Bedlam

“Beauty at the mercy of madmen!”

What does Nell Bowen (Anna Lee) see in St. Mary's of Bethlehem that the rest of London's fine company does not? In 1761, wealthy visitors pay to walk its wards and watch the patients like animals in cages, while she is sickened by the conditions and by George Sims (Boris Karloff), the man who runs the place. Mark Robson, working from Hogarth's paintings, leaves the viewer with the patients behind their bars and the visitors in their good clothes, laughing.