Original subtitles

- Something wrong superintendent?

- Absolutely not Robert.

Please proceed.

- There's nothing wrong with me.

- Shh.

Miss Puge we're here to help you.

No need to be afraid.

The librium of the scrotum as diagnosed...

- Get on with it.

- Miss Puge.

- No.

- No one is out to get you.

You're safe, this is part of your treatment here

at Blackwell's Island.

You do want to get well, don't you?

- No, no, no.

No.

- Feel better now don't you?

- Mama.

- Doctor Kinier.

What's happening?

- I don't know if I have enough.

- Can you hear me?

Talk to me.

- Enough!

Send her to the crematorium.

I will make out the papers.

- I wasn't always known as Nellie Bly.

I was born Elizabeth Cockringe during the Civil War,

outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Since I was a child, I wanted to be a reporter.

It'd been two years since I wrote the Pittsburgh Dispatch,

to criticize an article that mocked women looking for work.

The managing editor was so impressed with my response,

that he made the rare choice of hiring me,

a female to work as a reporter.

You see in 1887, journalism was a man's world,

an exclusive, albeit, crusty cigar,

and spittoon filled club.

The women were not welcomed.

- Nellie Bly.

We were considered too dainty

and fragile for such work.

So how did I, the fabled mere woman,

fair sex, a faint heart,

become the most known investigative reporter in the world.

Well, I have always believed

that energy rightly applied and directed...

- Come in.

Will accomplish anything.

- Nellie Bly I'd like to introduce you to our publisher,

Joseph Pulitzer.

- It's very nice to meet you Mr. Pulitzer.

It is a great honor.

- Bly is not your real name.

- No, Nellie Bly is my pen name.

- She is small.

- But plucky.

- Is that enough?

- Her recommendation is impeccable.

Her reputation is outstanding.

I believe she was made for this.

- She is unknown.

If this fails, it is not her reputation that is on the line.

- I would live to thank you for the advance, Mr. Cokerill.

I am ready for any opportunity the World Newspaper

has for me.

- I've spoken with Mr. Pulitzer

about some of the ideas you suggested.

- Oh.

- Would you really have gone up in a balloon?

- Without question.

You gave the assignment to a male reporter instead,

I would have drawn greater sensation.

- No doubt.

But we have another idea,

the World Newspaper would like you to infiltrate

one of the asylums for the insane in New York City.

- To report on the treatment of the patients?

- Yes.

- Which asylum?

- Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum for Women.

- To get in, I will have to be committed.

- We can find a doctor who'd be willing to sign the papers.

- No I'll have to do it myself.

The only sure way I am not revealed

is absolutely everyone must believe I am insane.

How will you get me out after I once get in?

- I do not know.

It will be quite dangerous.

- I have faith in my abilities.

- No doubt you have faith in your abilities

to deceive the insanity experts,

I fear they cannot be deceived.

- I will teach myself to be mad.

- It is vital that you not be revealed,

your very life may be threatened.

- I am not afraid of danger.

- And how do we truly test the competency

of the doctors and nurses.

- The answer is simple,

I will be insane long enough to get committed,

but from the moment I enter the insane ward on the island,

I will talk and act just as I do in ordinary life.

Then it is decided.

- It is decided.

- I shall feign insanity have myself committed

to Blackwell's Lunatic Asylum.

Yes.

Uh, just one more thing.

- What is it?

- I am afraid of that chronic smile of yours.

- I will smile no more.

- After receiving my instructions,

I returned to my boarding house.

And in front of the mirror,

I began to practice the role in which I was to make my debut

to convince the world that I was insane.

I turned the gas up high,

in hopes that it would raise my courage

against the thought that I about to be locked away

in a mad house, with no clear way to get out.

I quietly bathed fair well

to the precious comforts of modern civilization.

It may be for days.

It may be for longer.

I took a last fond look at myself as a sane woman.

Who could tell, but that the strain of playing crazy

might burn my own brain

and I would never get back.

I decided to start my mission at a temporary home

for working women.

My objective was to make this house full of women

believe me crazy,

so they would never rest until I was out of there reach

and in secure quartets.

- Well what do you want?

- I want to stay here for a few days,

if you can accommodate me.

- Well I have no single rooms, we are so crowded.

But if you will occupy a room with another girl,

I shall grant you that much.

- I shall be glad of that.

How much do you charge?

- Thirty cents a night.

Move along.

So now I was amongst these honest workers,

the most deserving of women.

I selected them as the ones to work out my salvation,

or more properly speaking,

my condemnation and conviction into the insane asylum.

- Shhh.

Shhh!

Shhh!

- What's wrong with you?

Have you some sorrow or troubled?

- No why?

- Oh because I can see it in your face.

What kind of work are you trying to get?

- I never worked, I don't know how.

- But you must learn, all these women work.

- Do they?

Oh why they all look horrible to me.

Just like crazy women.

There's so many crazy people about.

It was amusing to see

what remarkably short time it took to get up from her chair

and hurriedly move away from the crazy girl.

I knew my performance had hit home.

- So I said to the supervisor,

that it's just not right to keep this place so cold.

I mean if they want us to produce faster,

they really ought to invest in a couple sticks of wood

for the stove, don't you agree?

- I don't know, I cannot say.

Oh yes, I mean no, I don't know.

Oh is it suddenly hot in here?

I know nothing about the boats to Boston.

I have to find my trunks!

- It's time for bed ladies.

- Oh I'm afraid.

Can I not sit by the stairs tonight?

- No!

Everyone in the house will think that you're crazy.

- This way Miss Brown.

- No, this is my room.

I will not stay with that crazy woman

for all the money in the Vanderbelts.

My act was working.

The women were afraid of me.

- I can't have her scaring you all off.

I'll send for a policeman

and have her taken away at once.

Go fetch a policeman from the corner.

- No she can stay in my room.

