If you're watching a classic horror movie and you see the words 'produced by Val Lewton' sprawled across your screen, you know that you're in for a great movie! While Bedlam doesn't represent Lewton's best work, or even his best collaboration with the great Boris Karloff, it's still a great atmospheric horror film. The story takes place in an eighteenth century 'Looney bin' called "Bedlam", and stars Karloff as the apothecary general. Lunatic asylums make for great settings for horror movies, especially when they're set in the time period that this one is set in. Nowadays, hospitals are more geared towards helping the patients; but back then, they weren't; making the setting more horrifying and therefore riper for a horror movie. The plot sees a young woman who becomes concerned at the way the patients are being treated at Bedlam. After trying to get the asylum to reform their practices, the powers that be decide to have her committed in order to save themselves money and stop her revealing how badly the patients are treated.

As usual with Lewton, the film breathes a thick and foreboding atmosphere and this is the main star of the show. The atmosphere is complimented by a nice story which, although there's maybe slightly too much talking, plays out well and features a great ending that is seething with irony. Mark Robson isn't as great as the other directors that Lewton has worked with; Jacques Tourneur and Robert Wise, but he knows his stuff and the three films that he made with Lewton, while falling somewhat short to the others', are still nice horror movies. The Body Snatcher will remain the finest collaboration between Karloff and Lewton - but that film was exceptional and the fact that this one doesn't live up to it isn't a commentary on it's quality. Karloff himself puts in another awesome performance and his screen presence combines with his mannerisms to create an eerie performance from the great horror legend. This film comes with high recommendations from yours truly. I'm a big fan of Lewton, and after seeing a number of his films; I don't see how anyone couldn't be.

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.