Bedlam

Bedlam is a strange film but is well worth watching for the atmospherics alone. Produced by the iconic Val Lewton during his impressive run at RKO, and the only film in this collection inspired by a painting (William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress), Bedlam refers to an asylum for “the loonies” in 18th-century London which is run by the evil and sadistic George Sims (Boris Karloff). After a tour of the asylum (note the fantastically extended zoom out from her shocked face when she enters), Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), mistress of Lord Mortimer (Billy House), demands improvements to the inhumane conditions, soliciting the help of a Quaker stonemason (Richard Fraser). As Nell crusades more indignantly on behalf of the prisoners, she ultimately leaves Mortimer, who, abetted by Sims, arranges to have her declared insane and immured in Bedlam too. The acting is occasionally stiff, largely because of the formal period dialogue, but Karloff, as always, leans deep into his execrable character (“Ours is a human world, there’s is a bestial world, without reason, without souls”). Production designers D’Agostino and Keller deserve much of the credit for creating the thick atmosphere by designing ornate, dramatic sets (the deepest corners of the asylum, the lord’s opulent outdoor dinner by candlelight, the starry night as a backdrop for asylum escape attempts), at certain points giving the film a distinct tinge of horror.