- There's only one bed, I don't have time to set up another.

- That'll be fine.

- Only this one woman among the crowd,

pretty and delicate Mrs. Caine...

- Suit yourself.

- Displayed true compassionate feeling.

She smoothed my hair

and talked as soothingly to me as a mother would do

to a sick child.

- I don't remember much about my mother,

but I always remember her combing through my hair

and getting me ready for bed.

Let's get you out of that dress and ready for bed.

- No!

They're going to kill me.

- Who's going to kill you?

- I will not take off my dress.

- Perhaps if you just lie down on the bed

with your clothes on...

- No!

- Here look, I will lie down on the bed

with my clothes on as well, be ready with you.

- I will not.

- Do try to rest dear.

- You're still awake, lively as a cricket.

- I have to find my luggage.

- Oh dear, you have been up on your feet all night,

you must be exhausted.

Though Mrs. Caine grew more and more anxious..

- Sit and rest poor thing.

She was as sympathetic as ever.

Poor soul, how cruelly I tortured her.

- I have trunks.

Where are they? I want them.

I want them.

And what a kind heart she had.

- I'll see if there's any more of them.

- How much I admired her courage and kindness,

how I longed to reassure her

and whisper that I was not insane.

How I hoped that if any poor girl

should ever be so unfortunate as to be

what I was pretending to be...

- Poor child.

She might meet with one

who possessed the same spirit of human kindness

as Mrs. Ruth Caine.

- Yes I believe the poor dear is insane.

- I want you to take her quietly.

- If she don't go quietly,

I will drag her through the streets.

- I certainly wish to avoid raising a scandal outside.

- There's no need for that kind of brutality.

- I'll handle this.

We'll take her along quietly.

Well hello there sweet girl.

If you would like to come with me,

I'll help you find your lost effects.

- Who are you?

I don't know you.

- He's a policeman love.

He means you no harm,

he's going to help you find your things.

- I don't want to go with him alone.

I do not know him.

- You don't have to go with him if you don't want to.

- I will help you find your trunks.

We can find them together.

- You will?

- Of course, they couldn't have got very far.

Now you just come along with me.

Follow us at a respectable distance.

- These policeman are here to help you.

The skies were overcast

as I was taken to the S6 Market Police Court.

Where at last, the question of my sanity,

or insanity was to be decided.

- Sir, sir, please help me sir.

- Step back.

- Here's the express house.

We're all here to help you find your trunks.

- All these people lost their trunks?

- Yes apparently all of them have lost their trunks.

- I don't know what to do with the child.

She must be taken care of.

Send her to the island.

- No, oh don't, don't.

She is a lady, it would kill her to go to the island.

- Perhaps you're right.

There is some foul work here,

I believe this girl has been drugged and brought to the city

make out the papers,

we'll send her to Belview for examination.

And probably in a few days,

the effect of the drug will wear off

and she'll be able to tell us a story that'll be startling.

- I do not wish to stay here any longer to be gazed at.

- Take her to my office.

- Put out your tongue.

I said put out your tongue.

- I don't want to.

- But you are sick and I am a doctor.

- I am not sick, I just want my trunks.

- Open.

Take a deep breath.

Alright.

Look at my hand.

Follow my hand.

And again.

I believe she's taken Belladonna.

- I'm not in the least ill.

I've never been sick and no one has the right to detain me

when I want to find my trunks.

I want to go home.

- And I will take you home.

- I am so glad to go with you.

I began to have more confidence

in my own ability to play a mad woman now,

since one judge, one doctor, and a mass of people

had pronounced me insane.

I shall never forget that ride

to the insane pavilion at Belview Hospital.

It was at the hospital that I was to be processed

and my fate sealed regarding my commitment

to Blackwell's Island Asylum.

- This girl is to wait here.

- Oh please do not go.

Please do not leave me here, I beg you.

Oh take me with you.

You said that you would take me home.

- I have to assist with an amputation.

- Those noisy commoners.

- I do not want to stay here without you.

- I'll be back soon, I promise.

- To take me home?

- Yes.

At last, I found myself an occupant

of an insane asylum.

I already felt like a woman condemned.

- Hello, I'd like to introduce myself.

My name is Nellie Brown.

I'm here waiting for a nice gentleman,

who is going to come take me home.

- I'm Ann Neville.

This is not a place that you want wait long,

if you don't need to be here.

This is a place of the sick.

- Are you sick?

- Yes.

- How did you come to be here?

- I was working as a chamber maid in a large house,

when my health gave away.

I was sent to a sister's home to be treated.

My nephew is out of work.

Being unable to pay my expenses at my home,

he had me transferred here to Belview.

- Is there anything wrong with you mentally?

- No.

The doctors have been asking me many dubious questions

and confusing me,

but there's nothing wrong with my brain.

- Do you know that only insane people

are sent to this pavilion?

- Yes, I know.

But the doctors refuse to listen to me,

it's useless to say anything to the nurses.

- Let me hold the baby.

- Nellie Brown, the doctor is here.

He wishes to speak with you.

- How are you feeling Nellie?

- Oh I feel alright.

But you are sick you know?

- Am I?

- Yes.

Tell me why did you think the women in the temporary home

were going to harm you.

- Temporary home, I...

What temporary home?

- You did not stay in a temporary home for working women?

- No, I've never stayed in such a place.

- What was the name of the judge presiding over your case?

- I do not remember going in front of a judge.

- I see, what is your father's name?

- I cannot remember.

- What is your mother's name?

- I cannot remember.

- Any brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles?

- I cannot remember.

- Calm down Miss Brown, calm down.

It's fine.

Do you not have a lover that casts you aside?

- No.

- Now what street was the temporary home,

you stayed at, located?

- I did not stay at any temporary home!

- Alright, that's fine Miss Brown.

Try to get some rest, alright.

Not once,

did it cross the admitting doctor's mind

that I might not be telling him the truth.

