I have seen films that adaptations of, or inspired by, a wide variety of works, but 1946’s Bedlam is the first picture I have seen which contains a credit like this: “suggested by the Williams Hogarth painting Bedlam: Plate #8 ‘The Rake’s Progress’”.
Given the title of that work, I can only assume it depicts an 18th century asylum, such as that upon which the plot here is centered. Boris Karloff is the director of the facility, and he is a cruel and capricious man. He beats and otherwise mistreats patients. There is an arrangement where the public can pay admission to gawk and laugh at the inmates.
He even creates an evening of entertainment for the town’s wealthiest, to see such acts as a stuttering man painted entirely in gold paint being forced to recite verse. The poor man will asphyxiate from the paint covering every pore though, despite what you learned from Goldfinger, that could not kill a person. Still, it is repulsive that Karloff is inclined to dismiss the man’s demise with a pithy, “If I understand, this boy is dying…dead by his gilt.” Oh, the hilarity of wordplay at the expense of the life of another.
Socialite Anna Lee is appalled by Karloff’s treatment of his wards, and seeks to improve their conditions. She has a great deal of empathy: “They’re all so lonely. They pay no mind of us”. I suspect that affinity is due to something in a rough past of hers which is only hinted at: “I have not always worn velvet.” She implores Lord Mortimer (Billy House) to demand improvements to the asylum, but Karloff tempers the man’s requests by giving outlandish estimates to implement those changes.
Lee will eventually tire of House’s lack of commitment to the cause and part ways with him. He, in turn, forces her to part ways with the many things he had been providing for her, including her accommodations.
The one item she will not return to him is her parrot. House offers outlandish sums to her for its return and she even declines those. Unfortunately, such behavior will be held against her when the admitting board for the asylum is weighing whether to commit her. Her cocksure demeanor only makes them more determined, as she rebuts them with statements such as, “Ask me a sensible question and you shall have a sensible answer.”
What was already a strong performance from Lee becomes even more so once she is confined to the madhouse. You can feel how suddenly and thoroughly her world has been turned upside-down.
Somewhat to the film’s detriment, the fellow inmates are largely revealed to be essentially sane to varying extents. They’re just misunderstood is all. For example, there’s one guy who believes he is a dog, but that doesn’t stop him from fully participating in a card game. If only he could find three like-minded friends and we’d have the origin of the “dogs playing poker” painting.
Fortunately for Lee, she happened to make the acquaintance of a Quaker mason (Richard Fraser) before she was incarcerated. One day after she is on the inside, he happens upon workers struggling with stones for a new wing of the asylum. Without any ulterior motives, he assists them. Seeing him among the workers, Lee calls out for any aid he can provide her, and so he slips her a trowel.
How that trowel resurfaces in the plot surprised me, as it happened in a hectic finale long after I had forgotten about it. It is one of several developments which the film the piles on near the conclusion. Many of these are contrivances that beggar belief, but I cannot deny the cumulative power of these events. In particular, there is a one-two punch near the end which is a doozy.
I didn’t have any expectations before watching Bedlam, but was pleasantly surprised by it. Lee makes the most of a strong female character around which the film is centered. That she can steal scenes from Karloff is really saying something.
Dir: Mark Robson
Starring Anna Lee, Boris Karloff, Billy House
Watched as part of Shout Factory’s blu-ray box set Universal Horror Collection Volume 4