Bedlam (1946) on Netflix
London, 1761. Wealthy visitors tour St. Mary's of Bethlehem, the madhouse Bedlam, to watch the patients. Nell Bowen, Lord Mortimer's protégée, is horrified and sets out to reform it.
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- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb6.8/104,799 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
St. Mary's of Bethlehem, a London asylum for the mentally ill called Bedlam, draws wealthy visitors who come to watch the patients confined there as though they were caged animals. An acquaintance of Lord Mortimer dies while trying to get out, and George Sims, who runs the house, appeases Mortimer by staging a show with the patients. Nell Bowen, Lord Mortimer's protégée, is horrified by how the inmates are treated and by the conditions they live in. She seeks Mortimer's aid, then that of the Whig politician John Wilkes, to have the asylum reformed, threatening the corrupt practices at Bedlam.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bedlam (1946)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bedlam was inspired by William Hogarth's 1732-1734 painting series A Rake's Progress, and Hogarth was given a writing credit on the film.
- Director Mark Robson said the film reproduced much of Hogarth's The Rake's Progress and that it virtually used Hogarth as its art director; the dialogue was an amalgam of eighteenth-century characters, including Lord Sandwich.
