Bedlam

The last of Val Lewton's horror productions at RKO. The setting is St Mary of Bethlehem in eighteenth century London, the asylum everyone called Bedlam. Boris Karloff plays Master Sims, who runs the place and hires his inmates out as entertainment for wealthy guests, a soft spoken man whose politeness is the frightening part. Anna Lee's Nell Bowen says so out loud and finds herself committed. The source is unusual. Lewton built the film out of William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, engraved between 1732 and 1734, and Hogarth is credited on the screenplay. Lewton wrote it with Mark Robson under the pen name Carlos Keith. A warning for horror audiences: there is no monster here and the dread is entirely social. The budget shows, crowd scenes are handled with tight framing, and the ending arrives in a rush. Who it is for: admirers of Lewton's atmosphere over spectacle. Who it is not for: viewers who want classic horror machinery.