Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story (2019) on Netflix
Investigative reporter Nellie Bly has herself committed to the Women's Lunatic Asylum to expose its treatment of patients. There she is known as Nellie Brown and remembers nothing but her name.
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- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.4/102,524 votes
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Trailer
Plot summary
Found wandering the streets of New York City in 1887 with no memory except her name, Nellie Brown is committed to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island. The asylum buys newspaper advertisements asking whether anyone knows her; a man comes forward thinking she may be his wife, then says she is the wrong woman. Nellie asks Dr. Josiah, the institution's psychiatrist, for permission to return to the city in hope that something there will restore her past; he insists she remain until her memories come back. Nurses under Matron Grady subject her to beatings and other brutal treatment. She befriends Lottie, a new patient separated from her newborn baby, and tells Dr. Josiah that many of the women held there are not mentally ill.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Nellie Bly's real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, and she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998 under that name, since Nellie Bly was a pen name.
SPOILER
The epilogue says Nellie's work brought about sweeping mental health reform, which included shutting down the Women's Lunatic Asylum.SPOILER
Nellie Bly spent only ten days in the asylum, despite feeling she had been there for an eternity.
