It is 1761 in London at an asylum for the mentally ill and an acquaintance of Lord Mortimer dies in an attempt to escape from the asylum. Master George Sims appeases Mortimer by having his "loonies" put on a show for him. Mortified by the treatment of the patients, Mortimer's protégée Nell Bowen seeks his aid, then seeks the help of Whig politician John Wilkes to reform the asylum, threatening Sim's corrupt practices.
Mortimer and Sims conspire to commit Nell to the asylum, where her initial fears of the fellow inmates do not alter her sympathetic commitment to improving their conditions as she tends to the comfort of her fellow inmates. Alarmed by Bowen's imminent release, following legal pressure from Wilkes, Sims plans to apply his most drastic "cure" to her, but his attempt is thwarted by the inmates whom Nell has helped.
Sidney Long, an inmate who used to be a lawyer, insists on a fair trial for Sims. Sims' "defense" reveals his own mental instability. An inmate stabs Sims from behind with a trowel that Nell had obtained from her Quaker friend Hannay, a mason by trade. Believing Sims
to be dead, the inmates bury him inside the walls. At the last minute one of Sims' eyes opens and he realizes he is being walled up alive.
Nell is rescued by Hannay. They decide that Sims' fate should remain a mystery to the outside world. The
"insane" inmates could not be held legally responsible under the law in any event. She addresses Hannay with the archaic familiar pronouns thee and thou, suggesting that they have formed a closer relationship.
Mark Robson said he reproduced "much of Hogarth’s The Rake's Progress in our film; in fact, we virtually used Hogarth as our art director. The dialogue was an amalgam of all kinds of eighteenth-century characters, including Lord Sandwich and various others."[3]
Release
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The film has been released on DVD by Warner Bros. as part of a double release with Isle Of The Dead[2] and as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection, and features a commentary by film historian Tom Weaver.[6]
A Warner Bros “Archive Collection” blu-ray double bill with Lewton’s The Ghost Ship was released in the US and UK in 2023 (also directed by Mark Robson), retaining the Tom Weaver commentary.
Reception
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2017)
Initial reception
Variety called it "morbid and depressing, but fascinating at the same time."[7]
Later reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 18 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 6.4/10.[8]
Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film three out of a possible four stars, commending the film's atmosphere.[9]
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