Isle of the Dead / Bedlam

Director: Mark Robson

Product Description

The most celebrated star in the history of screen horror headlines these two atmospheric works filled with producer Val Lewton's trademark mix of mood, madness and premeditated dread. Boris Karloff shares a quarantined house with other strangers on a plague-infested -- perhaps spirit-haunted -- Isle of the Dead. St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in 1761 London is the setting for Bedlam. Karloff gives an uncanny performance as the doomed overseer who fawns on high-society benefactors, while ruling the mentally disturbed inmates with an iron fist. Mark Robson, who edited three films for Lewton and directed five, guides both films.

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 053939724226
• Release Date: May 2003
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Turner Home Entertainment
• Director: Mark Robson
• Runtime: 2 hours, 31 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Weight: 0.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.5" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

Boris Karloff excels.

Isle of the Dead "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE / Hamlet Act 1. Scene V abt. 1601 ‘Under conquest and oppression, the people of Greece allowed their legends to degenerate into superstition; the Goddess Aphrodite giving way to the ‘Vorvolaka.’ This nightmare figure was very much alive in the minds of the peasants when Greece fought the victorious war of 1912.” Gen. Nikolas Pherides (Boris Karloff) is an experienced watcher. That is, he must watch over his troops to be sure they do what they are supposed to and survive to win the day. Finding some time to take a war correspondent (Marc Cramer) to visit the graveyard island where his wife is buried. There, he meets a strange collection of people and an unseen enemy that is much deadlier than any bullet. Will he be able to fight it logically and scientifically? Or will his cultural fears lead him to see the truth? Once again, we see that Boris Karloff can act and that Val Lewton can take a scary title and turn it from a cheap horror movie into a classic Psychological Thriller. ---------------------------------- Bedlam The story suggested by the William Hogarth painting Bedlam plate 8 “The Rake’s Progress Once again, Val Lewton takes what would have been a second-rate horror story and turns it into a sit on the edge of your seat psychological thriller. The basic question of the story is the same as the one in his movie “Ghost Ship”; that is, is man fundamentally good and helpful to others, or is he so self-centered that he will act even to his own ultimate demise? An added element is that of not quite being granted all mental faculties. The year is 1791, Lord Mortimer (Billy House) is just one of the upper class (Wiggs) who gets his kicks from watching the loonies of Bedlam. His protégé (Anna Lee) is discussed at the treatment of the “guests” by the head apothecary, Master George Sims (Boris Karloff, who can actually act). She attempts to correct this to the detriment of Lord Mortimer. So, Lord Mortimer and Sims invite her as a guest to Bedlam. Will she ever get out or just go crazy? While there, she applies a theory supplied by a Quaker (Richard Fraser), one of the Society of Friends; if this works, the tables may turn on Sims. What can Sims say in his defense?