Based on such an examination,

I doubt any doctor could tell

whether people are insane or not.

- Ow, ah!

Ow, ow, you are trimming my nails to the quick.

- It is for everyone's safety.

- Miss Scott, Miss Scott,

there's a gentleman here from the Sun Newspaper

to interview Miss Brown.

- No one is to see the transfer patients.

- I had to summon all of my courage,

as I was marched to the boat to Blackwell's Asylum;

an insane place, where women never get out.

- Come with me.

- Feet flat on the floor at all times.

- Voiceover] It's strange how after all of my bravery,

I felt a chill at being locked up with fellow creatures,

who were truly insane.

Come here to bed.

- I had recently been ill.

It lasted so long, I suffered from nervous stability.

But I only had fever thinking, while I was ill.

I do not belong here.

I have recovered.

- I will decide your diagnosis.

- Please,

try all your tests for insanity if you have any,

I do not belong here.

- Everyone who enters here makes that claim.

- Please give me justice.

- Justice?

- Justice refers to the law,

you speak as if you're entering a prison.

But this is a hospital,

we're here to help you.

- Please, I beg you.

You not need worry Miss Mayard,

we'll get you the help you need.

- I'm so frightened.

He didn't listen to me at all.

Mrs. Louise Shanz.

- I will try by every means to be a benefit to you.

- What can you do?

- Doctor please, you do not understand what...

You're name?

- Miss Grupe, you're German.

Ask her what her husband does.

- Her husband is a craftsman.

- Very well.

Mrs. Louise Schanz is admitted

to Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum.

- No this is not right.

- Miss Anne Neville.

- Can you tell me your name?

- Yes.

- What is it?

- You don't know or are you seeing if I know?

What are you writing?

- I ask the questions.

Like the others,

the poor girl was condemned to the insane asylum for life.

- Anne Neville.

- Without being given one feeble chance

to prove her sanity.

- Nellie Brown the doctor wants you.

- As according to my plan,

the moment I entered Blackwell's,

I dropped my act of insanity

and acted just as I do in every day life.

What is your name?

- Nellie Brown.

- What's the color of her eyes?

- Gray.

What is your age?

- Nineteen last may.

- When do you get your next pass?

- Next Saturday is my next day off.

- You will go into town?

Yeah.

- Measure her.

What is it?

- Now you know I can't tell.

- Yes you can, now look and tell me.

- I can't, do it yourself.

- Five feet, five inches.

Don't you see?

- Oh yeah, I see now.

- Now...

That will do, I'm finished with her.

- I am not sick and I do not want to stay here.

- That'll do Miss Gruper.

- No one has a right to shut me up in this manner.

- Bath time single file!

Girl undress.

- I think I shall not.

I've never bathed in this manner in front of others.

And it is too cold to bathe tonight.

Why can't we wait until day time when it is warm?

- Nellie Brown, either you remove your clothing right now

or we will undress you.

Very well.

Miss Grupe.

- No, no.

I will not remove it.

No.

It's so cold, I cannot stand it.

No, no my hair, please no my hair.

- Next.

I'm ill, I have been sick with a cough.

My chest, I cannot get into cold water.

- Can no one hear her?

She's ill, she's not well enough for cold water.

- Please, please my head is been hurt.

My hair is falling out.

- May I have a nightgown?

- We have not such things in this institution.

- I'm still wet from the bath

and I shouldn't like to sleep without one.

- This is charity

and you should be thankful for what you get.

- But the city pays to keep these places up

and pays people to be kind to the unfortunates brought here.

- Well you don't need to expect any kindness here,

for you won't get it.

- Brown, get up.

Drink this.

- What is it?

- It's something to help you sleep.

- What's in it?

- It's Laudannum.

- Is that not an opium mixture?

- Yes it will help you sleep.

- I'm not going to take opium.

- The doctor has ordered it, you must take it.

- I will do nothing of the sort.

- Hello Miss Brown.

Refusing your medication?

- It is opium, I do not wish to take opium.

- Nearly all the patients take it.

- I'm not going to take it.

I do not intend to lose my wits, even for a few hours.

- If you do not take it,

I will put it in your arm with a needle.

- This smells horrible.

- I insist you drink it all the same.

- I thought of Robert Bruce,

the warrior who led Scotland during the wars

of independence.

In his captivity, he found confidence from a spider

building her web across the roof of his cell,

undeterred by failure.

- She's quite mad.

- You may have my bread.

- Thank you kindly, but I will ask the nurse.

- Excuse me may I have a second piece of bread.

- You have forgotten where your home is,

but you have not forgotten how to eat.

- Thank you.

- Give me that.

- To have a good mind,

the stomach must be fed.

- I cannot eat this stuff.

- Patients wait and transfer here,

such as these, until the staff can be allocated

to move them onto their daily activities.

- When was Blackwell's first opened?

- The facility was opened in 1839

and quickly overrun with patients.

It has been in continuous operations since then.

Blackwell's was designed by the faint architect,

Alexander Jackson Davis.

The facility was constructed of granite,

reflecting a feudal style of architecture,

with it's more than large appearance.

It's stands 600 feet long.

Wit the proper funding and guidance,

Blackwell"s will one day be a Utopian example

of the most advanced treatment of the insane.

We have worked miracles

with limited funding available to us.

Now you can see why we need additional funding.

Gentleman, please come this way.

The snow came early,

many windows in the hall were broken,

and the bitter cold air was unbearable.

There was no heat.

The nurses said it was one of the rules of the institution,

not to turn the heat on until October

and so we would have to endure it,

as the steam pipes had not even been put in order.

- How did you sleep after your cold bath?

- I almost froze

and then the noise kept me awake, it's dreadful.

My nerves were so unstrung before I came here

and I fear I shall not be able to stand the strain.

- You must keep your spirits up.

You never know what is to come.

And if you give up now,

the good may arrive and you will not know it.

