NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (June 2023): Warner Archive have transferred a Val Lewton Double Feature to Blu-ray. The two films are The Ghost Ship (1943) and Bedlam (1946) - both directed by Mark Robson. They are cited as being "Newly restored from their original nitrate negatives". Image quality is exceptional sharing a dual-layered disc with both films having max'ed out bitrates. Contrast is sublime and there are no marks or speckles. There is frequent depth and fine textures. The HD presentation is a significant bump over the DVD from The Val Lewton Horror Collection. P.S. For purists - the moth is still not on Ghost Ship! (see HERE) 

NOTE: We have added 94 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

For both films on their Blu-ray, Warner Archive utilize DTS-HD Master dual-mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. There are a few aggressive moments in both films and they come through with modest depth. Both The Ghost Ship and Bedlam  have scores by Roy Webb, who has hundreds of film music credits to his name, mainly with RKO Pictures including Crossfire, Clash by Night, I Married a Witch, This Is Cinerama, Easy Living, The Window, Fixed Bayonets, Journey Into Fear, I Walked with a Zombie etc. sounding flat, clean and wonderfully dramatic in the lossless transfers. Warner Archive offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray offers a commentary on Bedlam by Tom Weaver. Tom is always a wealth of informative details. He covers a lot on Lewton and some interesting facts on St. Mary of Bethlehem psychiatric hospital in London. It's at his usual high level and was also found on the DVD from The Val Lewton Horror Collection from 2005. Unfortunately there are no other extras.   

Russian-born, Val Lewton put his stylish, poetic, production signature on the most appreciated, modestly-budgeted, 'B' horror films of the 1940s; including Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, Isle of the Dead, The Leopard Man, The Seventh Victim, Shadows in the Dark as well as The Ghost Ship and Bedlam. The Ghost Ship has a paranoid ship's captain who fears that he is losing his mind. He is correct. And a young merchant marine officer who is the unsupported 'Maryk' character from The Caine Mutiny in attempting to expose the captain's behavior which, in this case, includes multiple murders. We have a blind man's prophecy and an awake mute crew member with 'internal monologues', look for an uncredited Lawrence Tierney as one of the crew. It's a cracker of a film. Bedlam was inspired by William Hogarth's 1732–1734 painting series A Rake's Progress. He was even given a writing credit on the film. Bedlam has a Quaker preacher savior, a deadly garden trowel, a live burial, unjustly committed asylum inmates, with Karloff at his most sinister and 'British Bombshell' Anna Lee fighting him at every turn. Delightful. Notably, Skelton Knaggs is in both films. The double feature Warner Archive Blu-ray is a must-own. The a/v quality is a brilliant step up and the film's are some of the most rewatchable in the genre and era. Let's get those last Lewton gems to Blu-ray - a real I Walked with a Zombie, and The Seventh Victim, Shadows in the Dark. At the writing of this review this is 54% OFF at Amazon.

Gary Tooze