Episode 66: Bedlam (1946) & The Crazies (1973)

Welcome to episode 66 of The Horror Double Bill, the podcast where each week we pair two movies to create something greater than the sum of their parts.

This week we are exploring themes of institutionalisation, corruption, conspiracy and insanity, with one film set in the most notorious psychiatric institute of all time, and the other in a world that has gone completely mad.

First up we have Bedlam, from 1946, and producer Val Lewton. Directed by Mark Robson, it stars Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Richard Fraser and Elizabeth Russell.

Then we follow this with The Crazies, from 1973. This stars Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones and Lynn Lowry.

Along the way, we will be discussing the history of the Saint Mary of Bethlehem Hospital, otherwise known as Bedlam, how and why people were committed for being inconvenient, biological and chemical warfare accidents in the late 1960s, and much much more.

References

Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror by Joel E. Siegel

Icons of Grief: Val Lewton’s Home Front Pictures by Alexander Nemerov

Dreams of Darkness by J. P. Telotte

Music in the Horror Films of Val Lewton by Michael Lee

The Crazies (interviews and extras on the special-edition Blu-ray) from Arrow Video

George Romero on Screen by Chris Wade

George Romero: Interviews, edited by Tony Williams

Book of the Dead by Jamie Russell

https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/chamberofhorrors.html

https://www.zomboscloset.com/bedlam-1946-pressbook

https://brightlightsfilm.com/darkness-darkness-films-val-lewton-looking-back-b-movie-master