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Isle of the Dead / Bedlam | 
| Director: Mark Robson
Actors: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Richard Fraser, Glen Vernon
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $4.04
You Save: $15.94 (80%)
New (21) Used (10) from $3.07
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 59065
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dvd, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 151 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: DT7242D
ISBN: 0780650611
UPC: 053939724226
EAN: 9780780650619
ASIN: B000A0GOFK
Theatrical Release Date: May 10, 1946
Release Date: October 4, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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.Running Time: 151 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 053939724226
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Boris Perfection May 20, 2009
Nancy J. Taylor
I was thrilled at how quickly the movie "Bedlam" arrived at my home and it was in perfect condition. Boris Karloff never looked so frightening in his understated way. The film helped me understand the way mentally ill people were treated in the past as I was taking a psychology class.
Very old (classic) movie in DVD format... November 4, 2008
Diana Hershberger (State College, PA USA)
Exceeded my expectations....cheaper than had I purchased on eBay! I am delighted as I had been looking for this item for quite a long time!
 Trapped on an Island in Hades October 26, 2008
Jeff Farrow
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
[This review is part of my 31 Days of Halloween series]
I'm focusing on ISLE OF THE DEAD, but also recommend the companion DVD BEDLAM.
Producer Val Lewton got the theme & title for this little horror gem from Arnold Boecklin's (1827-1901) painting with the same name. In the painting there are two figures in a small boat just off shore from a rather dank & weedy looking island. One figure is standing, obscured head to foot by a shroud like cloak. The other figure is seated, also indiscernible and presumably rowing. The kicker is that you can't tell if the standing figure is looking toward or away from the island, just as you can't tell if the boat is moving to the island or away from it. There is an almost overwhelming sense of stagnation. The more you study the painting, the more disturbing it seems to become.
The movie takes place in Greece during a terrible war with carnage all around. Karloff (in an outstanding performance) plays a war weary General who has become desensitized to death & dying & handing out commands to kill & destroy. Cholera (well, I think it's cholera) is scourging the countryside & Karloff goes to the island to enforce quarantine on its few inhabitants residing at an inn. The people include an affable Doctor, an invalid woman & her young & beautiful attendant, an elderly housekeeper, and several others.
Apparently the invalid is suffering from catalepsy & dreads being buried alive (I've explored this condition in PREMATURE BURIAL & THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.) The Doctor & Karloff discuss the ramifications of death being ever present & so near to them. The General reveals himself to be a hard-boiled materialist, a total nonbeliever. The Doctor on the other hand decides to make an experiment of their predicament. He will attempt to invoke the ancient gods to protect them from disease. Incidentally a triple headed dog relic suggests that the island was once the worship place of the goddess Hekate, a deity of black magic.
The other plotline involves the worsening condition of the lady & the growing suspicion of the elderly housekeeper that the beautiful attendant is a vampire, draining her mistress of the life force.
With a set-up like this frightening things are bound to happen-and they do.
ISLE OF THE DEAD is slowly paced, the intellectual issues & the elements of terror carefully presented & explored.
No sex or sleaze, just a good horror flick.
Bedlam is great. April 15, 2008
C. Luciano Jr. (Sao Paulo, SP Brazil)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
BEDLAM: This is an excellent psychological thriller with good performances by Boris Karloff and Anna Lee. Unlike a dozen of today's horror movies (I mean, with a lot of carnage and blood), the real climax of this movie is presented to us on the dialogues and acting itself. I think, that's why some people -- especially, the youngers -- might not enjoy this production. But for Cinema lovers, it is a worth watching movie.
ISLE OF THE DEAD: It is not as good as "Bedlam". Despite some good scenes, the plot seemed weak and redudant.
Boris Karloff excels June 28, 2007
bernie (Arlington, Texas)
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 mines 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 the do what they are supposed to and survive to win the day.
Finding some time take a war correspondent (Marc Cramer) to visit the grave yard island where his wife is buried. There he meats 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.
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Bedlam
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 of 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) that gets his kicks from watching the loonies of Bedlam loon. His protege (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?
Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People
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