- You are right of course.

- Miss Tillie Mayard suffered more

than any of us from the cold.

I asked the nurses that we given additional clothing,

but they told me to shut up.

That we had as much as they intended to give us.

- Matilda I'll tell you who has taken your money.

- Who then, who do you say has my money?

- Come close and I'll tell you.

- Who then, who?

Please tell me so I can collect my money

and pay my way out of this place.

- It is Nurse Grupe.

You must go to her and tell her she is a thieving whore

and you want your money

or you will gouge her eyes out.

Go to her, go, go now and tell her.

- Miss Grupe?

- Yes Matilda?

- Miss Grady says that she is a thieving whore.

- Matilda!

Come here to me.

Now return to your radiator.

The lawyers that stole your estate

are in there waiting for you to give them a piece

of your mind.

- I miss my son.

I miss the way his hair would smell sweet after a bath.

I miss the way his tiny hand wrapped

around my finger.

I have watched patients stand

and gaze longingly towards the city bay

and all likelihood will never enter again.

- Miss Fox, get away from the window.

There's nothing out there for you.

- That I am sure.

- It means liberty and life,

it seems so near

and yet heaven is not further from hell.

- Put out your tongue.

Hold out your wrists.

Look at my hand.

- I have done this again and again.

- Look at my hand.

Stretch out your arms and work your fingers.

- Surely by now you have the results

of such test written down some...

- Now stretch out your arms and work your fingers.

- What a mysterious thing madness is.

I have watched patients whose lips are forever sealed

in a perpetual silence.

They breathe, eat, the human form is there,

but that something which cannot exist without the body

is missing.

- Who sent you here?

- The doctors.

- For what?

- Well they say I am insane.

- Insane?

It cannot be seen on your face.

- Give me that!

No reading, where did you get this?

- I found it.

- This belongs to the nurses.

If I catch you touching the nurses' things again,

I will send you to the quiet room.

- We're not allowed to read?

- No, nothing that excites the mind of fervent thinking.

There are women who have committed here

for excessive reading.

- For reading too much, that's ridiculous.

- You're too loud, they will hear you.

- Quiet ladies.

- I couldn't help but wonder

about the minds of the nurses.

What it must have been like

to constantly fear loosing control

over hundreds of mental patients.

To fear loosing their position

and to fear winding up in Blackwells as a patient themselves

- Nellie Brown.

- Leona Fox.

- Why were you brought to this place?

- I caught my husband with our chamber maid.

Before I could accuse him of adultery,

he signed the papers to have me committed for life.

- Did you tell the doctors?

- My accusations are called delusional,

proof to them of my demented fantasies.

But I saw them with my own two eyes.

A woman has no voice when man signs her way as insane.

It is only after one is in trouble,

that one realizes how little sympathy

and kindness there is in the world.

- Come out into the hall!

- It's an invitation to supper.

- Let's go everybody up, out in the hall come on.

- Nellie Brown, come with me.

- Where am I being taken?

- A judge is asking questions about you.

So you caught the eye of Dr. Ingram.

He wishes to speak with you.

- Do you wish me to stick out my tongue

and hold out my hands?

- No.

No, that will not be necessary this time.

How are you sleeping?

- How would you sleep locked in here?

- I'm here to help you.

- Help me?

- Yes, is there anything bothering you

that you would like to talk about?

- Yes, in case a fire should break out in the asylum,

all of the doors are locked separately

and the windows are heavily bared

so that escape is impossible.

A fire is not improbable,

but one of the most likely occurrences.

- Your nurses are expected to open the doors.

- Should the building burn,

the jailers or nurses would never think of releasing

their crazy patients.

These women will be left to roast to death.

Why don't you have a change?

- I offer suggestions until my brain is tired.

But what would you do,

a proclaimed insane girl?

- Well I should insist on them having locks put in,

as I have seen in some places

that by turning a crank at the end of the hall,

you can lock or unlock every door on the one side.

Then there is some chance of escape.

Now every door being locked separately,

there is absolutely none.

- What institution were you a inmate of

before you came here?

- None, I never was confined to any institution.

- Well then where did you see the locks you have described.

- I've seen them in places I was in...

I mean as a visitor.

- There is only one place I know of,

where where they have those locks.

And that is at Sin Sing

and the only ones going through Sin Sing besides the inmates

are the guards, lawyers, and reporters.

I assure you I had never update been an inmate of Sin Sing

or ever even visited.

- There were whispers

that those who attempted to get word out

about the conditions in the asylum,

disappeared.

I was increasingly fearful that my notebook

would be discovered.

- Get away from that!

- Have a look.

- Exactly as you expected.

- Urena, what is your age?

- Why I am fourteen years old.

- Fourteen years old?

The doctors say you are 26, not 14.

- I am fourteen.

- The doctors know better,

they say that you're 26.

- It is not true.

I am fourteen years of age.

You were fourteen

when the accident happened.

- What accident?

What are you talking about?

- Urena, do you know where you are?

- Yes, I am on rig

at the garment factory.

- At the garment factory?

- That is where you had your accident.

Fell off the balcony and

banged you head.

- It isn't true.

I'm at the factory now, I'm on break.

- It happened 12 years ago

and that is when you came here.

- 12 years ago?

- Yes you fell and became stuck at the age 14

and you were sent here to Blackwell's Women Asylum

in my care.

- No.

It is not true, it is not true.

Am I not at the factory?

- No you're not at the garment factory.

You're in an insane asylum.

- No.

- No.

- No!

- No.

- No!

- No.

- No!

- No.

- No!

- No.

- No it is not true.

- Oh okay.

Don't you push me around.

I'm taking you to the quiet room.

Let's go.

- Blackwell's had a stench to it.

Partly from the kitchens

and partly from the onsite crematorium.

It had become clear to me

that Blackwell's was dumping ground.

