Bedlam (USA, 1946)

Adding Bedlam to my list this year was a bittersweet thing. In previous years, I’ve reviewed The Seventh Victim, The Leopard Man, The Body Snatcher, and Isle of the Dead. Bedlam was the only Val Lewton horror film I hadn’t watched, so reviewing it means I have now run out of them. There is nothing that can really take their place in my reviews. But here we are.

If the name means nothing to you, Val Lewton made a string of amazing horror films for RKO in the 1940s, working with legendary directors like Jacques Tourner, Mark Robson, and Robert Wise. While Lewton was only credited as producer on these films, he also wrote or co-wrote a great many of them under pseudonyms. Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie have become enduring classics, and even his lesser work is worth seeking out.

Bedlam is available on DVD in the UK.

Synopsis

It is 1761 in London — the Age of Reason — and frustrated poet Master George Sims (played wonderfully by Boris Karloff) is the chief apothecary of the notorious St Mary Bethlehem Hospital, more commonly known as “Bedlam”. Sims supplements his income by taking the curious on paid tours through the hospital, to marvel at the “loonies”, but this is not enough for him.

When the death of a patient brings Lord Mortimer and his protégée Nell Bowen into his orbit, Sims looks for ways to exploit the situation, gaining the patronage of his lordship. His schemes involve driving a wedge between Lord Mortimer and Bowen, growing more desperate when Bowen befriends a Quaker named Hannay and starts taking an interest in the wellbeing of Bedlam’s inmates.

Using his twisted charms, Sims frames Bowen as mad and has her incarcerated in Bedlam, his to torment. Will this be the end for her, or will she find a way to turn the tables on her captor? Given the film was made under the Hays Code, you can probably guess the answer.

General Thoughts

Etchings by the 18th century English artist and satirist, William Hogarth, adorn the title sequence. Lewton was clearly so influenced by “A Rake’s Progress”, Hogarth’s series of engravings depicting the moral downfall of a wealthy young Londoner, that he gave Hogarth a co-writing credit! There just aren’t enough Hogarth-themed horror films out there.

For a film portraying such stark acts of good and evil, many of the characters are drawn more in shades of grey. Nell Bowen is really not a good person when we meet her. Maybe she’s as open-minded as she can be, given the society in which she lives, but she strains our sympathies when she dismisses the inmates of Bedlam as mindless animals. And while Sims is utterly vile, even those he has wronged search for some redeeming aspects to his nature. All of this nicely reflects the humanisation of those locked up in Bedlam, reminding us that everyone is filled with complexities and contradictions.

Verdict

Bedlam is Val Lewton at his finest. Its mixture of historical drama, intrigue, and moments of horror is a cinematic joy. Sure, it’s not the kind of horror film that will have you peeking from between your fingers, but there is a real sense of menace to Sims and his manipulations. Boris Karloff is perfect casting as Sims, bringing him to sinister, repellent life.

Not all of the casting is as strong, however. Billy House’s performance as Lord Mortimer is spirited, but it’s hard to take an English aristocrat seriously when his accent is so broadly American. While the rest of the leads are all British, none of the supporting cast are, which makes the mix of accents befuddling in some scenes. Still, it might be too much to expect a Hollywood film from the 1940s to worry about such niceties.

This one minor misgiving aside, I absolutely adored Bedlam. Its themes of the abuse of power and the mistreatment of mentally ill people are, sadly, timeless, but Lewton’s script spins them into an oddly uplifting tale. This is a humane, surprisingly nuanced film that looks for the best in even the worst of its characters, thanks largely to Hannay’s Quaker morality informing the story’s conscience. The dialogue is snappy, often witty, and the characters utterly entrancing.

If you have any love for black-and-white movies from Hollywood’s golden age, Bedlam deserves a place on your viewing schedule this month, along with any other Val Lewton films you may not have seen. I just wish there were more of them.

I can’t find a trailer for Bedlam, so please accept this clip in its place

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on Twitter, BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (USA, 2021)
Tales That Witness Madness (UK, 1973)
When Evil Lurks (Argentina, 2023)
Under Paris (France, 2024)
In a Violent Nature (Canada, 2024)
Torso (Italy, 1973)
Titane (France, 2021)
Rorschach (USA, 2015)
The Coffee Table (Spain, 2024)
Dr Caligari (USA, 1989)
Bit (USA, 2020)
The Guard From Underground (Japan, 1992)
Oddity (Ireland, 2024)
Speak No Evil (Denmark/Netherlands, 2022)
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (USA, 1982)
Grave Torture (Indonesia, 2024)
Bedlam (USA, 1946)
The Innsmouth School For Girls (USA, 2023)
Daddy’s Head (UK, 2024)
All You Need Is Death (Ireland, 2024)
Eight Eyes (USA/Serbia, 2021)
Poor Things (Ireland/UK/USA, 2023)
Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye (Italy, 1973)
Longlegs (USA, 2024)
Night of Fear (Australia, 1973)
Stopmotion (UK, 2024)
Terrifier (USA, 2016)
Azrael (USA, 2024)
Faust (Germany, 1926)
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Hong Kong, 1991)
I Saw the TV Glow (USA, 2024)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.