Rent The Ghost Ship / Bedlam (1946)
3.5 of 5 from 55 ratings
2h 29min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
This double-feature brings together two of producer Val Lewton's classic RKO horror films... In 1943's 'The Ghost Ship', Tom Merriam (Russel Wade), the young third mate on a freighter bound for Patagonia, witnesses the murder of a crewman by the ship's captain, Will Stone (Richard Dix). Merriam realizes Stone is going insane, but the rest of the crew won't believe him...or that he may be the mad captain's next victim! Boris Karloff reunites with Lewton for a third and final time in 1946's 'Bedlam', set in 1761 at a London asylum. Karloff gives an unfortgettable performance as the doomed overseer who fawns on high-society benefactors while ruling his mentally disturbed inmates with an iron fist. Restored from their original nitrate negatives, both showcase Nicholas Musuraca's cinematography under the inspired direction of Mark Robson. - Actors:
- Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard, Edmund Glover, Robert Bice, Eddie Borden, John Burford, Tom Burton, Harry Clay, Alec Craig, Boyd Davis, George DeNormand, Cliff Edwards, Skelton Knaggs, Mike Lally, Sir Lancelot, Nolan Leary, Charles Lung, Paul Marion
- Directors:
- Mark Robson
- Producers:
- Val Lewton
- Writers:
- Donald Henderson Clarke, Leo Mittler, William Hogarth, Val Lewton, Mark Robson
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Horror, Thrillers
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 29/05/2023
- Run Time:
- 149 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Various
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Commentary on 'Bedlam' by Tom Weaver
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Reviews (1) of The Ghost Ship / Bedlam
Review of Ghost Ship. - The Ghost Ship / Bedlam review by Steve
This was only briefly shown in cinemas as a charge of plagiarism was filed and it wasn't seen for fifty years, until it fell out of copyright. Whatever the validity of the legal challenge, this is a typical Val Lewton horror, rich with atmosphere: of shadows and fog, and sea shanties; of arcane traditions of the sea and dense emotional anxiety.
RKO asked Lewton- the producer- to get some use out of the studio's water tank and a ship already built for another production. The Ghost Ship examines the deepest fear of its main character; Russell Wade plays an inexperienced Third Officer on his maiden voyage on a cargo ship, concerned that he lacks practical knowledge.
The captain (Richard Dix) is a martinet obsessed with authority, but also he lacks moral will. He always fails to act, resulting in death or danger, but has built a weird, crazy philosophy justifying his negligence. The novice begins to suspect the captain's sanity, but is isolated because everyone else on the ship is blind to these misfortunes, and he doubts his own judgement.
The tale is narrated by sailor who is mute; his poetic commentary is extremely pessimistic. There are extraordinary action sequences; when the anchor is returned to its locker, a labourer (debuting Laurence Tierney) gets shut inside by the skipper and slowly crushed to death. There is that touch of the peculiar that is characteristic of the Lewton horrors. It's a shame this brief, hallucinatory film isn't better known.
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