A place for the city to rid itself

of the overflow of the poor.

Once committed, there was no way to exit,

except through the crematorium.

What'd you know about her?

- Not much.

She's arrogant and a troublemaker.

- Is she responding to treatment?

- We have her on Laudannum.

Increase the dosage.

- Hello Mrs. McGuinness.

- Hello Miss Brown.

- Why were you brought here?

- I was sick.

- Are you sick mentally?

- No, no.

I had been overworking myself and I broke down.

Having some family troubles and being penniless

and nowhere to go,

I applied to the Commissioner's

to be sent to the poor house

until I would be able to work again.

- But they do not send poor people here,

unless they are insane?

Don't you know there are only insane women

or those supposed to be so sent here?

- There are 1600 women on Blackwell's Island,

I knew when I got here

that the majority of these women were insane,

but then I believed them when they told me

that this is the place where they send all the poor

who had applied for aid, as I had done.

- Really, I'm going to kill you.

I'm going to kill you!

- Who are they?

- They're the women of the rope.

They're considered to be the most violent women

on the island.

The live in the lodge.

I, myself, share the fear that everyone felt,

the possibility of being sent to the violent ward.

The mortality rate there was high.

One day a woman was brought in

who had a fear of being touched

and an extreme fear of uncleanliness.

- Sit down where we get you set up,

with a room and proper gown.

- I'm Nellie Brown.

- Margaret.

- Tillie Mayard.

- Put this on.

- What here?

- You left modesty in the outside world.

In Blackwell's we have nothing to hide.

- No I will not, it is not dignified.

That rag is soiled, I will not put that dirty thing...

No, no!

Stop it no!

Get your hands off me!

No please.

Please stop it, stop it.

No.

- I'll kill the devils between my life.

Poor Matilda had finally

avenged the attorneys who stole her estate.

- Take her to the retreat.

- By plunging the cook's knife

into the heart of one of the nurses.

She was immediately sent to the violent ward in the retreat.

Is it Nellie Brown.

- Louise?

Louise Schanz?

Yes it's me.

It's so cold.

God, let me die.

- Let me go.

- Get your hands off me.

Stop, stop!

Let go of me.

- They held Margaret naked in the cold bath

all through the night.

- Help me carry her to her room.

They inject into

or force so much opium on the patients,

that the patients are made crazy.

A sure way to lose one's mind

into the walls of Blackwell's forever.

- Everybody up bath time, single file!

- Do not take a bath in that water.

The very disease for which I am suffering,

and for which I need doctoring makes it necessary

that I should not bathe in cold water.

I do not want to go into that water.

It is filthy and filled with human excrement

and the burst eruptions of sick patients' skin.

- She's dead.

How was she last night?

These bruises on her cheeks,

it looks as if she was in a fight.

- She was agitated doctor.

- I see.

Obviously she died of convulsion.

I'll make out the death certificate.

I'm finished here.

- Margaret was cremated

and put into lead tin with only a number,

like many hundreds before her.

- Don't stop Miss Brown, play another.

- I never learned to dance.

- It isn't that difficult.

- I said no.

- I can play no more.

My hands have stoke up.

- No matter,

when one has music in one's spirit.

- No.

- I want to go home.

- How are you doing?

I'm super intendant.

Anne how are you today?

- Stay back.

She has a fever.

What is this patient's name?

- Her name is Louise Schanz.

She doesn't belong here

they took her baby away at Belview Hospital.

- Louise?

- She is suffering from the cold

and insufficient clothing.

- The nurses will beat you.

- Take her away.

So what do you know of Louise Schanz

and why do you care?

- I know that she is sane

and does not belong in this place.

I know that her English is poor

and she has no way to speak her case to any justice.

- I see

and how did you get here?

- I was committed as an insane woman in this asylum.

I am here without hope of release.

- And you think you are insane?

- No I am not insane.

- Of course, everybody says that.

- So you think,

Mrs. Schanz is being persecuted?

- No not persecuted but...

- You said she's wrongfully committed here.

- Yes but...

- So you are not insane,

Mrs. Schanz is not insane.

Is everyone wrongfully committed here as well?

- I can see that these patients need help.

- And you Florence Nightingale

are going to help them all.

Is that it?

Delusions such as these can be cured with medication.

- They force me to drink the medication every night,

it's not right.

- No we're giving you the wrong medication.

I don't recall seeing a medical degree

on your admission papers.

Did I miss something?

You really must trust me Miss Brown.

We are the doctors here, not you.

I am a doctor and I want the best for my patients.

I truly do.

Tell Dr. Kinier to increase Miss Brown's nightly dose

of Laudannum to 150 parts per thousand.

- Yes Doctor.

- That should put your mind at rest.

You see, I'm just trying the best I can.

Have a good day.

- Go on, mind your business.

- I want my book and pencil.

It helps me remember things.

- You can't have it, so shut up.

- Give it back or I shall have to tell Dr. Ingram.

- You had no book or pencil.

- I just watched you place it in your apron.

- I advise you to fight against the imaginations

of your brain.

- Benny, is that my husband Benny?

- I'm sure your mistaken.

- It's Benny.

Benny my husband, he's come to take me out of here.

- Stop it, that is not your husband.

- It's Benny, he's come to free me.

- Benny I'm here. - No dear.

- Benny, Benny. - Give up alright.

He's come to free me Benny.

- Just leave her alone.

- Benny take me out of here.

- Leave her alone.

- Let's go.

- Stop!

- Inmates running the asylum...

I don't think so.

You have brought this particular lesson on yourself.

Miss Grupe?

Yes Doctor?

- What happened to this patient?

- She was trying to escape doctor.

She had the delusions that her husband is coming

to take her out of Blackwell's.

- How did she get those black eyes?

- She had the bruises when she was brought in.

- Now, they look fresh to me.

Are you sure she had it when she came in?

- I will have a good talking with the orderlies.

