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A sane woman is put into Boris Karloff's Bedlam asylum
In the case of this 1946 film the term "Bedlam" refers to the infamous 18th century London aslyum for the insane. Set in 1791, the story tells of the time when the English upperclass would actually go to Bedlam for an entertaining evening of watching the imprisoned lunatics. The film was actually inspired by the infamous engraving of Bedlam that William Hogarth did for "The Rake's Progress." However, one of the visitors, young Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), an actress, is offended by the way the inmates are treated. When she tries to do something about it both her patron, Lord Moritmer (Billy House), and George Sims (Boris Karloff), the master of the asylum, stop her by having Nell committed to Bedlam.

"Bedlam" does not receive as much notice of some of the other films of producer Val Lewton, such as "Cat People" and "The Body Snatchers," but this is still a solid little film. Where it differs from the others is that it is not really a horror film per se, but more of a period peice about a horrific time and place. Of course, when you have Karloff playing the bad guy, in one of his above average performances, it is hard to remember that this around he is just a human monster. Lewton co-wrote the script under the pen name Carlos Keith and it ended up being this last at RKO. Director Mark Robson ("The Ghost Ship" and "Isle of the Dead"), the other co-writer, does a masterful job of creating sympathy for the inmates, most of whom are given great little bits as some point during the film. The ending can be dismissed as melodramatic, but there were really not a lot of better options for ending this one.

Ultimately, the setting for "Bedlam" is better than the actual story. It is rather impressive that with the rather pedestrian plot this production did such a great job of capturing the lunatic asylum, in terms of both the set and the various poor souls trapped therein. Such things surely go beyond the status of mere window dressing. Final Note: Watch for Jason Robards, Sr., as Oliver Todd; I think this is the first time that I got to see the father of Jason Robards, Jr. in a film (although at this point he is just listed in the credits as Jason Robards).