Bedlam (1946)

Bedlam is the last of the B-pictures that Val Lewton produced for RKO (I've still got three to write about--somehow I've viewed them out of chronological order). Bedlam really isn't a horror film, it's more a social polemic about the need for reforming care for the mentally ill. But it does have Boris Karloff in full creepy mode.

Set in 1761, this is the only film I know of that gives writing credit to artist William Hogarth. The film was inspired by his series "The Rake's Progress," specifically the panel in which the Rake ends up in Bethlehem Hospital, which gained the nickname "Bedlam" (and is the source of that word today). The name of the hospital was changed slightly for the film, as was the chief physician, played by Karloff.

In those days, with almost no knowledge about mental illness, people were caged like animals and left to fend for themselves. The rich could take tours and look at them in their cages, as if they were zoo animals. Karloff, eager to gain favor with a nobleman, uses his "loonies" to stage a show for the upper class. One of the boys dies when he is completely covered in gold paint (which would do in Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger), but the swells just laugh.

The nobleman's "protege" (but probably his mistress) played by Anna Lee, pretends not to be moved by the lunatics' plight, but with the counsel of a Quaker (Richard Fraser) she campaigns for reform. When he finds out it will cost him, the nobleman refuses her, and she leaves him. Her campaigning makes Karloff nervous, and he ends up having her committed to the asylum she wanted to reform.

Things only get into the horror angle at the end, when Karloff, who we are patiently waiting to get his comeuppance, is captured by the inmates and put on trial. His ultimate fate owes a lot to Edgar Allan Poe.

I'm not sure much had advanced in mental health by 1946, as lobotomies were still regularly performed. But this film certainly does wear its concerns on its sleeve, and has a classic Karloff performance. I also wonder if Peter Handke saw this film before writing his classic play, Marat/Sade.