Get to the bottom of this.

- Make sure you do that.

This is not a prison Miss Grupe.

It's a medical facility,

where we're trying to help people,

to give them a better life.

Is that clear Miss Grupe?

- Yes Doctor.

As it turned out,

Mrs. Cotter wasn't delusional.

Her husband Benny had actually been doing everything

in his power to take her out of Blackwell's,

but was caught in bureaucracy.

Eventually he trialed and won her release.

- What is it now Miss Grupe?

- One of the nurses took this from the patient,

Nellie Brown.

- Let me have it.

Has anyone seen this?

- No Doctor.

- It's very organized and articulate for a mental patient.

- There is something else Doctor.

- Well?

- A reporter is here asking to speak with Nellie Brown.

- A reporter?

It is the fault of that meddling judge who sent her here.

We can't deny them access to her.

That would only create a sensational story.

Let him meet with her.

But make sure they're never out of close sight

of the nursing staff.

- Yes Doctor.

- And if she says anything, anything

that could be harmful to this institution,

see that she's cut off.

- Here put that on quickly.

- If you make it a practice of telling,

it will be a serious thing for you.

To my surprise,

I was brought face-to-face with the first reporter

I had ever worked alongside

at the Pittsburgh Dispatch.

- I do not know this man.

- Do you know her?

- No this is not the young lady, I came in search of.

I was mistaken, I thought she was somebody else,

somebody I knew a long time ago.

- If you do not know her, you cannot stay here.

- One moment Señor...

Do you speak Spanish, Señor?

- No...

What in places are you doing in here?

- It's alright, I'm after an item, keep still.

- No I'm afraid I do not speak a word of Spanish.

It was Wilson, who's article

I had anonymously responded to,

that launched my career as a reporter.

- Come with me.

- Please.

Please I'm so cold, I can't stay here.

- Where are you taking her?

- She needs help.

- Anne Neville was one of the quietest women

in the institution.

To protect herself and her sanity,

she did everything she was told without complaint.

I admired her strength

and determination of will.

♪ Mid pleasures

♪ And palaces

♪ Though we may roam

♪ Be it ever

♪ So humble

♪ There's no

♪ Place like home

♪ A charm from

♪ The sky

♪ Seems to hallow us here

♪ Which seek through the world

♪ Is ne'er met with elsewhere

♪ Home, home

♪ Sweet, sweet

♪ Home

♪ There's no place

♪ Like home ♪

- Get away from here.

- Everybody up, bath time single file!

- I don't think I'm going to survive today.

- Don't fight them, they'll move you through faster.

As much as I hated the baths,

I would have taken another

if it could've saved Tillie from hers.

My heart ached to see Tille Mayard go

from recovered from her sickness

when she had been brought to Blackwell's,

to growing ever sicker as they days wore on.

Tillie had changed so much for the worse,

that I was mortified when I looked at her.

- You must keep your spirits up.

- It is cruel to lock people up and then freeze them.

- She has as much has any of the rest,

she'll get no more.

- Let her fall on the floor

and this will teach her a lesson.

- You are cruel to treat her this way,

can't you see she is suffering and in need of care.

- She needs medical help.

- You must send help for a patient, Miss Tille Mayard.

She is having a fit from the cold

and the nurses are not sending for a doctor.

They're doing nothing to help her.

- Please calm yourself Miss Brown.

- See that Dr. Kinier is dispatched to Miss Tillie Mayard

at once.

There see, she will be helped.

Now please, calm yourself.

- I will not.

The cold is so bad,

it sent Miss Mayard into a fit.

I fear she will not survive.

- I will see to these things at once.

- Why?

Why am I being given special treatment?

Why is the Assistant Superintendent so interested

in my case, in particular?

- We care about the treatment of all patients

at Blackwell's Insane Asylum.

And a Judge Duffy has been sending reporters

to ask about you.

Tell me, do you think you are insane?

- Yes insane.

I have watched insanity slowly creeping over minds

that had appeared to be alright.

I curse all doctors, nurses, and public institutions

for their treatment of people

that have no advocacy.

- I will order Miss Grady to see that more clothing

is given to the patients.

- Hand it over, you know the rules.

No reading.

- It is only a book of psalms.

- Reading agitates the mind.

- How can book of psalms be bad for the mind?

- Hand me the book.

Hand it over.

You did this to yourself.

Take her to the quiet room.

- You're not human.

- Brown go to the kitchen,

get a meal and take it to Mrs. Schanz's room.

At the kitchen I was greeted

with a spread of fresh fruits,

marveled meats, and fine cheeses.

Food, the likes of which was never shared

with the patients.

- Mrs. Schanz is ill, what about that?

- That's for the doctor.

- 150 degrees, I think.

- How high as your temperature ever run?

- Perhaps 101 degrees.

- It's 99 degrees.

- I brought you some food.

- I do not want it.

- I know how you feel,

but you need your strength.

Did they hit you?

- I have gotten beatings from Miss Grupe.

I am so cold.

I will never see my son again.

If only I could die.

Nein, nein, nein.

Please.

No, please there's nothing wrong with me.

- Now, now, dear Mrs. Schanz.

We're here to help you.

Hold her down.

- No, please.

- She doesn't need an injection,

she just needs rest.

Do not inject her,

she only had a mild coughing fit.

Do not inject her.

- Miss Brown enough!

- There, there.

Isn't that better?

- Franklin, you've grown so much.

Come dance with me.

- You have killed her.

You have killed her.

- Take Miss Brown back to her room.

Send Mrs. Schanz to the crematorium.

I will make out the papers.

- You are a cruel and inhumane man.

- Why are you fighting this so much, Miss Brown?

I'm trying to bring these people some relief.

- By killing them?

- It was not the intention.

- You have brought this up on yourself.

- Get off the grass!

- Tillie.

Tillie?

- I dreamed of my mother last night.

