Bedlam
(1946)
Had to happen eventually: Lewton's fixation on the psyche take us to the 18th century and the London asylum whose name was corrupted into a synonym for insanity. An early masque of "loonies" anticipates Marat/Sade, and Boris Karloff plays the sadistic "apothecary general" ripe for comeuppance at the hands of his charges.
Also watched the box set's documentary, Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy, with talking-head tributes by thrillmongers from Billy Friedkin and George A. Romero to Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman. In the process I realized that there are still 2 features in the set I've never screened, not just 1, so tomorrow I'll complete not the set but at least the Karloff chapter of Lewton's oeuvre.
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