Boris Karloff stars as a sinister administrator of an asylum in the 18th century, who manages to manipulate a socially conscious young, and sane woman (Anna Lee) to be placed under his care.
Karloff is reliable as always,and Lee's character, while she can be somewhat ignorant of the mentally ill, does eventually realize that even the mentally ill are human beings and should be treated as such.
The movie doesn't seem to me so much a horror film, as much as a commentary on how insane asylums were run and the inmates treated in those days. But I think the movie falls a bit short on that. I realize that, because of the times and the Code, they couldn't show all the true horrors that went on in the mental wards in those days, but the inmates in here aren't actually shown to be mistreated all that much, save for being locked in a cage or chained to a wall.
Still the film is watchable, and Karloff makes it so.
Karloff is reliable as always,and Lee's character, while she can be somewhat ignorant of the mentally ill, does eventually realize that even the mentally ill are human beings and should be treated as such.
The movie doesn't seem to me so much a horror film, as much as a commentary on how insane asylums were run and the inmates treated in those days. But I think the movie falls a bit short on that. I realize that, because of the times and the Code, they couldn't show all the true horrors that went on in the mental wards in those days, but the inmates in here aren't actually shown to be mistreated all that much, save for being locked in a cage or chained to a wall.
Still the film is watchable, and Karloff makes it so.