I think she may come today and take me home.

I'm cold.

No don't touch me!

- I'm trying to warm you.

- You, you are a traitor.

There doing this to me because of you.

- What?

- You're trying to pass yourself off as me.

- Tillie what do you mean?

- The reporters and the doctors

that have come calling to see Nellie Brown

are friends in search of me.

But you are, by some means,

trying to deceive them that you are me.

- No Tillie, I am your friend.

- You are not my friend!

- I am here because of you.

- Tillie,

what have they been doing to you?

They've been injecting you with opium.

- It's your fault.

You trick me into singing,

so you can steal my voice.

- No.

- I can't stay in this place another day.

- Tillie shut up

or I will help you to shut up.

- Tillie.

- Get away from me.

- There are 16 doctors on this island

and excepting two,

I have never seen them pay any attention to the patients.

How can a doctor judge a woman's sanity,

merely by bidding her good morning

and refusing to hear her pleas for release?

You have no right to keep sane people here.

I am sane, have always been so

and I must insist on a thorough examination

or be released.

Several of the women here are also sane.

Why can't they be free?

- They are insane

and suffering from delusions.

- You are such a damn whore,

it's a good thing for you that you are being transferred

or I will make you pay so well for remembering

to tell Dr. Ingram everything.

You forget everything about yourself,

but you never forget anything to tell the Doctor.

- Not sure I'll be able to sleep with Matilda

up creeping about.

- She's probably out searching for somebody she want to kill

- Someone down there.

- I heard the nurses talking about you.

- What did they say?

- You were to be shut off from all visitors,

because you talk too much out of turn.

- That's why we were sent to the violent ward

to get rid of us.

I puzzled over why they sent Anne Neville

to the violent ward with me.

I determined that it was the strength of her spirit,

her unwillingness to let the nurses break her will

that had them focused on her.

So they sent Anne, the strongest,

and me, the loudest, to the violent ward to finish us.

- Why was I put in here?

- Shut up.

- I understand you been having continuing trouble

with fever thinking and hallucinations.

- I've had nothing of the sort.

I'm as sane as anyone.

- You've demonstrated delusions of persecution,

thinking that the orderlies and nurses are against you,

that they wish to cause you harm, instead of help you.

And that we, your doctors are murderers.

- The things I have seen,

the things I have told to Dr. Ingram,

all of them are true.

- There are many truths here at Blackwell's.

It is after all, an asylum for the insane.

- I do not need an injection,

I am perfectly sane.

- Nearly all the patients here deny their insanity.

- Besides you nightly medicate me with an opium drink.

- It is clear that in your case,

you need something stronger.

- No, no, no, no.

No, no!

- Hold her still.

- No, no, no!

No, no!

- Let her be for a bit.

Check back on her in an hour.

- You better alert the crematorium.

- Excuse me, what are you doing?

- Superintendent Dent?

- Yes?

- I am Peter A. Hendricks esquire.

I am an attorney representing a family,

willing to take care of the patient,

known as Nellie Brown.

- Nellie Brown of course,

the amnesia case.

Nellie Brown is unfortunately a very sick girl

and I cannot vouch for the safety of her health.

If she were to be released at this time.

- A Judge Duffy has signed the order,

transferring her into my custody.

As you can see, it is official.

- Have a seat.

We have hundreds of patients here at Blackwell's,

it will take a little time to locate her.

- I'm not going anywhere.

- What is the condition of Nellie Brown?

- I left Miss McCarten to take her to the crematorium.

- Open it, open it!

Step aside!

Come Miss Brown, come back to us.

Wake up!

Come out of it!

Miss Brown, I need you to wake up!

- We're ruined.

Blackwell's will be ended.

I won't have it.

- Her heart is beating.

- What?

- Her heart is beating!

- So it works.

I was right.

It works.

Watch over her tonight.

Make sure she gets plenty of water.

At sunrise send her into the yard.

Have your nurses keep close watch over her

until I call for her.

- Yes Doctor.

- Bridget.

What have they done to you?

- Insane, it cannot be seen on your face.

- Brown, you're to come with me.

Where am I going?

- A lawyer, Mr. Hendricks is here to see you.

- You are the strongest woman I have ever met.

- And you are leaving.

- I'll be back.

- No you won't.

- You'd have to be crazy to come back here.

I never want to see you here again.

- No hugging.

- This is Peter A. Hendricks Esquire.

He's an attorney.

- How do you do, Mr. Hendricks.

- Very well, Miss Brown thank you.

- Have a seat Nellie.

- I represent friends of yours

that are willing to take charge of you

if you'd rather be with them...

- Yes.

- Than in the asylum.

- Yes.

- Don't you want to know who they ...

- No.

- Very well.

I will leave you two to chat,

while I prepare your release papers.

- So Miss, Miss Brown.

Miss Brown, Miss Brown.

I am instructed to provide you with anything,

anything you need on our journey back to the city.

- Something to eat immediately.

- Of course, of course.

- I had looked forward so eagerly

to leaving that horrible place.

Yet when my release came,

and I knew that God's sunlight was to be free for me again,

there was a certain pain in leaving.

- How long was I in the nuthouse?

- You mean you don't know?

- 10 days.

Could I pass a week in the Insane Ward

at Blackwell's island?

I said I could and would.

And I did.

My story spread like wildfire.

And spread not only across the U.S.,

but across the globe.

I was a news celebrity.

- Oh Miss Brown.

I had proven that a woman

could do the man's job of reporting

by writing the most successful piece of news

Joseph Pulitzer had ever published.

But my only focus, my only care

was for the poor unfortunates left to wither and die

in that horrid place.

I was determined to shed light on their conditions.

- The nation is in a fit over your story.

The mayor of New York has launched his own investigation

as of several members of the city council.

This changes everything for you.

- Yes.

- Nothing will ever be the same from here on out.

- No I expect not.

