When
I was a kid, Bedlam was one of those infamous
titles that genre critics like Alan Frank and Dennis Gifford
informed us was so shocking that it had been banned by the British
censors, alongside the likes of Freaks, Island
of Lost Souls and...erm... Dr Zanikoff's Experiences
in Grafting. Of course, a few years later I began to
discover that the BBFC had banned hundreds of films, rarely
with good reason, but nonetheless, the film still held a fascination
for me until I finally saw it on TV and was somewhat disappointed
to find that it was a rather sedate historical drama.
The
film is set in 1761, where the head of the Bethlehem (or Bedlam)
asylum, George Sims (Boris Karloff) runs the institution as
a combination of prison and freak show, charging people to come
and look at the 'loonies' and sometimes renting them out as
party performers to wealthy wasters like Lord Mortimer (Billy
House), who chortle as the poor wretches are painted gold and
made to perform soliloquies until them die. Mortimer's companion
Nell (Anna Lee) is less amused by this and - with the encouragement
of a local Quaker (William Hannay), she tries to convince her
benefactor to reform the place. However, Sims convinces him
that such reforms would be expensive, and when he backs out,
Nell leaves him and then exposes him to public ridicule. Before
long, she has been hauled in front of the Insanity Board and
finds herself locked up in Bedlam, where she discovers that
not all the inmates are as mad as they seem.
The
first in a long line of films that see sane people locked up
in hellhole asylums (cf: Shock Corridor, Behind
Locked Doors, The Snake Pit), Bedlam
is suitably indignant, handsomely mounted and has a masterful
villain in the form of Karloff, rarely as slimy and cruel as
he is here. Admittedly, at times the film feels like a slightly
more expensive Todd Slaughter effort, with lashings of melodrama
and theatrical excess, but on the whole the film is suitably
restrained - perhaps not as much as the average Val Lewton production
(this was his last horror film), but moreso than most horror
films of the period.
This
is one of Lewton's less regarded films, and so it's good to
see it emerging on DVD where it can hopefully find a new audience.
It's not a great film, but certainly one worthy of
attention.
When
I was a kid, Bedlam was one of those infamous
titles that genre critics like Alan Frank and Dennis Gifford
informed us was so shocking that it had been banned by the British
censors, alongside the likes of Freaks, Island
of Lost Souls and...erm... Dr Zanikoff's Experiences
in Grafting. Of course, a few years later I began to
discover that the BBFC had banned hundreds of films, rarely
with good reason, but nonetheless, the film still held a fascination
for me until I finally saw it on TV and was somewhat disappointed
to find that it was a rather sedate historical drama.
The
film is set in 1761, where the head of the Bethlehem (or Bedlam)
asylum, George Sims (Boris Karloff) runs the institution as
a combination of prison and freak show, charging people to come
and look at the 'loonies' and sometimes renting them out as
party performers to wealthy wasters like Lord Mortimer (Billy
House), who chortle as the poor wretches are painted gold and
made to perform soliloquies until them die. Mortimer's companion
Nell (Anna Lee) is less amused by this and - with the encouragement
of a local Quaker (William Hannay), she tries to convince her
benefactor to reform the place. However, Sims convinces him
that such reforms would be expensive, and when he backs out,
Nell leaves him and then exposes him to public ridicule. Before
long, she has been hauled in front of the Insanity Board and
finds herself locked up in Bedlam, where she discovers that
not all the inmates are as mad as they seem.
