At one point, Nell allows her contempt for Lord Mortimer to run rampant and he reprimands her. Later, she tries to sell her parrot in the open market. Actually, she wants the bird to sing the farcical jingle about Lord Mortimer. When Mortimer dispatches a representative to buy the parrot for the princely sum of 100 guineas, she refuses to sell him.Everything that Nell does is steeped in humor. She relies on the power of the jest, but her jesting comes back to haunt her when she has to face a lunacy hearing. Nell appears before a panel of obtuse men who don't appreciate her sense of humor, and they vote to confine her in St. Mary's. Our heroine has talked her way into the asylum and now she must fend for herself! Meantime, the stone mason looks for a way to visit it.Robson doesn't squander a second in this intelligent period piece set during the Age of Reason. He stages every scene so that it appears natural, and nothing seems out of place in this carefully crafted film. At seventy-nine minutes, it never wears out its welcome. The Quakes get fair treatment, and stone mason William Hannay (Richard Fraser) believes in himself and his God. The court room at the end is ironic, but it is also fitting. Our dastardly villain Sims looks as if he is going to save his skin when the unexpected happens from the least thought of source. "Bedlam" qualifies as an excellent, black & white, melodrama, with Karloff giving a tour de force interpretation of shear evil and avarice. Billy House is splendid as the vacuous nobleman who is oblivious to all the barbs that both Sims and Nell heap upon him.

MissSimonetta Val Lewton's final horror production may not be his best effort, but it is nevertheless a fantastic movie, much better than its reputation. I think the reason why many horror movie fans dismiss this one is that it really isn't much of a horror movie per-say: it's more of a melodrama with Gothic elements taken right out of a Poe story.Allegedly based off the paintings of 18th century painter William Hogarth, Bedlam follows Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), the witty young "protege" of a jolly if heartless nobleman (really, she's more of a kept woman, but a Production Code era movie can hardly imply the heroine is a woman of easy virtue), who seeks to reform the ghastly asylum, Bedlam, run by the much ghastlier George Sims (Boris Karloff in one of his best performances). Displeased with the idea of losing what little social power he has as the head of the asylum, Sims pulls some strings to have Nell committed and hopes to both drive her mad and prove her theories that the mentally ill do possess the right to human dignity wrong. Meanwhile, Nell reaches out to the other inmates with compassion, all while plotting her escape with the aid of a young Quaker.The scenes in the asylum are hardly frightening or shocking by today's standards (mistreatment of the inmates with sexual abuse and physical torture are merely implied, and lightly at that), but the lighting and the sounds of shrieks and moaning do conjure a creepy atmosphere. The Quaker love interest is quite bland. The real highlights of the film are Karloff's gleefully wicked performance as the sadistic yet human physician and the philosophical battle between Bowen and Sims over the brotherhood of mankind. Their exchanges are entertaining and dramatically powerful. I've often heard Anna Lee's Nell described as the first feminist heroine of horror cinema, and while I think Zita Johann's character in The Mummy beats her to the punch, she is a strong female character without doubt, active and courageous. She is no angel either; she begins the movie as a greedy person who's reluctant to let the plight of the asylum inmates move her. She has to battle her own hypocrisies in order to change for the better.Truly underrated. Just don't come in expecting a chiller like Cat People or The Body Snatcher.

mifunesamurai This is not a horror movie! It is a brilliant attack on the ignorance of politics and how those with insanity were mistreated in the 18th Century. Boris Karloff, and his beautifully horrid face, gives us those campy looks of disdain he has for the inmates of the once notorious St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum (aka Bedlam). His character George Sims has his own backward way of treating the inmates, and a cruel one at that. Along comes Nell Bowen, a socialite of the rich, who finds that she has a conscious and wants to better the lives of the inmates who live in the appalling conditions. George Sims will have no one telling him how to do his nasty job, and seeks the help of politicians to falsely imprisoned Nell in the asylum.As long as it took me to write the set up to the story, is how long it took BEDLAM to get to that point... too long! After a clumsy start to the movie, we eventually get within the asylum walls and observe how Nell deals with her new lifestyle. This is the most interesting part of the movie and I wish the filmmakers had spent more time in developing the inmates of the asylum and built a stronger bond between them and Nell.Overall, an interesting piece to come out of the Val Lewton stable of horror movies.

Alex da Silva Boris Karloff (Master Sims) runs an C18th mental hospital known as Bedlam. Billy House (Lord Mortimer) is in the neighbourhood and wants to know the circumstances surrounding the death of one of Bedlam's residents. His mistress, Anna Lee (Nell Bowen) goes a step further and wants to expose the cruelty that is being sanctioned at the institution. For all her meddling, she ends up becoming an inmate although she is perfectly sane. However, her strength and resolve has been under-estimated by the sadistic Karloff and she fights back from the inside.The cast are good - apart from Richard Fraser (Hannay) who plays the smug stonemason Quaker bloke who allies himself with Lee. His goody-two shoes outlook is a bit sickly and he just becomes more and more annoying. His dialogue doesn't help him as he has been given a script full of "Thou" and "Thee" and "Thy" and it sounds really stupid. The rest of the dialogue is quite good with dramatic sections between Karloff and Lee, and humorous moments between Karloff and House and the inmates of Bedlam - in particular Ian Wolfe who plays the committed lawyer Sidney, seems to be enjoying himself.One scene that stands out has the sadistic Karloff bring some loonies to entertain the rich who just laugh with disdain and mock their rehearsed performances. The first young man dies from being covered in paint so that his skin pores cannot breathe - an idea that was famously used in the James Bond film Goldfinger years later. The next woman starts singing and it suddenly strikes you - yep - this is where Simon Cowell got his idea for X Factor. Bascically, get a load of mentally ill people onto the stage and encourage them to sing atrociously so that the general public can laugh at them. I bet he watched this film.The story keeps you watching and it depicts the hospital as a place where people were discarded and forgotten. Even wealthy people who nowadays check in to a rehab centre to overcome drug addiction/alcoholism would have been abandoned here as demonstrated by the Jason Robards Sr character. In today's world, he would just check into a wealthy clinic where he could meet other wealthy connections so that they could all meet up and continue their addictions together when they come out. Not in the old days! The ending to this film is quality and provides a memorable section of the film.