I had always been somewhat underwhelmed by this one - Lewton's artiest production yet and which turned out to be the last of his classic horror cycle at RKO - so I was a little surprised to see it bandied about, on the accompanying Audio Commentary as much as on the "Shadows In The Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy" documentary (paired with THE SEVENTH VICTIM [1943] in Warners' Box Set), as his best!
Mind you, I liked it better this time around than ever before but its inherent stateliness and over-literary script (doubtless brought about by Lewton's painstaking striving for authenticity in every department) still got in the way of my enjoying it for what it ostensibly was, a horror film (indeed, both Lewton and Boris Karloff referred to it as a historical picture)! I had quite forgotten just how witty Karloff is in the film: his character here is possibly the most despicable I've seen from him, and his performance is beautifully judged in every way (it's regrettable, therefore, that contemporary reviews tended to overlook his contribution while lavishing praise on his co-star Anna Lee - which has come to be considered one of the best-ever female roles in the horror genre {sic}). Elizabeth Russell appears in her fourth role for Lewton, and one which almost parodies her own image!; Ian Wolfe is wonderful as Lee's fellow inmate (one of the "People of the Pillar"), who lives in the illusion of having been a great lawyer.
The plot itself is very interesting: the inhuman treatment of the insane in 18th century London was certainly unusual for the time (and, like the grave-robbing theme of THE BODY SNATCHER [1945], critics anticipated that it would shock and repulse audiences; the film was banned in the U.K. for decades!) but it's quite tame when seen today - or even when compared with, say, Samuel Fuller's uncompromising SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963). Typical of Lewton, the intelligent script provides detailed (and, in this particular case, well-researched) characterizations to all the major characters: it just happens that I wasn't drawn to the stilted qualities of Richard Fraser's Quaker stonemason hero or burly Billy House's buffoonish incarnation of an English aristocrat - while the change in Lee's character itself from the latter's haughty protégé to a crusader of social reform (after just one brief visit to "Bedlam") is a little too abrupt to be truly convincing! Still, her battle-of-wills with Karloff is fascinating - culminating in two very different trial sequences: the first of which sees her sentenced to be shut inside the institution that Karloff himself rules by fear, and the second in which the latter is finally turned upon by the inmates and taken to be 'judged' and eventually 'executed' (surely the film's highlight, displaying shades of FREAKS [1932] and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS [1933] but also looks forward to the climax of FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL {1974; itself largely set in an asylum}).
Lewton and director Robson were aided immeasurably by the chiaroscuro cinematography of the legendary Nicholas Musuraca (one of the finest exponents of noir lighting): at its best in the shadowy interiors of "Bedlam" and particularly Richard Fraser's walk along a corridor of cells with the inmates' disembodied hands emerging from the bars - pleading, contemptuous or ready to assault - marking one of the defining (and indelible) images in the entire Lewton canon; much imitated, as duly noted in my review of THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M (1959). However, Robson's direction is generally stodgy and only comes alive in three sequences: the aforementioned 'walk' and Karloff's climactic 'trial' as well as the fete in honor of the Billy House character, where Karloff presents a play starring the asylum inmates - though this is short-lived as the first 'attraction' is a gilded boy who dies asphyxiated almost instantly!
Tom Weaver's Audio Commentary is exhaustive - and exhausting, given his typical rapid-fire delivery; apart from detailing behind-the-scenes anecdotes (my favorite, however, is one where, immediately upon arriving in Hollywood in 1939, Lee and her then-husband - director Robert Stevenson - were invited over by mogul David O. Selznick, who obliged by showing them a rough cut of his current production, GONE WITH THE WIND [1939]!!), he offers ample information on the background of the real "Bedlam" as well as the William Hogarth paintings which inspired the film to begin with.
Mind you, I liked it better this time around than ever before but its inherent stateliness and over-literary script (doubtless brought about by Lewton's painstaking striving for authenticity in every department) still got in the way of my enjoying it for what it ostensibly was, a horror film (indeed, both Lewton and Boris Karloff referred to it as a historical picture)! I had quite forgotten just how witty Karloff is in the film: his character here is possibly the most despicable I've seen from him, and his performance is beautifully judged in every way (it's regrettable, therefore, that contemporary reviews tended to overlook his contribution while lavishing praise on his co-star Anna Lee - which has come to be considered one of the best-ever female roles in the horror genre {sic}). Elizabeth Russell appears in her fourth role for Lewton, and one which almost parodies her own image!; Ian Wolfe is wonderful as Lee's fellow inmate (one of the "People of the Pillar"), who lives in the illusion of having been a great lawyer.
The plot itself is very interesting: the inhuman treatment of the insane in 18th century London was certainly unusual for the time (and, like the grave-robbing theme of THE BODY SNATCHER [1945], critics anticipated that it would shock and repulse audiences; the film was banned in the U.K. for decades!) but it's quite tame when seen today - or even when compared with, say, Samuel Fuller's uncompromising SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963). Typical of Lewton, the intelligent script provides detailed (and, in this particular case, well-researched) characterizations to all the major characters: it just happens that I wasn't drawn to the stilted qualities of Richard Fraser's Quaker stonemason hero or burly Billy House's buffoonish incarnation of an English aristocrat - while the change in Lee's character itself from the latter's haughty protégé to a crusader of social reform (after just one brief visit to "Bedlam") is a little too abrupt to be truly convincing! Still, her battle-of-wills with Karloff is fascinating - culminating in two very different trial sequences: the first of which sees her sentenced to be shut inside the institution that Karloff himself rules by fear, and the second in which the latter is finally turned upon by the inmates and taken to be 'judged' and eventually 'executed' (surely the film's highlight, displaying shades of FREAKS [1932] and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS [1933] but also looks forward to the climax of FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL {1974; itself largely set in an asylum}).
Lewton and director Robson were aided immeasurably by the chiaroscuro cinematography of the legendary Nicholas Musuraca (one of the finest exponents of noir lighting): at its best in the shadowy interiors of "Bedlam" and particularly Richard Fraser's walk along a corridor of cells with the inmates' disembodied hands emerging from the bars - pleading, contemptuous or ready to assault - marking one of the defining (and indelible) images in the entire Lewton canon; much imitated, as duly noted in my review of THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M (1959). However, Robson's direction is generally stodgy and only comes alive in three sequences: the aforementioned 'walk' and Karloff's climactic 'trial' as well as the fete in honor of the Billy House character, where Karloff presents a play starring the asylum inmates - though this is short-lived as the first 'attraction' is a gilded boy who dies asphyxiated almost instantly!
Tom Weaver's Audio Commentary is exhaustive - and exhausting, given his typical rapid-fire delivery; apart from detailing behind-the-scenes anecdotes (my favorite, however, is one where, immediately upon arriving in Hollywood in 1939, Lee and her then-husband - director Robert Stevenson - were invited over by mogul David O. Selznick, who obliged by showing them a rough cut of his current production, GONE WITH THE WIND [1939]!!), he offers ample information on the background of the real "Bedlam" as well as the William Hogarth paintings which inspired the film to begin with.