- Here, this is for you.

- It is a lot of money.

- It includes a bonus,

authorized by Pulitzer himself.

- I only want the standard pay,

the rest should go to the orphans.

- Oh yes, you've been summoned

to appear before the grand jury

about the conditions at Blackwell's.

- Do you swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,

so help you God?

- By the grace of God, I do.

- Please state your name.

- Elizabeth Jane Cockerit.

Nellie Bly is my pen name.

- Can you tell us why you feigned insanity

and entered Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum

posing as a person of mental illness?

- I entered Blackwell's Asylum with the intent

of writing about and exposing corruption abuse there of.

- So this was a page on dishonest papers?

- The job of a reporter is to tell the truth to the people.

Truth that would otherwise not be know.

At first, I took this assignment with the notion

of telling the people what goes on behind the bars

and locked doors of the asylum.

But it was not long before I realized

that I had deeper reasons.

- Care to elaborate?

- The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island

is a human rat trap.

It is easy to get in,

but once in it is impossible to get out.

Here were women taken without their consent,

from the free world to an asylum

and given no chance to prove their sanity.

- Your Honor I'm with that the Grand Jury be taken on a tour

of Blackwell's Island Asylum by Miss Cockerin

and see these events first hand.

- It is so ordered.

- The Grand Jury is here.

- Yes?

- We must eliminate all traces of Brown's visit.

We are in danger.

- Just go.

- But...

- Just go!

- You must keep your questions short

as her health will not allow it.

- It's me Nellie.

Tillie do you know me?

- No.

I do not know you.

Should I?

- This is not how it was when I was last here.

- Have you made changes to the sitting room recently?

- The sitting room is always being changed,

rearranged and cleaned.

- Where is Miss Bridget McGuinness?

- She has been transferred to other quarters.

- What about Mrs. Fox?

- She is dying of paralysis and you cannot see her.

- And Anne Neville, where is Anne Neville.

- She has been transferred to isolation in Hall 7

due to some troubles.

- See that she is brought to us.

- Miss Anne Neville has been brought down.

She's in the hallway.

- Send her in.

- I knew you would come back.

- Have they been giving you medicine?

- I have to admit,

I was fearful when they came for me just now.

They said I was going to be examined by a crowd of men.

- It is a Grand Jury,

here to investigate Blackwell's and how they treat us.

- All I want you to do,

is to tell the jury all that we have done

since I was brought with you to the asylum.

- When Miss Brown and I were brought here,

the nurses were very cruel.

The food it was too bad to eat.

There was not enough clothing.

Miss Brown asked for more all the time.

For when the doctors promised her more clothing,

she said she would give it to me.

Strange to say,

ever since Miss Brown has been taken away,

everything was different.

Nurses are very kind to us

and we are given plenty to wear.

The doctors come and see us often.

- All rise

for the honorable Judge Henry A. Gildersleeve.

Be seated.

- Has the Grand Jury reached a decision?

- We have Your Honor.

We find the Committee of Appropriation

be provided one million dollars

for the benefit of the asylum.

In spite of the attempts to cover up

what had been going on at Blackwell's,

the Grand Jury found that I was telling the truth

about all I had testified

and found my testimony to be credible.

I have the consolation that on the strength of my story,

the million dollars per year provided

was more than had ever before been given

for the benefit of the insane.

- My dear girl, you have no idea what you've done.

- Oh I know exactly what I have done.

Blackwell's is not a place of healing.

It is a rat-infested human death trap.

- That is due to the lack of means

to secure good medical help.

Blackwell's Asylum was forced to choose

among convicted prisoners from the nearby penitentiary

to fill out its staff.

- You stood by as the nurses inflicted unspeakable cruelties

upon patients.

- Maybe being the superintendent,

I was too busy to be fully aware of the atrocities

that were going on in here.

- You knew.

You knew that clothing meant for the patients

was being stolen.

You knew that women in here were being murdered.

- How can you say it was murder!

I was trying to help these people!

I was trying to help science before it!

- Dr. Dent you have made a very old mistake.

Throughout history there have been those

who have allowed atrocities

with a higher ideal as an end goal.

- I had no other goal than to help my patients.

- I can see I cannot convince you to the insanity

of your thinking.

But I can stop you.

The state is taking control of Blackwell's Asylum.

One of the conditions is that the facility be closed

and torn down.

Goodbye Dr. Dent.

- The world was surprised by my story.

A story written by a woman.

A story that brought light to those that had no voice,

those that society had forgotten

and reminded us all

that energy rightly applied and directed

will accomplish anything.

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Nellie Bly was just a girl

♪ Born into a world

♪ Where little girls barely mattered

♪ Even women couldn't vote

♪ Their jobs just left them broke

♪ Sewing clothes and stirring batter

♪ Nellie didn't think it was right

♪ She took up a pen

♪ To fight for women's rights

♪ And she told the whole world

♪ What it's all about

♪ Nellie Bly

♪ Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Nellie Bly, she was sly

♪ Like a private eye

♪ She went undercover

♪ Into a women's mental ward

♪ Her pen was like a sword

♪ She played sick to be among others

♪ Because the patients they weren't being treated right

♪ She stayed in there for ten long days

♪ And nights

♪ And then she told the whole world

♪ What it's all about

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Nellie Bly was just a girl

♪ In a race around the world

♪ Taking trains and ships

♪ On steam power

♪ She sailed the China sea

♪ With her little pet monkey

♪ Meeting kings

♪ Getting flowers

♪ Arabia, Hong Kong

♪ Singapore

♪ In seventy-two days

♪ She was on American shores

♪ Telling the whole wide world

♪ What it's all about

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, If you try

♪ Oh tell them Nellie what it's all about

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ It's a big

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Go ahead and try

♪ Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly

♪ The world could be yours

♪ If you try, if you try

♪ Oh Nellie, Nellie, Nellie

♪ Try ♪